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JOHN CABOT UNIVERSITY

COURSE CODE: "EN 230"
COURSE NAME: "English Literature I: Literary Beginnings to Milton"
SEMESTER & YEAR: Spring Semester 2012
SYLLABUS

INSTRUCTOR: Russell Shannon
EMAIL: [email protected]
HOURS: TTH 8:30-9:45
TOTAL NO. OF CONTACT HOURS: 45
CREDITS: 3
PREREQUISITES: Prerequisite: EN 110 with a grade of C or above
OFFICE HOURS: BY APPOINTMENT

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
Survey of English Literature I:  FROM THE DREAMS OF CAEDMON TO THOSE OF MILTON'S EVE

What makes Caedmon's Anglo-saxon dream a miracle and Eve's dream in Paradise Lost a predictor of the fall of man?  How are Chaucer and the Sonnet connected to Italy? Why are the English so obsessed by the legitimacy of their Kings and Queens and what does King Lear have to do with it?   Who works to "invent" English literature and why?  How does John Donne make spirituality sexy and sexuality spiritual?   Why are there so many medieval visionary women? What is the importance of the flea to English culture and literature? Is Shakespeare's "dark lady" in his love sonnets really a man?   Are Eve and Satan the true heroes of Milton's Paradise Lost?

These questions and others will be debated in this survey of English literature from Anglo-saxon to the Seventeenth Century.  Students are introduced to some of the major writers of this period and are encouraged to see how historical and cultural changes are related to the works studied.
SUMMARY OF COURSE CONTENT:
This course deals with works by major writers in the English language over a period of nearly one thousand years. Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare and Milton are represented in a course which begins with Anglo-saxon poetry, continues through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and concludes with a study of Milton’s Paradise Lost
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
In the context of the course, students should develop both their general background knowledge of literary history as well as their ability to appreciate and criticize particular texts. The importance and depiction of women in this literature as well as emerging work by women will also be a special focus of the course.
TEXTBOOK:
Book TitleAuthorPublisherISBN numberLibrary Call NumberCommentsFormatLocal BookstoreOnline Purchase
The Broadview Anthology of English Literature Volume I: The Medieval Period2006 9781551116099/155111609X     
The Broadview Anthology of English Literature Volume II: The Renaissance and the Early Seventeeth Century 2006 9781551116105/1551116103     
REQUIRED RESERVED READING:
NONE

RECOMMENDED RESERVED READING:
NONE
GRADING POLICY
-ASSESSMENT METHODS:
AssignmentGuidelinesWeight
1. Two Essays 8-10 typed pages  50 % (25% each)
2. Reader Response/Initiation of class discussion Students will prepare a response to or questions about the assigned reading to initiate class discussion.  In one of two responses, they will be required to do poetic analysis of a sonnet.10% (two times of 5% each)
3. Mid-term Exam 15%
4. Final Exam 20%
5. Participation 5%

-ASSESSMENT CRITERIA:
Students are judged on their writing abilities as well as critical capabilities.  Attendance is mandatory, but first-rate essays and exams should demonstrate an engagement with the material beyond reiteration of class discussion.  Class participation is vital and oral response to reading assignments is also assessed.

The grades in letters are equivalent to the following numbers:

A 4
A- 3.67
A-/B+ or B+/A- 3.5
B+ 3.33
B 3
B- 2.67
B-/C+ or C+/B- 2.5
C+ 2.33
C 2
C- 1.67
C-/D+ or D+/C- 1.5
D+ 1.33
D 1
D- .67
F 0


-ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS:
Attendance and class contribution are essential. Absences of 4 or more classes will automatically affect the final grade for the class. Two late entrances count as one absence. Participation grades are not given for silent attendance of class.

Please refer to the university catalog for the attendance and absence policy.
ACADEMIC HONESTY
As stated in the university catalog, any student who commits an act of academic dishonesty will receive a failing grade on the work in which the dishonesty occurred. In addition, acts of academic dishonesty, irrespective of the weight of the assignment, may result in the student receiving a failing grade in the course. Instances of academic dishonesty will be reported to the Dean of Academic Affairs. A student who is reported twice for academic dishonesty is subject to summary dismissal from the University. In such a case, the Academic Council will then make a recommendation to the President, who will make the final decision.
STUDENTS WITH LEARNING OR OTHER DISABILITIES
John Cabot University does not discriminate on the basis of disability or handicap. Students with approved accommodations must inform their professors at the beginning of the term. Please see the website for the complete policy.

SCHEDULE

Session Date

Session Focus

Reading Assignment

Exam Date

Week 1 Tues. Jan 17

Introduction to the Course and Discussion of Requirements
View: Selection from Simon Schama's History of Brtain


Riddles and Charms (photocopies)

Week 1 Thurs. Jan. 19
LAST
DAY TO ADD/DROP COURSES

"Caedmon’s Hymn" Read  Abbess Hild of Whitby on Caedmon pp. 11-15
"The Dream of the Rood"
"The Wanderer"
What is litotes and what are kennings?

