Woo-hoo!!

I PASSED!!!! WOO-HOOO!!!

I'm finished with prelims!

It's been so long since I last blogged here.

I've finished taking my exams. And I am absolutely terrified of learning the results.

Graduate school is quite an odd set of circumstances. We are frequently compared to other students throughout our coursework, yet we really don' t quite know what the standards are for the comparison. What I mean is, that we never really know what other students are producing. The measuring stick is hidden, and few people are willing to share. This is both good and bad. Personally, I wouldn't want folks to know if I was doing well or not. But, at the same time, I don't have any way to judge my own performance.

Of course, I have an inkling of ideas that determine what a strong piece of writing is. But, I'm not sure how to improve other areas, especially in class participation and discussion. I don't know how to ask good questions. I don't know what makes a provocative argument.

This really is the point of my rant, and the paranoia of my prelim grade... What if my arguments were terrible? What if they are lame and not at the level the graders expect for a prelim? What am I going to do about that? Well, absolutely nothing... but I still have my fears, and they surface every once and a while to sheer panic.

I've been watching tv, cleaning, chatting with friends, and playing video games in order to get my mind off of being judged.

If I pass, fantastic. If I fail, I'm heading home. If I barely pass, I don't know what to do with myself.

That's another bit of my paranoia for you. "If I barely pass..." If those words come out of my advisor's mouth, how can I deal with working with this person for the next 2-3 years with a "barely" response. Does this imply that they don't want to work with me?

Graduate school has taken a serious toll on my personality and confidence. Before I entered my MA program, I was a confident adult. I was capable of managing a helpdesk. I knew many people and could socialize with ease. But now... I can barely speak with anyone without feeling like a total jackass. I still have several friends, but there are many of them that I don't trust. I have no sense of my own personal value. I have lost almost all my confidence. And I feel like I've regressed into a child because I have to always be cautious and aware of who is around me because everyone (students and profs alike) judges everyone.

Although I've enjoyed much of the material I've read, I really need to find a way to recover the person I once was. I seriously wanted to rock that prelim, but I came home hours later, days later, and have dwelled over my possible mistakes. Damnit, I'm quite sick of myself!

My prelims list

I just realized that I can manage my list via this blog. Yay!
bold = I still need to read this
* = I've read it but need to take notes
strikeout = I've read it and took notes

