Tuesday and Thursday 9:40-11:00.

Transcription

1 LIT 220 (British Literature: Medieval to Renaissance) Professor John Hunt, Dept. of English Spring 2012 (offered as LIT ) Office: LA 133B, Natural Sciences 307 Hours: TWR & by appt. Tuesday and Thursday 9:40-11:00 Texts: Longman Anthology vol. 1A: The Middle Ages (2 nd, 3 rd, or 4 th ed.) Norton Anthology vol. B: The 16 th century and early 17 th Century (7 th, 8 th, or 9 th ed.) Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms (any edition) Diane Hacker, A Pocket Style Manual (any edition) Moodle course supplement, accessible at Note: I m allowing purchase of several different editions because current editions of these textbooks are expensive, and earlier ones can be far cheaper. The downside of this approach is variation among the editions: although every work specified on the reading list should be present in your text, page numbers will vary; so too, occasionally, will translations of a work into modern English, and critical introductions. We will do our best to deal with this limitation. The list of readings below does not employ page numbers, but I ll try to alert you in advance when something may be hard to find. Also note: You will need to be able to access and work on Moodle to complete this class. The PowerPoint presentations that I use in class will always be available soon after the lecture, for purposes of review, and sometimes they will be posted before the lecture, to help you as you read. In addition, you will be expected to contribute written responses to the readings every week, in an online forum on Moodle. Also note: Entries from The Bedford Glossary do not appear on the syllabus. I will refer in lectures (and PowerPoint slides) to some of the literary terms discussed in the Glossary, and you will be responsible for understanding those terms on the two exams. It is your responsibility to use the glossary to educate yourself on terms that you are not well familiar with. Keep in mind that some of the entries are long, and I do not expect you to read and retain every sentence, but only to get clear on the basic concepts that I introduce in class. The Pocket Style Manual is for you to use in working on your writing skills in the papers that Ms. Lodine-Chaffey grades. After reading your first paper, or in the course of reading your online responses, she may recommend that you review certain topics in the Style Manual. The Glossary and Style Manual are required texts for all English majors, so even if you sell the literature texts at the end of the semester, you should hang on to these. Finally, please note that the syllabus does not list introductions to specific authors and works in the textbooks, but you should take a look at these before reading the assigned works. Course aims: This quick survey of about eight centuries of early British literature seeks not only to give you brief introductions to some of the best literary works composed in English, but also to familiarize you with some of the developments in social, political, religious, linguistic, and literary history that helped to make the works possible and prompted the authors to write in the ways they did. This is a big task a really big task and I do not expect you to master the material. The course will require you simply to read a lot, explore your first responses to the readings, take in a lot of background information, and hold lots of essential nuggets in your memory. Weekly written responses will encourage you to read actively, forming opinions about the material and exploring your instinctive impressions. Two formal papers will give you the opportunity to try out arguments about topics that hold special interest for you. And two exams will test your careful attention to the readings and lectures, your comprehension, and your memory. The result, if you put in the necessary work, should be a solid grasp of the origins of the English language, the foundations of imaginative writing within the language, and (since verse writing occupied an especially important place in these early times) an improved ability to make sense of complex, sophisticated poetry. We will also explore many theoretical problems that may continue to resonate in your thinking as you move on to other English literature courses. Among them: how imaginative writing can be seen as both a product of historical forces and a powerful response to them; how the formation of ethnic and national identity is reflected in, and advanced by, the establishment of a literary canon; how women s writings, women s issues, and men s ideas about women find expression within literature written during strongly patriarchal times; how human love can be conceived and represented; and how ideals of beauty, value, and order held by aristocratic and religious elites may be transformed in working-class and middle-class experience.

