English 370A: English Literature from Old English to Renaissance Literature

Meets MWF 1:00-1:50 in Modern Languages 311

Spring 2005: Professor Willard (willard@email.arizona.edu; 621-1154)

Open office hours Mondays 12-1 p.m. and Wednesdays 10-11 a.m. in Mod. Lang. 330; other conferences by appointment

 

  • Required text: David Damrosch, gen. ed., The Longman Anthology of British Literature, 2nd compact ed., vol. A: “The Middle Ages, The Early Modern Period, and the Restoration and the Eighteenth Century.”  (Numbers in parentheses refer to pages in this volume.)
  • Required resource: Literature Online (LION: free to UA students at <http://www.library.arizona.edu/indexes/links/litonline.shtml>) for Colonial American writing.
  • Recommended reference: The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th ed.

 

Important dates: Feb. 8 (last day to drop w/o a “W”), Mar. 8 (last day to drop w/ a “W”). You will have 35 percent of your final grade by March 2.

 

Week 1: Jan. 12-14

Introduction (3-25); “The Dream of the Rood” (106-10); Bede (112-17)

 

Week 2: Jan. 17-21

Beowulf (27-91)

 

Week 3: Jan. 24-28

Irish, Welsh, English, Scottish, and Native American poems (92-100, 126-33, 370-89)

The Seneca creation myth <http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/iro/irc/irc04.htm>

 

Week 4: Jan. 31-Feb. 4

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (169-225). First essay due: medieval lyric and narrative

 

Week 5: Feb. 7-11

The Canterbury Tales, General Prologue (246-71)

 

Week 6: Feb. 14-18

The Canterbury Tales, Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale (287-314)

 

Week 7: Feb. 21-25

Midterm exam (Wed.). Introduction to the early modern period (391-411)

 

Week 8: Feb. 28-Mar. 4

The Faerie Queene (I.i., II.xii) (424-40, 568-79)

 

Week 9: Mar. 7-11

Speeches by Elizabeth I (622-31); “Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum” (658-63)

SPRING BREAK

 

Week 10: Mar. 21-25

Dr. Faustus (684-733)

 

Week 11: Mar. 28-Apr. 1

Twelfth Night (742-96)

 

Week 12: Apr. 4-8

Poems of Jonson (798-804); Songs of Donne (804-14)

 

Week 13: Apr. 11-15

“The Garden” (857-59); “L’Allegro,” “Il Penseroso,” “Lycidas” (897-909); Paradise Lost, IV (968-86); “The Disappointment,” “The Imperfect Enjoyment” (1114-21). Second essay due: the coterie poem

 

Week 14: Apr. 18-22

Prose of Raleigh, Barlow, and Hariot (663-69); Oroonoko (1134-76)

 

Week 15: Apr. 25-29

Poetry by Bradford, Bradstreet, and Taylor (Literature Online)

 

Week 16: May 2-4

Review

 

Exam Week: May 9-13

Mon.    Final exam (11:00-1:00 in Modern Languages 311)

 

Requirements

 

  • Midterm exam. 50 minutes. 50% short answer, 50% essay.
  • Best five of six quizzes. 5 or 10 minutes each. Different formats.
  • Two essays.1000 words each.
  • Final exam. 2 hours. 50% short answer. 50% essay.

You may revise one essay for a higher grade. The revision must be submitted (together with the graded original) not later than two weeks after the original is returned.

 

Course grade components

 

  • 20% quizzes.
  • 20% midterm.
  • 30% essays.
  • 30% final.

Up to 5% may be added to your final grade or subtracted from it to reflect attendance, participation, and progress throughout the semester.


Policies. When you take this course, you agree to the following policies. Live electronic links to Internet resources on campus are easily accessible from the online syllabus < http://www.u.arizona.edu/~willard/370A/index.htm>.

 

  • You should be familiar with policies governing courses in the Department of English <http://engladv.web.arizona.edu/pols.html>, including policies on deadlines, standards, and plagiarism.
  • You should be familiar with policies governing all courses in the University and enforced by the Dean of Students <http://dos.web.arizona.edu/uapolicies/>, including the policy statement on disruptive behavior <http://policy.web.arizona.edu/disrupt.shtml>
  • You are allowed three unexcused absences, in addition to absences excused for medical, religious, or athletic reasons.
  • You should meet with the instructor about any questions or concerns you have. If you cannot attend one of the open office hours announced in the syllabus, feel free to make an appointment at another time. If you must miss a scheduled appointment, notify the instructor in advance. A “no show” will be treated as an absence from class.
  • There will be no make-up quizzes. Make-up exams will be given to be students who have made arrangements in advance or excused absences on the scheduled date.
  • Essay deadlines may be negotiated in advance; late essays will be accepted, but at a penalty of one grade point per class period.
  • You should retain all work returned to you, including all grades and comments; you should keep a copy of each essay you submit.
  • The grade of Incomplete (I) will be awarded only under extenuating circumstances such as serious illness. University policy requires that all but one major course component, such as an essay or exam, is completed before the student can receive this grade.