*1. JOSEPH ADDISON, Cato.
*2. and RICHARD STEELE, extensive knowledge of the literary criticism in the Spectator, as in Donald Bond, ed., Critical Essays from the Spectator, or Angus Ross, ed., Selections from the Spectator.
3. MARK AKENSIDE, The Pleasures of the Imagination.
4. JOHN ARBUTHNOT, Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus.
*5. ARISTOTLE, Poetics.
6. WILLIAM BECKFORD, Vathek.
7. BOLINGBROKE, HENRY ST. JOHN, LORD, Idea of a Patriot King.
8. JAMES BOSWELL, Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides.
*9. , Life of Johnson.
10. BUCKINGHAM, GEORGE VILLIERS, DUKE OF, et al., The Rehearsal.
11. JOHN BUNYAN, Grace Abounding.
12. , Pilgrim's Progress (Part I).
*13. EDMUND BURKE, Philosophic Enquiry into . . . the Sublime and the Beautiful.
*14. , Reflections on the Revolution in France.
*15. FANNY (FRANCES) BURNEY, Evelina.
16. ROBERT BURNS, Address to the Deil, Address to the Unco Guid, Cotter's Saturday Night, Holy Fair, Holy Willie's Prayer, Jolly Beggars, A Man's a Man, Tam O'Shanter, To a Louse, To a Mountain Daisy.
17. SAMUEL BUTLER, The Elephant in the Moon, Hudibras (at least Part I).
18. CHARLES CHURCHILL, An Epistle to William Hogarth, The Ghost.
*19. COLLEY CIBBER, Love's Last Shift.
20. WILLIAM COLLINS, Odes: To Pity, To Fear, On the Poetical Character, Written in . . . 1746, To Mercy, To Evening, Occasioned by the Death of Mr. Thomson, On the Popular Superstitions of the Highlands.
21. WILLIAM CONGREVE, Letter . . . Concerning Humour in Comedy, Love for Love, *The Way of the World.
22. ABRAHAM COWLEY, Odes on Death of Katherine Phillips, to Harvey, to Royal Society, to Sir William Davenant, Of Wit, To Mr. Hobbes.
23. WILLIAM COWPER, The Castaway, John Gilpin, The Task (Bk. 3).
24. GEORGE CRABBE, The Village, Bk. 1.
25. WILLIAM DAVENANT, Preface to Gondibert, The Siege of Rhodes.
26. DANIEL DEFOE, Journal of the Plague Year.
*27. , Moll Flanders.
*28. , Robinson Crusoe (Part I).
29. , Roxana.
30. ,* Shortest Way with the Dissenters, The True-Born Englishman.
31. JOHN DENHAM, Cooper's Hill (final version).
32. JOHN DENNIS, The Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry, The Grounds of Criticism in Poetry.
33. , An Essay on the Genius and Writings of Shakespeare, Remarks on Mr. Pope's Rape of the Lock.
34. JOHN DRYDEN, Heroique Stanzas, Astraea Redux, To his Sacred Majesty (on his Coronation), To My Lord Chancellor, Annus Mirabilis.
35. , *To my Honour'd Friend Dr. Charleton, To the Earl of Roscommon, *To the Memory of Mr. Oldham, *To the Pious Memory of . . . Anne Killigrew, *To Sir George Etherege,* Eleonora, *To My Dear Friend Mr. Congreve, To Sir Godfrey Kneller, To My Honour'd Kinsman John Driden.
36. , *Absalom and Achitophel, *The Medal, Threnodia Augustalis, Britannia Rediviva.
37. , *Mac Flecknoe, *Song for St. Cecilia's Day, *An Ode on . . .Mr. Henry Purcell, *Alexander's Feast.
38. , *Religio Laici, *The Hind and the Panther.
39. , The Indian-Queen, The Tempest.
40. , The Conquest of Granada *I and II.
41. , *Marriage-a-la-Mode, Aureng-Zebe.
42. , *All for Love, Don Sebastian.
43. , *An Essay of Dramatic Poesy, A Defence of the Essay of Dramatic Poesy, An Essay of Heroic Plays.
44. , The Grounds of Criticism in Tragedy, Heads of an Answer to Rymer.
45. , A Discourse on . . . Satire.
46. , A Parallel betwixt Poetry and Painting, Preface to the Fables, Preface to the Translation of Ovid's Epistles.
47. JOHN DYER, Grongar Hill (Pindaric and octosyllabic versions both).
48. GEORGE ETHEREGE, The Comical Revenge, *The Man of Mode.
49. GEORGE FARQUHAR, The Beaux' Stratagem, The Recruiting Officer.
50. HENRY FIELDING, Modern Husband, Pasquin, Tragedy of Tragedies (Tom Thumb).
*51. , Joseph Andrews, Shamela.
52. , Jonathan Wild.
*53. , Tom Jones.
54. , Amelia.
55. ANNE FINCH, COUNTESS OF WINCHILSEA, The Spleen, Upon the Hurricane, Fanscomb Barn, The Introduction, Enquiry after Peace, Song of the Cannibals.
56. SAMUEL GARTH, The Dispensary (included in Poems on Affairs of State, Yale edition, Vol. 6).
57. JOHN GAY, The Beggar's Opera.
58. , Eclogues I (Birth of a Squire), The Shepherd's Week, Town Eclogues, Trivia.
59. EDWARD GIBBON, Decline and Fall, chs. 1, 2, 3, 15, 16.
*60. WILLIAM GODWIN, Caleb Williams.
61. OLIVER GOLDSMITH, Citizen of the World (copious selections, as in the Hilles Modern Library edition).
62. , Enquiry into the Present State of Learning in Europe, Life of Nash.
*63. , The Vicar of Wakefield.
64. , The Good-Natur'd Man, She Stoops to Conquer.
65. , *The Deserted Village, The Haunch of Venison, Retaliation, The Traveller.
66. THOMAS GRAY, Elegy, On the Death of West, and five odes (Bard, Distant Prospect of Eton College, Fatal Sisters, Favourite Cat, Progress of Poesy).
67. GEORGE SAVILE, MARQUIS OF HALIFAX, The Character of a Trimmer.
68. THOMAS HOBBES, *Leviathan, Bk. I, reply to Gondibert.
69. ROBERT HOWARD, Prefaces to Four New Plays and The Great Favourite (both included in Spingarn, Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century).
70. DAVID HUME, Dialogues on Natural Religion, Essays (On the Standard of Taste and On Tragedy), *An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding.
71. RICHARD HURD, Letters on Chivalry and Romance.
*72. SAMUEL JOHNSON, Rasselas, The Vision of Theodore.