2 Schedule of assignments: The works that I will discuss in each day s lecture are listed below. Except for the first day s, you should read all of them by the time the class meets. There may be times when you have trouble making sense of the reading and need the lecture to give you some orientation for understanding it; when that happens, it s fine to read some passages more quickly and return to them after the lecture to read more carefully. The weekly online discussions conducted by Ms. Lodine-Chaffey will also help you engage with the readings actively and begin making sense of them in your own way. Note: It is very important that you keep up with the readings in this class, since it covers so much literary and social history, and so many writers and works. The combination of lectures, online discussions, and PowerPoint presentations available on Moodle is designed to give you maximum engagement with the readings week by week. This matters, because the weeks will fly by quickly, continually raising new topics. If you fall behind, the course material will become a blur and you will do badly on the exams. Pace yourself carefully, keep up, and you will find that you have successfully processed a lot of information and done well in the course. Also note: There are five days from Thursday to Tuesday, and only two days from Tuesday to Thursday. Wherever possible, I have assigned larger amounts of reading to Tuesday classes, but this is not always an option. You should keep an eye on what s coming up, and sometimes do some extra reading on the weekends so you will not get blindsided on Wednesday night. To help you gauge how much reading is required for each class, I have supplied an estimated number of pages on the right margin of this syllabus. Some readings are more difficult than others, however, so fewer pages may not always mean less time. Jan 24 Introductions: course aims and format, Prof. John Hunt, and TA Jennifer Lodine-Chaffey An historical introduction to the Middle Ages Reading: Introductions: The Middle Ages, The Celts, and The Germanic Migrations (This reading can be done after the first lecture.) (5 pp.) 26 Anglo-Saxon culture and Old English literature Reading: Bede, An Ecclesiastical History of the English People Bishop Asser, The Life of King Alfred King Alfred, preface to work by St. Gregory Judith The Dream of the Rood Introductions: Ethnic and Religious Encounters (21 pp.) 31 The epic Beowulf Reading: Beowulf 1-2 (lines in 4 th ed.) Introductions: Pagan and Christian, and Oral Poetry, Written Manuscripts Feb 2 The elegiac Beowulf Reading: Beowulf 3 (lines in 4 th ed.) (51 pp.) (18 pp.) 7 Early medieval lyrics in Irish, Welsh, and Old English Reading: To Crinog, Pangur the Cat, The Viking Terror, The Old Woman of Beare, and Findabair Remembers Fróech Taliesin, Urien Yrechwydd, The War-Band s Return, and Lament for Owain The Wanderer Wulf and Eadwacer The Wife s Lament Introductions: Early Irish Verse 9 Anglo-Norman England, the return of Britain, and the rise of romance Reading: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Geoffrey of Monmouth, History of the Kings of Britain Gerald of Wales, The Instruction of Princes Marie de France, Lanval Introductions: The Norman Conquest, Social and Religious Order, and (16 pp.)

3 Arthurian Myth in the History of Britain (36 pp.) 14 Religious heroism, social criticism, and courtly love Reading: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 1-3 Introductions: Women, Courtliness, and Courtly Love, and Romance 16 The ending of Sir Gawain: ambiguous conclusions Reading: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 4 Paper due: see TA syllabus. (49 pp.) (12 pp.) 21 Later medieval lyrics Reading: Anonymous English lyrics: The Cuckoo Song, Spring, Alisoun, I Have a Noble Cock, Foweles in the Frith, Abuse of Women, A Forsaken Maiden s Lament, The Wily Clerk, Adam Lay Ibounden, I Sing of a Maiden, Mary Is with Child, Now Goeth Sun under Wood, and Jesus, My Sweet Lover Dafydd ap Gwilym, Aubade, Tale of a Wayside Inn, The Winter, and The Ruin William Dunbar, Lament for the Makars and In Secreit Place this Hyndir Nyght Geoffrey Chaucer, lines 1-18 of General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales Introductions: Continental and Insular Cultures, The Return of English, and Middle English Lyrics (30 pp.) 23 Chaucer s General Prologue Reading: The rest of the General Prologue Chaucer s Retraction (20 pp.) 28 Two vignettes from The Canterbury Tales Reading: The Miller s Tale, lines The Wife of Bath s Tale, lines Introductions: Politics and Society in the Fourteenth Century, and The Spread of Book Culture in the Fifteenth Century Mar 1 Affective piety and popular art Reading: Julian of Norwich, A Book of Showings, chs. 2, 58-61, and 68 The Second Play of the Shepherds The Book of Margery Kempe, Preface and chs. 1-3, 17-18, and Introductions: Mystical Writings, Medieval Cycle Drama, and Vernacular Religion and Repression (15 pp.) (42 pp.) 6 First Exam: the Middle Ages 8 Introduction to the English Renaissance Reading: Sir Thomas More, Utopia, Book 1 Translation from John Calvin s The Institution of Christian Religion Roger Ascham, The Schoolmaster Sir Thomas Hoby, translation from Castiglione s The Courtier (may be shortened) Introductions: The Sixteenth Century, The Court and the City, Renaissance Humanism, and Faith in Conflict (58 pp.) 13 Early English Petrarchism Reading: Sir Thomas Wyatt, poems (all) Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, poems (all) Introductions: Tudor Style: Ornament, Plainness, and Wonder 15 Petrarchan writers of the Golden Age Reading: Sir Philip Sidney, Astrophil and Stella 1, 2, 5, 10, 15, 18, 20, 21, 31, 39, 45, (27 pp.)