Recommended reading in addition to poetry:   
The Medieval Period

Week 2 Tues.  Jan. 24

"The Wife's Lament"
"The Seafarer"

Schedule Set for Reader Response/Seminars Please let me know today if you have any potential conflicts with dates for seminars

Week 2

Thurs. Jan. 26

Anglo-Norman England: Arthurian Romance and Female Fairy Worlds

Marie de France  "Lanval" and
"Bisclavret" (The Werewolf)

READER RESPONSE 1:  Chiara Abbondanti  

Week 3 

Tues. Jan. 31




Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

READER RESPONSE 2:  Meredith Caldwell

Recommended Reading in addition to "Gawain"
In Context: The Crises of the 14th century pp. 200ff

Week 3 

Thurs. Feb. 2

 Chaucer:  From The Canterbury Tales 

The General Prologue 

The Miller's Tale

READER RESPONSE 3:  Alessandra Colzani

Recommended Reading in addition to Chaucer selections
In Context: Love and Marriage in Medieval Britain

Week 4 

Tues. Feb. 7

Chaucer

The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale

READER RESPONSE 4:  Ali Hause

 

 THURS. FEB. 9  CLASS CANCELLED DUE TO CONFERENCE -- MAKEUP DAY FRIDAY APRIL 20TH    
 Week 5 Tues. Feb. 14  Piers Plowman 



READER RESPONSE 5:  Eric Jensen
 Recommended Reading for Tuesday.  In Context:  Religious and Spiritual Life  p. 547ff

For Thurs:  View Simon Schama selection on The Plague in the library on reserve
 

Week 5

Thurs. Feb. 16



The Plague, Visionary Women, Dream Visions and Religious Allegory

Julian of Norwich from A Revelation of Love and Margery Kempe from The Book of Margery Kempe


FIRST ESSAY DUE

In addition to the reading view Simon Schama's History of Britain series Disc 2 Episode:  King Death







FIRST ESSAY DUE THURSDAY
 Week 6 Tues. Feb. 21  Thomas Mallory Selections from Morte D'Arthur

READER RESPONSE 6:  Tithi Natale
   
 Thurs. Feb. 23 Everyman

Reader Response 7: Victor
   

Week 7

Tues. Feb. 28
              

Selections from Thomas More's Utopia

Sidney's Defense of Poetry
Castiglione's The Courtier


 Thurs. March 1  MID-TERM EXAM    

Week 8
Tues. March 6






 

Spenser's "The Shepherd's Calendar"

The Faerie Queen:  Book II Canto 12 "The Bower of Bliss" 




Recommended reading: In Context "Culture"

 

Week 8
Thurs. March 8




The Sonnet
Read all of the sonnets in the Anthology by:
Sir Thomas Wyatt (detailed discussion "Whoso LIst to Hunt"
Sir Philip Sidney (detailed discussion 1, 7, 62 and 71
Edmund Spenser -- the "Amoretti" sonnets

 Week 9 Tues. March 13  Class Cancelled due to Dickens Conference British School of Rome 10-1 Makeup day Friday April 20th  

Week 9 Thurs. March 15

The Sonnet continued:  

Read all of Shakespeare's sonnets in the anthology


Recommended Reading In Context:  Unconstant Women, Excellent Women":  A 17th Century Debate

1. Chiara Spenser's sonnet 75

2. Meredith  Shakespeare's sonnet 130, 29 , 60 or 116.


3. Ali

Shakespeare's sonnet 60

4. Alessandra

Spenser's sonnet 67

 Week 10 19-23  MARCH BREAK    
Week 11

Tues. March 27
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" 





 Week 11 Thurs. March 29   Christopher Marlowe Dr. Faustus    

Week  12
Tues. April 3

Shakespeare King Lear



Week 12 
Thurs. April 5

Shakespeare King Lear



 Week 13 Tues. April 10  Thomas Hobbes Selections from Leviathan

5. Eric

Shakespeare's Sonnet 29 
 

Week 13
Thurs. April 12


Ben Jonson's "Clerimont's Song" p. 580
"Song to Celia,"
"Inviting a Friend to Supper" and "To Penshurt"; 
Read Herrick "Delight in Disorder" p. 756
Also have a look at Amelia Lanyer's "The Description of Cooke-ham" -- first Country House poem



6. Tithi

Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, 147 or 20?

7. Victor

Milton's "On his Blindness"

 

Week 14 Tues. April 17

George Herbert and John Donne
Read Herbert's "Easter Wings"
"The Pulley"
"The Altar"
Donne's "Good Friday, 1613 Riding Westward"

 

Week 14 Thurs. April 19

John Donne
"The Flea"
"A Valediction Forbidding Mourning" 
"Elegy 19. To His Mistress Going to Bed"

 

SECOND ESSAY DUE 

Week 14 Friday April 20  Field Trip to Protestant Cemetery -- MAKEUP DAY  

John Milton 
Paradise Lost
   

Week 14 Tues. April 24 


Week 15
Thurs. April 26

John Milton
Paradise Lost


John Milton

Paradise Lost

 

SessionSession FocusReading AssignmentOther AssignmentMeeting Place/Exam Dates