73. , general familiarity with his work in the Rambler, Idler, and Adventurer, with extensive reading guided by the following recommendations: Ramblers 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 14, 16, 17, 19, 21, 22, 23, 27, 28, 30, 32, 33, 36, 37, 44, 47, 49, 52, 54, 58, 60, 67, 70, 77, 86, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 96, 101, 106, 121, 122, 125, 137, 139, 140, 143, 145, 152, 154, 156, 158, 176, 180, 188, 193, 200, 203, 204, 205, 207, 208; Idlers 1, 3, 7, 22, 25, 44, 60, 61, 63, 66, 68, 69, 70, 72, 74, 76, 77, 79, 84, 85, 88, 90, 91, 94, 102; Adventurers 58, 85, 92, 95, 115, 137, 138.
74. , *Dictionary (general familiarity with, including Plan), *Preface to the Dictionary; *Preface to Shakespeare, review of Jenyns's Free Enquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil.
75. , A Journey to the Western Islands.
76. , *The Life of Savage, The Lives of the Poets: Cowley, Milton, Dryden, Addison, *Swift, Pope, Gray, Blackmore, Watts, *Thomson.
77. , *London, *The Vanity of Human Wishes; *JUVENAL, Third Satire, Tenth Satire.
78. , *Drury Lane Prologue, Epitaph on Claudy Phillips, Hermit hoar in solemn cell, *Long expected one and twenty, *On the Death of Dr. Robert Levet, Prologues to Comus and to The Good-Natur'd Man, To Mrs. Thrale on her . . . 35th Year.
79. BEN JONSON, Every Man In His Humour, Epicoene or The Silent Woman.
80. NATHANIEL LEE, The Rival Queens.
*81. MATTHEW LEWIS, The Monk.
*82. GEORGE LILLO, The London Merchant.
*83. JOHN LOCKE, An Essay on Human Understanding (an abridged version may be read).
*84. , The Second Treatise on Government.
*85. LONGINUS, On the Sublime.
86. HENRY MACKENZIE, The Man of Feeling.
*87. BERNARD MANDEVILLE, The Fable of the Bees, part I (i.e., excluding the Preface and Dialogues first published in 1728, Vol. I of Kaye's edition [complete], but not Vol. II).
88. ANDREW MARVELL, Last Instructions to a Painter.
89. JOHN MILTON, L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, *Paradise Lost.
90. OSSIAN (JAMES MACPHERSON), Part I of Fingal, or another selection if acceptable to the examining committee.
91. THOMAS OTWAY, *Venice Preserv'd, The Orphan.
92. JOHN PHILIPS, The Splendid Shilling.
93. JOHN POMFRET, The Choice.
94. ALEXANDER POPE, *Pastorals, Messiah, *Windsor Forest, *Eloisa to Abelard, Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady; VIRGIL, *First Georgic, *Fourth Eclogue.
95. , *An Essay on Criticism; HORACE, Ars Poetica.
*96. , An Essay on Man.
97. , Moral Essays I-IV.
98. , *An Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, Imitations of Horace, Sober Advice from Horace, The Epilogue to the Satires (Dialogues I and II); HORACE, the satires and epistles imitated by Pope.
99. , familiarity with the translation of Homer, especially the Iliad; the Second Satire of Dr. John Donne, the fourth Satire of Dr. John Donne; DONNE: the satires "versifyed" by Pope.
100. , *The Dunciad (all versions); *The Rape of the Lock (both versions).
101. , *Discourse on Pastoral Poetry; Guardians 40, 78, 173; Peri Bathous; Preface to his edition of Shakespeare.
102.MATTHEW PRIOR, Alma, Solomon.
*103.ANN RADCLIFFE, The Mysteries of Udolpho or The Romance of the Forest.
104.JOSHUA REYNOLDS, Discourses; Idlers 76, 79, 82.
*105.SAMUEL RICHARDSON, Pamela I.
106. , Clarissa (may be read in an abridgement like Sherburn's).
107.ROCHESTER, EARL OF, JOHN WILMOT, An Allusion to Horace, The History of Insipids, *The Imperfect Enjoyment, *A Letter from Artemisia to Cloe, The Maim'd Debauchee, A Satire against Mankind (224-line version), Tunbridge-Wells, Upon Nothing.
*108.NICHOLAS ROWE, The Fair Penitent or Jane Shore.
109.THOMAS RYMER, A Short View, Tragedies of the Last Age.
110.THOMAS SHADWELL, The Virtuoso.
111.ANTHONY ASHLEY COOPER, EARL OF SHAFTESBURY, Treatise IV in the Characteristics, An Inquiry concerning Virtue or Merit.
112.RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN, The Critic, The Rivals, School for Scandal.
113.CHRISTOPHER SMART, A Song to David, and extensive familiarity with Rejoice in the Lamb (Jubilate Agno).
114.TOBIAS SMOLLETT, Humphry Clinker.
115. , Roderick Random.
*116.RICHARD STEELE, The Conscious Lovers, periodical writing as included above under Addison.
117.LAURENCE STERNE, A Sentimental Journey.
*118. , Tristram Shandy.
119.JONATHAN SWIFT, Argument Against Abolishing Christianity, Bickerstaff papers (Predictions for . . . 1708, Accomplishment, Vindication), *Drapier's Letters 1 and 4, *A Modest Proposal, Examiners 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22, 26, 31, 33, 35, 36, 43, 44.
*120. , *A Tale of a Tub, *The Battle of the Books, *The Mechanical Operation of the Spirit.
*121. , Gulliver's Travels.
122. , Baucis and Philemon, *On a Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed, Cadenus and Vanessa, Cassinus and Peter, Description of the Morning, Description of a City Shower, Epistle to a Lady, Lady's Dressing Room, *Phyllis or the Progress of Love, Poetry a Rhapsody, Progress of Beauty, Progress of Marriage, Progress of Poetry, Satirical Elegy, Seventh Epistle of the First Book of Horace imitated, *Stella's Birthday 1726/27, Strephon and Chloe, *Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift.
*123.WILLIAM TEMPLE, Essays on the Ancients and Moderns (2), On the Gardens of Epicurus.
*124.JAMES THOMSON, Ode to Newton, The Seasons (at least Summer and Winter).
*125.JOHN VANBRUGH, The Provoked Wife, The Relapse.
126.EDMUND WALLER, Go Lovely Rose, Night Piece, Of the Last Verses in the Book, On St. James's Park.
*127.HORACE WALPOLE, The Castle of Otranto.
128.JOSEPH WARTON, The Enthusiast, Ode to Fancy.
*129.WILLIAM WYCHERLEY, The Country Wife, The Plain Dealer.
130.EDWARD YOUNG, Conjectures on Original Composition, The Love of Fame (sat. 1), Night Thoughts (night 1).
*********************