4 53, 71, 72, 4 th song, 11 th song William Shakespeare, sonnets 1, 3, 12, 15, 18, 20, 62, 116, 129, 130, 135, 138, 144 Lady Mary Wroth, The Countess of Montgomery s Urania, Song, and Pamphilia to Amphilanthus 1, 39, 40, 68, Song (74), 77, and 103 (17 pp.) 20 Didactic literary theory and the romance of Elizabeth Reading: Queen Elizabeth I, speeches to a Joint Delegation of Lords and Commons and to the Troops at Tillbury, and The Golden Speech Sir Philip Sidney, The Defense of Poesy (may be shortened) Spenser, A Letter of the Author s (from The Faerie Queene) (36 pp.) Introductions: The Reformation, A Female Monarch, and The Kingdom in Danger 22 Spenser s allegorical romance Reading: Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Bk. 1, canto 1 and Bk. 3, canto 6 (26pp.) Introductions: The English and Otherness, and Writers, Printers, and Patrons 27 Marlowe and the Elizabethan theater Reading: Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus Introductions: The Elizabethan Theater (38 pp.) 29 Reading: Shakespeare, King Lear, act 1, scenes 1-2 (15 pp.) Spring Break April 2-6 Apr 10 Sexual love poetry Reading: Christopher Marlowe, The Passionate Shepherd to His Love Sir Walter Ralegh, The Nymph s Reply Marlowe, Hero and Leander, lines 1-76, , , Thomas Campion, My sweetest Lesbia, I care not for these ladies, & Fain would I wed John Donne, The Flea, The Indifferent, The Apparition, and The Blossom Introductions: Surprised by Time, and Old Ideas and New (14 pp.) 12 Donne s marriage of Platonism and sexuality Reading: The Good-Morrow, The Sun Rising, The Canonization, A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, and The Ecstasy (6 pp.) Paper due: see TA syllabus. 17 Religious poetry in the metaphysical manner Reading: Donne, Holy Sonnet 14 ( Batter my heart ) George Herbert, The Altar, Redemption, Easter Wings, Prayer (I), Jordan (I), Church Monuments, The Windows, Denial, Virtue, The Collar, The Pulley, The Flower, Death, and Love (3) Richard Crashaw, To the Infant Martyrs and To the Noblest and best of Ladies (14 pp.) 19 Marvellous ambiguities Reading: Andrew Marvell, A Dialogue Between the Soul and Body, To His Coy Mistress, The Definition of Love, The Mower against Gardens, and The Garden (7 pp.) 24 Jonsonian plainspoken poetry Reading: Sir Walter Ralegh, What is Our Life?, To His Son, The Lie, and The Author s Epitaph Ben Jonson, On Something that Walks Somewhere, On My First Daughter, On Giles and Joan, On My First Son, Inviting a Friend to Supper, On Gut,