 

Resources. In preparing assignments for this course you should make use of resources provided by the University Library, including these online resources:

 

First essay: Medieval lyric and narrative. Due February 4.

 

Choose either part A or part B.

 

A. Medieval Lyric.  Read these poems and select one pair:

 

“Spring” and “Alisoun” (372-74)

“Adam Lay Ibounden” and “I Sing of a Maiden” (376-77)

“The Hateful Husband” and “Manerly Margery Mylke and Ale” (381-82, 436-37)

 

For the lyrics you have selected, imagine each as a sung or spoken text. Pay attention to the stanza, meter, and rhythm and to effects of assonance, consonance, and alliteration. Notice the narrative behind the poem and the main images. Check uncertain or unusual words in the OED — Oxford English Dictionary Online

<http://www.library.arizona.edu/indexes/links/oed.shtml>.  Then write an essay that discusses both lyrics. You may make comparisons, but do not need to write a comparative study. Indeed, you may concentrate your discussion on one of the poems.

 

B. Medieval Narrative. Select one pair:

 

“Lanval” and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” (156-69, 306-14)

“The Poisoned Apple” and part 3 of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (226-36; 196-214)

“The Pardoner’s Tale” (319-29) and The Treasure of Sierra Madre (the 1948 film)

 

You must read the first tale, and may read or view the second as a point of comparison.

 

For each work you study, note the narrative pattern and any dominant image or theme. Try to imagine the narrative as a text read aloud or otherwise performed. Check uncertain or unusual words in the OED — Oxford English Dictionary Online

<http://www.library.arizona.edu/indexes/links/oed.shtml>. Then write an essay that discusses the text of Marie de France, the Pearl Poet, or Chaucer as a story with a structure. You may make comparison to the paired work or to another work.

 

A and B. Further instructions

 

The essay should be at least 1000 words in length and no more than 1500. Please print a double spaced copy with your name at the top of each page beside the page number and a word count at the end. Use MLA format for such citations <http://dizzy.library.arizona.edu/library/type1/tips/data/citation.html#mla>. You do not need to include bibliographical information for the primary texts, but should acknowledge any debts to the editorial notes in the Longman Anthology, the OED, or other sources consulted.

 

Make a second printout for your records.

 

Second essay: The coterie poem. Due April 15.

 

Read these seventeenth-century poems and select one:

 

Mary Wroth, sonnet 77 (“In this strange labyrinth how shall I turn?”; 819)

Katherine Philips, “Friendship in Emblem” (863-64)

Anne Finch, “The Introduction” (1125-26)

 

For the poem you have selected, imagine it written for and circulated among a group of friends in seventeenth-century England. You may draw information or quotations from the “Perspectives: Tracts on Women and Gender” (824-44). You may also draw comparisons with works of male poets in the Longman Anthology. For example, you might compare Wroth’s sonnet with Shakespeare’s sonnet 29 (“When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes”; 738), Philip’s verse epistle with Donne’s “Valediction” or “Ecstasy” (811-14), and Finch’s poem with Dryden’s “Mac Flecknoe” (1109-14, especially lines 1-63).

 

As always, pay attention to the stanza, meter, and rhythm and to effects of assonance, consonance, and alliteration. Notice the narrative behind the poem and the main images. Check uncertain or unusual words in the OED — Oxford English Dictionary Online <http://www.library.arizona.edu/indexes/links/oed.shtml>.

 

The essay should be at least 1000 words in length and no more than 1500. Please print a double spaced copy with your name at the top of each page beside the page number and a word count at the end. Use MLA format for such citations <http://dizzy.library.arizona.edu/library/type1/tips/data/citation.html#mla>. You do not need to include bibliographical information for the primary texts, but should acknowledge any debts to the editorial notes in the Longman Anthology, the OED, or other sources consulted.

 

Make a second printout for your records.