Recommendations for Background Reading:

Background for the readings above is of two kinds, familiarity with historical and literary movements that have a bearing on literature in our period, and familiarity with specific works that influenced the authors in our period.
The Area will suppose a general knowledge of the history, political and cultural, of the period from the Restoration to the end of the eighteenth century. It will suppose a general knowledge of Anglicanism, involving familiarity with the Book of Common Prayer, with Broad-Church Anglicanism (as exemplified by men like Tillotson and Barrow), and with physico-theology (as exemplified by men like Durham, Pluche, and Ray); the principles of deism (e.g., in Toland, Tindal, Collins, or Chubb) and of Methodism (Wesley, Whitefield) also ought to be familiar. Among literary traditions of interest are "graveyard poetry" (Parnell's Night Piece, Blair's Grave), medievalism (Percy's Reliques, the forgeries of Chatterton), and primitivism of the "hard" and "soft" varieties--the Area will expect knowledge of these patterns of attitude, and their literary consequences; the same is true for such heavily, but not solely, literary ideas as those of the "sublime," the "picturesque," and the "sister arts." Scholars like Lovejoy and Nicolson, important in the tracing of the "history of ideas," should be familiar along with those whose interests have been more specifically concerned with literature.
The student should be prepared to discuss those foreign texts of demonstrable importance for the English works on the list. Those would include the conventions of the classical epic relevant for mock-heroic scenes in Pope, Fielding, and others, and the conventions of the Virgilian pastoral and georgic adopted by Swift, Pope, Gay, Thomson and others. The student also should understand the conventions of the romance and picaresque in Don Quixote and their transformation in the novel.
Finally, the Area will expect any scholar to have a basic knowledge of bibliographical procedures, such as may be found in P. Gaskell, A New Introduction to Bibliography (an updating of R. McKerrow, An Introduction to Bibliography).