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53/1974

THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF ARTS

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

ANNUAL REPORT 1973

(i) General Comments The concern of the Department of English is to train students in

the critical appreciation of English literature, both medieval and post­medieval, including that which has been written in the U.S. arid Australia. Such an appreciation involves practice in close reading, and therefore the acquisition of appropriate linguistic skills and a knowledge of the more formal properties of works in particular genres.

(ii) Courses The bulk of the teaching of the department is conducted in under­

graduate courses labelled "A" (post-medieval English literature)or "B" (medieval English literature) , with separate courses in Australian literature and American literature. All of these courses are open to pass students. In addition, honours students may spec~.alize in either grouping by co~pleting, after first year, additional work in each "A" or "B" course. · .Fourth-year students complete a specified number of special courses and a long essay of 10,000 words on a particular topic. Candidates are. able to proceed to the M.A. either by thesis or by course-work P.lus ~uh-thesis.

(iii) Enrolments and examination results These are presented in standard form in an appendix; the follow­

ing points seem to deserve special comment: the high pass rate in English IA, where 28% of those sitting gained a "credit" result or better; the continued improvement in the general level of examination answers that seems directly attributable to seminar teaching; the increased ·enrolment and high level or performance of students in English I!IB ahd English IIIBH (as compared with last year); and the outstanding success of the best fourth-year student, awarded not only a University medal and the Tillyard Prize, but a Rhodes Scholarship.

(iv) Student Participation Students had the opportunity of participating in departmental

policy through the Student Liaison Committee. Only one or two matters were, however, brought forward by students for discussion; and the question of assessment arose only sporadically. This _is, however, a matter which the department wishes to discuss with students; and it is hoped that the opportunity to do so will arise early in 1974.

(v) Work of Graduate Students Graduate students pursued research topics in the following areas

of study: Old English literature (l); Medieval literature (4); Shakes­pearian studies (2); Restoration literature (3); Eighteenth-century literature (6); Nineteenth-century literature (4); modern literature (1); Australian literature (5); American literature (l); and Stylistics (1). There were two candidates for degrees by course work and four students completed qualifying courses for the M.A. degree.

A weekly staff/postgraduate seminar was held throughout the year. The department is grateful to Mrs. n. G~een, Professor Emeritus A.D.Hope, and Professor Grahame Johnston for offering external supervision to certain students.

53/1974 3

Dr R. F. Brissenden organized and hosted the very successful Third David Nichol Smith Memorial Seminar, an international con­ference in eighteenth-century studies at which there were seven speakers from America, and representatives from New Zealand, France, Switzerland and Britain.

Study Leave Professor Donaldson left in August for nine months in

Oxford to prepare an annotated edition for the Oxford University Press of The . Poems of Ben Jonson (to be published in the Oxford Standard Au~hors series). Dr Ramson worked at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh during 1973, collecting material for a study of English and Scottish poetry (between Chaucer and Douglas) for publication by the A.N.U. Press. Lady Hewitt was on study leave in Great Britain from June to September.

Other activities. Professor Donaldson visited Adelaide and Flinders

Universities in July. At a conferring of degrees ceremony in September Mr J.C.

Eade received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. He left for England on leave of absence from September to December to under­take further research on the first English translation of Aristotle's Poetics.

Mr Peter Quartermaine from Exeter University, England, accepted appointment as Honorary Fellow within the depart.~ent from September 1973- July 1974. He is currently undertaking a three-year survey of Australian Visual Arts material. This project, the results of which will be published, is officially supported by the Australian Govermnent.

Publications Brissenden, R.F. (ed.), Studies in the Eighteenth Century II, A.N.U.

Press, Canberra, 1973. Donaldson, C.I.E., 'Jonson's Italy: Volpone and Fr. Thomas Wright',

Notes & Queries XIX, December 1972, 450-2.

Langman, F. H. ,

Lawson, A.,

Stinson, J .A.,

'Damned by Analogies: or, How to Get Rid of Ben Jonson,' Gambit: International Theatre Review, Vol. VI, 22,1972, pp. 38-46.

' Cato in Tears: Stoical Guises of The Man of Feeling', in Studies in The Eighteenth Century II, ed. R.F. Brissenden, A.N.U. Press, Canberra, 1973, pp. 377-95.

'Jonson's Cary/Morison Ode', in Studies in the Literary Imagination, VI, 1, April 1973, 139-52.

"Style and Shape in The Great Gatsby", Southern Review, VI, i, March 1973, 48-67.

'White for White's sake: studies of Patrick White's novels', Meanjin Quarterly, 32, 3, (September 1973)' pp. 343-49.

'Unmerciful Dingoes? The critical reception of Patrick White', Meanjin Quarterly, 32, 4, (December 1973), pp. 379-92.

'Abstraction & Allegorical Imagery• ·, Parergon 5, April 1973, pp. 3-16 .

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH ANALYSIS OF STUDENT PERFORMANCE 53/197.!f

Percenta0e of Number Enrolled Percentage of Number Sitting 4.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 16 11 Subject Enrolled Sitting Wastage Failure Sitting HD D CR p N or Unit as at

30.4.73

EIA 214 192 18 21 1871

2 12 40 117 16 100% 90% 8% 10% 100% 1% 6~ 21% 62% 8%

EIIA 69 642 7 103 61 13 41 74

100% 93% 10% 15.6% 100% 21. 3% 67.2% 11.4%

EIIAH 16 15 1 15 15 1 8 5 16

100% 94% 6.3% 6.6% 100% 6.6% 53.3% 33.3% 6.6%

EIIIA 46 39 7 2 38 5 32 1 100% 84% 18% 5% 100% 13% 84% 2%

EIIIAH 12 12 12 3 4 5 100% 100% 100% 25% 3.3% 42%

EIB 29 25 4 37 23 3 7 12 1 100% 86% 13.8% 10.3"% 100% 13% 30.5% 52.2% 4.3%

EIIB 18 . 18 18 17 4 9 4 100% 100% 5.5% 100% 23.5% 53% 23.5%

EIIBH 6 6 6 3 2 1

100% 100% 100% c-=---.. 50% 33.3% 16.7%

-..

EIIIB 7 7 ;:'I 7 - . ' , 1 6 - · --100% 100%. 100% .. 14 .-3% . 85.7%

EIIIBH 6 6 6 3 - 3

100% 100% 100%· .. 50% ~

50%

Old English 4 4 2 4 2 2 '1·

:t ...

Aust.Lit. 28 26 2 1 ! 26 2 10 13 1

100% 93% 7.14% 92.86% 7.6% 34.4% 50% 3.8%

Amer.Lit 32 29 5 2 29 ·l 3 9 14 2

100% 91% 14.7% 5.8% 100% 10.3% 31% 41. 3% 6.8% e ============================================================================================================================

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