This is a writing course with a focus on literature. Its goal is to prepare you to write effectively in “real life” and in university classes so that you can successfully create and communicate ideas. Be prepared to do a lot of reading and writing.
This entire quarter, we’ll be focusing on one novel, The Heir of Redclyffe by Charlotte Yonge. Yonge was one of the most popular British novelists of the Victorian period (1837-1901), and The Heir of Redclyffe, which was published in 1853, was her most popular book. Legend has it that one time on board a British ship, when the ship’s copy of The Heir of Redclyffe was lost, the men were able to rewrite the book from memory because they had all read it so many times. Today, not many people have read it. Most of you have probably never heard of it.
Why was this novel so popular a hundred years ago yet so unknown today? Does it deserve to be popular again? What does it mean for a piece of literature to be timeless? What would it take for a piece of literature to be timeless? How does historical context affect how we understand and appreciate literature? These and many other questions will form the basis for our class discussions and writing assignments throughout the quarter.