5 To Penshurst, My Picture Left in Scotland, Still to Be Neat, and To the Memory of Mr. William Shakespeare Robert Herrick, The Vine, Dreams, Delight in Disorder, His Farewell to Sack, Corinna s Going A-Maying, To the Virgins to Make Much of Time, His Prayer to Ben Jonson, Upon Julia s Clothes, and To His Book s End Introductions: Patrons, Printers, and Acting Companies, and The Caroline Era 26 The English Revolution Reading: Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan t.b.a. Sir Thomas Browne, Religio Medici t.b.a. Richard Lovelace, Andrew Marvell, An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell s Return from Ireland Introductions: The Early Seventeenth Century, State and Church, The Revolutionary Era, and Literature and Culture May 1 Milton s epic theodicy Reading: Milton, Paradise Lost 1 (all) Paradise Lost 2, lines 1-42 Paradise Lost 3, lines Paradise Lost 4, lines Adam and Eve: scenes from a marriage Reading: Paradise Lost 4, lines and Paradise Lost 9 (all) Paradise Lost 10, lines , , and (26 pp.) (38 pp.) May 8 Second Exam: the Renaissance (Tuesday 8-10 AM) Grading: Your course grade will be determined as follows: 10% Participation in Moodle discussion forums 15% First formal paper 20% Second formal paper 25% First exam 30% Second exam The slightly increasing percentages from one paper to the next, and from one exam to the next, are designed to encourage and reward improvement. In addition, the second paper will probably be slightly longer, and the second exam will cover slightly more material. Students with Disabilities: Students with documented disabilities will receive appropriate accommodations. Please speak with me privately at the beginning of the semester about any accommodations you need, and be prepared to provide a letter from your DSS Coordinator. I will work with you and Disability Services in the accommodation process. Academic deadlines: Please consult the university s Official Dates and Deadlines calendar at events.umt.edu/?calendar_id=27&upcoming=upcoming& for all add/drop and fee deadlines: Departmental assessment: The English Department may use any work you produce in this class for assessment purposes. No departmental assessment of student work will have any impact on a student s grade in the course or progress in the major. Throughout the assessment process, all summary data will be aggregated and student work will remain anonymous, with all characteristics identifying an individual student removed before the work is read by anyone other than the course

6 instructor. Students who do not wish to allow their work to be used by the department for assessment may opt out by notifying the instructor in writing. Plagiarism: All work submitted for this course must be your own and written solely for this course. While all the ideas discussed in our classroom are common property, unacknowledged use of others written work, whether paraphrased or quoted directly without attribution, constitutes plagiarism. Plagiarism is an affront to the fundamental values of an academic institution, indicating a lack of respect for intellectual labor and a lack of responsibility for one's part in sustaining an academic community. You must acknowledge, by citation of name, title, and location, all work that has influenced your thinking, using established academic guidelines for documentation. If you violate this policy I will take action according to university procedures spelled out in the Student Conduct Code at life.umt.edu/vpsa/student_conduct.php. Attendance and class demeanor: I will excuse absences if you contact me in advance of, or very soon after, the missed class and give a detailed account of why you cannot be present. Such absences should be unpredictable, unavoidable, and, hopefully, quite rare. If you have things (a job, health issues, university business, family difficulties) that you know will take you out of class often, I suggest you drop the course. You may take three unexcused absences for predictable, avoidable reasons (sleeping in, going to Portland to take in that act you ve always wanted to see). More than three unexcused absences will lower your course grade. There is no excuse for missing one of the two scheduled exams, other than a documented emergency. I will offer a make-up exam in such cases, but otherwise assign you an F for the test. If you are late for class, I would rather have you here than not, so don t hesitate to enter the room. But don t make a habit of walking in late or leaving early. If you know you need to leave class early, a quick word to that effect before class starts will be much appreciated. I will also appreciate your turning off cell phones and pagers before class begins. Finally: If there s something you don t understand, ask about it. If you worry that your question will sound stupid, it almost certainly won t; in fact, other people will probably be glad you asked.