England:  Town and Country

A Study Abroad Course
Spring 2003

Dr. Marie Cornelia                                                                                         Nancy G. Rosoff
Assoc. Dean                                                                                                   Asst. Dean
Faculty of Arts and Sciences                                                                           Faculty of Arts and Sciences
856-225-6149                                                                                               856-225-6486

Literature, history, art, and gardens are all woven into the fabric of English life.  On this study trip to England, using London as our base, we will tour both town and country, visiting the homes of writers Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf and the spectacular gardens of Hidcote and Sissinghurst.  We will explore history at Stonehenge, Hever Castle, and the Elizabethan great house of Knole, as well as at such famed London sites as the Tower, St. Paul’s’ Cathedral, and Westminster Abbey.  We will tour London’s new Globe Theatre and will have time for theatre performances in London’s West End and for visits to London’s great museums.

Click here to learn about the trip itinerary.

The course is offered for graduate credit only.  Students are expected to cover a reading list and to write a research paper on a topic prompted by the readings or places visited.

Assignments:

You will write a paper that reflects the reading you have done and the places you have seen in a scholarly or creative way.  You may wish to focus upon a single literary work or author, an examination of architecture, a study of English gardens, or a particular aspect of English history.  There are two caveats:  (1) the assignment is not merely to compile a travel journal and (2) you must discuss and have approved your topic and strategy with the instructors.

If you plan to graduate in May 2003, your paper will be due during the May examination period.  All other students will have a due date of 1 August 2003.

During the trip, you will also be responsible for making a brief (ten-minute) presentation connected to one of the sites which the group will visit.  Assignments for these mini-talks will be made at the first meeting.

Meetings:

There will be three required class meetings before the trip:

* Thursday, 6 February 2003, 6:30 p.m.
* Tuesday, 1 April 2003, 6:30 p.m.
* Wednesday, 21 May 2003, 7:30 p.m.

Reading Lists:

REQUIRED READINGS:

Jane Austen   Persuasion
                    Pride and Prejudice

Charles Dickens Oliver Twist

E.M. Forster  Howard’s End

Mark Girouard Life in the English Country House:  A Social and Architectural History

Henry James  The Portrait of a Lady

Evelyn Waugh  Brideshead Revisited

Vita Sackville West selections from Mary Ann Caws, Vita Sackville-West: Selected Writings

Oscar Wilde  The Importance of Being Earnest

P.G. Wodehouse The Return of Jeeves

Virginia Woolf     Mrs. Dalloway
                           A Room of One’s Own

RECOMMENDED READINGS:

Peter Ackroyd  London: The Biography

Jane Austen  Sense and Sensibility

Agatha Christie Funerals Are Fatal

Colin Dexter  Death Is Now My Neighbor
                   The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn

Carolly Erickson Mistress Anne

Mark Girouard The English Town:  A History of Urban Life

Hazel Holt  The Cruellest Month

Karen Harper  The Poyson Garden
                      The Tidal Poole

Michael Innes  Operation Pax

Robin Paige  Murder at Whitechapel

William Shakespeare: a play to be announced (pending what’s on in London)

G. B. Shaw  Heartbreak House

Stella Tillyard  Aristocrats:  Caroline, Emily, Louisa, and Sarah Lennox, 1740-1832

Alison Weir  Henry VIII:  The King and His Court
                   The Life of Elizabeth I
                    The Six Wives of Henry VIII

Raymond Williams The Country and the City

FILMS:

 Persuasion
 Pride and Prejudice
 Sense and Sensibility
 Emma/ Clueless
 Howard’s End
 Remains of the Day
 Gosford Park
 Mrs. Dalloway
The Hours
 Elizabeth
 Shakespeare in Love
 The Importance of Being Earnest
 Orlando

TV “FILMS”:

 Inspector Morse mysteries
 any Agatha Christie mystery (Miss Marple, Poirot, etc.)
 Pride and Prejudice
 A Room of One’s Own