Week 1
Tues. Jan 18
Introduction to the course and discussion of requirements
To get a sense of the historical lead up to the period we cover, please view the first episode from Simon Schama's History of Britain series – Link provided on the Moodle.
Thurs. Jan. 20
Read:
Old English Riddles and Charms in the anthology
Abbess Hild of Whitby: “The Miraculous Poet Caedmon” and "Caedmon's Hymn" that follows.
"The Dream of the Rood"
"The Wanderer"
What is litotes?
What are kennings?
Find examples of both in your readings.
Recommended reading in addition to poetry:
The Medieval Period
Week 2
Tues. Jan. 25
"The Wife's Lament"
"The Seafarer"
Schedule sign-up for Reader Response/Seminars today.
Thurs. Jan. 27
Anglo-Norman England: Arthurian Romance and Female Fairy Worlds
Marie de France "Lanval" and "Bisclavret" (The Werewolf)
Additional material is on Moodle.
Week 3
Tues. Feb. 1
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Recommended Reading in addition to "Gawain"
In Context: The Crises of the 14th century
Thurs. Feb. 3
Chaucer: From The Canterbury Tales
The General Prologue
The Miller's Tale
Recommended Reading in addition to Chaucer selections
In Context: Love and Marriage in Medieval Britain
Week 4
Tues. Feb. 8
Chaucer
The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale
Thurs. Feb. 10
Piers Plowman
Recommended Reading for Tuesday. In Context: Religious and Spiritual Life
For Thurs: View Simon Schama selection on The Plague in the library on reserve
Week 5
Tues. Feb. 15 FIRST ESSAY DUE
The Plague, Visionary Women, Dream Visions and Religious Allegory
Julian of Norwich fromA Revelation of Love
Margery Kempe fromThe Book of Margery Kempe
In addition to the reading view Simon Schama's History of Britain series Disc 2 Episode: King Death
Thurs. Feb. 17
Thomas Mallory: Selections from Morte D'Arthur
Week 6
Tues. Feb. 22
Everyman
Thurs. Feb. 24
MID-TERM EXAM
Week 7
Tues. March 1
Thomas More's Utopia
Thurs. March 3
Sidney's Defense of Poetry
Castiglione's The Courtier - The Ladder of Love section
Week 8
Tues. March 8
Spenser'sThe Shepherd's Calendar
The Faerie QueenBook II Canto 12 "The Bower of Bliss"
Recommended Reading: In Context "Culture"
Thurs. March 10
Read all of the sonnets in the anthology by:
Sir Thomas Wyatt (detailed discussion on "Whoso List to Hunt" and Spenser's Sonnet 67 in "Amoretti" sequence
Sir Philip Sidney (detailed discussion on 1, 7, and 71)
Shakespeare (detailed discussion of 130, 116, 147) The Sonnet
Sonnet presentations will follow beginning after the Spring break and will be scheduled as part of the makeup session for the cancelled class on March 17. Possible sonnets to be assigned include:
1. Shakespeare Sonnet 29
2. Spenser Sonnet 75 and Shakespeare's Sonnet 60 (compare)
3. Sidney Sonnet 52
4. Shakespeare Sonnet 20
5. Shakespeare Sonnet 147
6. Milton's "On His Blindness"
Week 9
Tues. March 15
Poetic Dialogues on Sex, Marriage Anxiety and The Pastoral Ideal.
Christopher Marlowe “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love”
Sir Walter Ralegh “The Nymphs Reply to the Shepherd”
John Donne “The Bait”
Robert Herrick “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time”
Andrew Marvell “To His Coy Mistress”
“Corinna’s Going A-Maying”
Thomas Carew “A Rapture”
Sir John Suckling "A Ballad Upon a Wedding"
Katherine Philips "A Married State"
Thurs. March 17 NO CLASS (makeup class to be scheduled to include sonnet presentations either in earlier 8am classes or through a couple of lunchtime sessions)
Week 10 MARCH BREAK. March 21-25
Week 11
Tues. March 29
Christopher Marlowe's Dr. Faustus
Thurs. March 31
Shakespeare King Lear
Week 12
Tues. April 5
Shakespeare King Lear
Thurs. April 7
Thomas Hobbes Selections from Leviathan
Ben Jonson's "Clerimont's Song" "Song to Celia"
"Inviting a Friend to Supper" and "To Penshurt";
Read Herrick "Delight in Disorder"
Amelia Lanyer's "The Description of Cooke-ham" (the first Country House poem)
Week 13
Tues. April 12
Read Herbert's "Easter Wings"
"The Pulley"
"The Altar"
Thurs. April 14 SECOND ESSAY DUE
John Donne
"The Flea"
"A Valediction Forbidding Mourning"
"Elegy 19. To His Mistress Going to Bed"
"Good Friday, 1613 Riding Westward"
Week 14
Tues. April 19 Sonnet Assignments due in today
John Donne continued
Tues. April 21
John Milton Paradise Lost
Week 15
Tues. April 26
John Milton Paradise Lost
Thurs. April 28
John Milton Paradise Lost
Final Exam: TBA