ST. GREGORY’S COLLEGE
Course Syllabus - Fall 2001
Course Name and Hours: English 2543 -- Survey of English Literature I
MW 1:00 - 2:20 and one night a month to be decided by class
Instructor’s Name: Lynn Clarke
Office 310 Hours: By Appointment
Course Description from Official Bulletin:
This is a survey course which is designed to acquaint students with the important British authors and works written before 1850. Major components include mythology, Anglo-Saxon poetry and prose, Middle English works, Shakespeare, the Renaissance, 17th-century drama and poetry, the Restoration and 18th-century English literature.
Objectives of the Course:
At the completion of this course the student will be able:
1. To understand the function of classical mythology in British literature, and to be able to identify mythological characters, stories and archetypal narratives.
2. To recognize and evaluate the literary genres that developed in Early English, Middle English, Renaissance, Restoration and 18th-century eras.
3. To identify subgenres within the following genres: poetry, fiction, essay, drama.
4. To write about literature using various modes of writing - narrative, descriptive, expository and persuasive.
5. To show how literature of all eras reflect and incorporate values, events and epistemologies of the times.
Required Textbooks:
Abrams, M.H., ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol. I, 6th Edition.
Hamilton, Edith. Mythology.
Method of Student Evaluation:
Class attendance and participation (includes in-class writings and presentations)
Three (3) unexcused absences drops your grade to a B. Two (2) more a C.
In class writing and test following each unit. All in class reports have a major impact on your grade.
Grading Scale: 90 - 100 .... A
80 - 89 ...... B
70 - 79 ...... C
60 - 69 ...... D
Assignments:
Reading Assignments;
The core of this course will be the discussion of the assigned works. It is therefore of utmost importance that the students come to class having read the assignment for the day.
Written Assignments:
Written assignments are due on day designated in class. Papers can be rewritten once.
Plan of Instruction:
Unit 1 Mythology 2 weeks
Unit 2 Old English/Anglo-Saxon 2 weeks
Unit 3 Middle English 3 weeks
Unit 4 Renaissance 3 weeks
Unit 5 17th Century and Restoration 3 weeks
Unit 6 18th Century 3 weeks
Written Assignments:
Mythology
Each student will read and make an oral report on one section of their choice. They will make a one page overview of their subject and bring a copy for each member of the class.
Issues: how mythological characters, places and stories are constantly worked and reworked in literature; how they serve as inspiration and a reference point for the inclusion of a body of figurative meaning.
Anglo-Saxon/Middle English
Each student will read and make an oral report on one section of their choice. They will make a one page overview of their subject and bring a copy for each member of the class.
Issues: how literature reflects beliefs, culture, attitudes and invasion; changes in culture and language as a result of conquest.
Renaissance/16th Century
Each student will read and make an oral report on one section of their choice. They will make a one page overview of their subject and bring a copy for each member of the class.
Issues: how literature reflects shifting notions about the structure of the world and the individual’s place within it; identity constructions and questions; discovery and conceptions of a "new world," civil war and its impact on literature; gender issues.
Restoration/18th Century
Each student will read and make an oral report on one section of their choice. They will make a one page overview of their subject and bring a copy for each member of the class.
Issues: how literary forms expand with the growth of literacy; women and writing; decadence vs. puritanism; desires for "clear writing," philosophical trends and the rise of science.
There will be a short test following each unit. If everyone does their part correctly, you will have good notes to study.
Each oral report must be written as a paper to be turned in to me. It must have the proper format. This means a thesis. A thesis is a statement or an assertion that serves as the basis of an argument from which a conclusion is logically drawn. Then you must support your thesis and draw a conclusion. The paper should be double-spaced with an 11 point font in Times New Roman. (This is standard for most papers.) Please use one inch margins.
If any of the subject matter offends any individual student in any way, see me to receive an alternative assignment.
If you are a student with a disability who needs special attention, contact me as soon as possible.
English 2543 - British Literature I
Course Syllabus – Fall 2001
Unit 1: Mythology
Works: Edith Hamilton’s Mythology
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Classical mythology: |
the gods, creation of the world and mankind, heroes, stories of transformation, stories of love and adventure, heroes before the Trojan War, heroes of the Trojan War, families of mythology, less important myths. |
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Norse myths: |
the sagas, Teutonic perspectives, ideas of valor, Signy and Sigurd, Valkyries, Norse gods, the creation, Teutonic ideas about human nature, Valhalla. |
Test
Unit 2: Anglo-Saxon (Old English)
Works: Bede (ca. 673-735): from An Ecclesiastical History of the English People
Anonymous: The Dream of the Rood
the epic poem, Beowulf
Old English lyric poems: "The Wanderer," "The Ruin," "The Seafarer,"
"The Battle of Maldon"
Historical Backgrounds; prosodic forms; generic analysis; development of genre; the culture of invasion and defense; the necessity of defining heroism.
Test
Unit 3: Middle English
Works: Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales
Geoffrey Chaucer: "Truth"
Margery Kempe
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Piers Plowman: "The Confession of Envy," "The Confession of Gluttony,"
"The Harrowing of Hell," "The Dreamer Meets Conscience and Reason"
The Second Shepherd’s Play
Historical backgrounds; form and structure in Middle English verse; thematic considerations (including symbolism); medieval drama and the people; medieval women.
Test
Unit 4: The Sixteenth Century (including Renaissance)
Works: Sir Thomas More: Utopia
John Skelton: poems
Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder: poems
Edmund Spenser: "The Shepherdes Calendar" selections from The Faerie Queene
Christopher Marlowe: Dr. Faustus
William Shakespeare: selected sonnets, Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, MacBeth
Bible translations
Arthur Golding, from Ovid’s Metamorphoses
Test
Unit 5: Seventeenth Century
Works: John Donne: selected poems, "Holy Sonnets," Sermon 76
Ben Jonson: poems, Volpone
Francis Bacon: "Of Superstition," "Of Studies," "The Abuses of Language,"
"The New Atlantis"
Robert Herrick: selected poems
Andrew Marvell
John Milton: "Il Penseroso," Paradise Lost, Book I
Robert Burton: The Anatomy of Melancholy
Lady Mary Wroth: selected works
Katherine Philips: poems
Lucy Hutchinson: "A Confrontation"
Lady Anne Halkett: "The Memoirs"
Dorothy Osborne: "Letters"
John Locke: "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding"
Test
Unit 6: Restoration and Eighteenth Century
Works: John Dryden: Absalom and Achitophel, "Ode to Miss Ann Killigrew,"
"An Essay on Dramatic Poesy"
Samuel Pepys: selections from the diary
Aphra Behn: "Oroonoko"
William Congreve: The Way of the World
John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester: "The Disabled Debauchee"
Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea: "The Introduction," "A Nocturnal Reverie"
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu: poems
Jonathan Swift: "A Modest Proposal," "Gulliver’s Travels"
Addison and Steele: from The Tatler
Alexander Pope: "An Essay on Criticism" and "Eloisa to Abelard"
Thomas Gray: "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,"
"Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat"
William Collins: "Ode to Evening"
Test