Jayne Hildebrand

2 essays, 5 discussion posts done throughout the semester, and a final. When I took the course (F2024) there was no midterm but either way the final was extremely reasonable if you'd done the readings and paid attention during class discussions. The biggest assignments were readings which were fun and mostly reasonable chunks of text.

There was a lot of reading every week, but sometimes Prof Hildebrand cut them out of acknowledgement of the workload, though I wouldn't rely on that. We read five novels, including Hamlet, Pride and Prejudice, Lucy, Passing, and Parable of the Sower, along with readings regarding literary criticism as pertaining to the novels. The syllabus has five essays listed (not for every novel, as the last is a revision of a previous essay), but she made the last one optional (not sure if that'll be the case going forward, so don't rely on that as well!). There were also weekly discussion posts on CourseWorks every week, due the day before class (Tuesday for my section on Wed) at 9 pm. My only grievance is that sometimes she made things due at 5 pm, which was a little stressful, but I don't think it would be the end of the world if you submitted after that as long as you reached out to her in advance-she's very understanding! She gives incredible feedback on essays, at least a document long with compliments and suggestions. Workload is definitely manageable as long as you spread the readings out, as sometimes they are fairly long. Great and worthwhile course with fascinating readings and an amazing professor-some other professors have very different syllabi for Critical Writing, so this may not applicable to every section. If you're interested in the sound of this one, I would recommend.

I was super excited for this course and it lived up to my expectations. Class was a mixture of lectures about authors/historical context, discussions about quotes/passages, and sometimes students reading out passages from the required texts. It was fun and Dr. Hildebrand's lecture style is engaging enough to last through the more dense discussions. We read Dracula, A Christmas Carol, Jane Eyre, North & South, and The Mill on the Floss, all of which were super interesting.

Jayne Hildebrand is amazing! Genuinely a doll, she's actually interested in what you have to say and is very complimentary. She always gives great background on our readings and breaks things down in a very helpful way. She's younger, so I think she really relates to undergrad anxiety, which is nice. This class is discussion-based and a requirement for English majors at Barnard, so I believe it is not open to Columbia students. It is 2 hours long and meets once a week, but it was undoubtedly my favorite class of the semester. She brought donuts on the last day, which was very sweet. She also has a very warm laugh :) Overall, enriching course (I learned so much about literary criticism and and how to approach a literary text), and definitely worthwhile, even if you aren't an English major! Hoping to take more classes with her going forward :)

The workload is moderate because there is a lot of reading. I probably spent 4-8 hours a week on readings, and had to read these novels way faster than I ever would for pleasure. Other than the discussion posts keeping you accountable, you can afford to fall behind a little bit if you must as there are no reading checks. 5 discussion posts, 2 5-7 page essays, and a final exam. You are expected to participate in class because it is a small lecture but she is so nice about whatever you say that it is not difficult to come up with something. In my opinion, the demands of this class are completely doable. This was my fun class for this semester and it was pretty much all fun!

I adored this class and Professor Hildebrand! We read Jane Eyre, North & South, A Christmas Carol, The Mill on the Floss, and Dracula. Victorian novels are a lot of fun anyway, but the course content itself feels very relevant and she gives excellent context on each novel. Professor Hildebrand makes the material very interesting and the class is the perfect blend of lecture and discussion. She is also a great lecturer and clearly likes working with students. She is super personable, has a great sense of humor, and does value our ideas. I cannot recommend this course enough! It was one of the best classes that I've taken.

A couple essays plus the creative project and a reflection on the creative project. You can do the final project in pairs/in a group/alone, whatever floats your boat. Honestly kind of a lot of reading, anywhere from like 40-100 pages per class (but you don't really have to do all the reading to do well in this class). Someone who does all the reading probably spends about 3-6 hours a week outside of class, depending.

Dr. Hildebrand is so cool! I would really recommend this course, or any course with her really. She's so passionate about Victorian lit and it's clear that she loves to teach. The only thing that ruffled some feathers I think was that she had pop quizzes about the plot of whatever book we were reading, but the two lowest grades get dropped and even if you don't read it super closely you'll be fine. Also that's in place of a final so I'm not complaining. The final is like a quirky creative project. I really enjoyed the content of this course and again would highly recommend!! I always felt really comfortable raising my hand/participating. Very warm class environment.

I love Prof Hildebrand! I already had an interest in the literature from this era, and she really helped me develop a solid grounding in it. We read Jane Eyre, A Christmas Carol, North and South, The Mill on the Floss, and Tess of the D'Urbervilles -- all great. My class was really talkative, and even though the course is billed as a lecture, she splits it between lecturing and discussion. Lots of close-reading passages as well. She's super helpful in office hours, as well as funny and kind; didn't find her to be a difficult grader either.