| T Th, 6:00-7:50 p.m.; MC 308 | Fall Semester, 1998Fall Semester, 1998 |
Instructor:
Glending Olson
office: RT 1805; phone 216-687-3956; e-mail
(g.olson@csuohio.edu)
office hours: T Th 11:00 a.m.-12:00 noon and 2:30-4:00
p.m., and by appointment
Goals of the course: This course (4 semester
credits) partially fulfills the University and College
of Arts and Sciences general education requirement in
Western Culture. It is an introductory survey of some
significant works and genres in the history of English
literature from the beginnings to 1789. It is designed
principally to help students learn about literary
history and cultural history, and to some degree also
about the history of the language.
Required text: The Norton Anthology of
English Literature, 6th ed., vol 1, gen. ed.
M. H. Abrams (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1993).
All assignments below list page numbers of this volume
in parentheses.
Schedule:
| T Sept. 1 | Introduction to course |
| Th 3 | Anglo-Saxon backgrounds: pp. 1-5, 14-15, 2571-72; Old English lyrics: Bede and Caedmon's Hymn (16-19); The Wanderer (68-70); The Dream of the Rood (19-21) |
| T 8 | Beowulf (21-55) | Th 10 | Beowulf (55-68) |
| T 15 | Social and linguistic backgrounds: pp. 5-15; Middle English genres: lyrics (286-91); Noah's Flood (308-18); Margery Kempe (298-308) |
| Th 17 | Chaucer, General Prologue (76-100) |
| T 22 | Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, parts 1-3 (200-243) |
| Th 24 | Sir Gawain, part 4; Malory, from Morte Darthur (344-63) |
| T 29 | Sixteenth century: pp. 395-413; More, from Utopia (414-31); Castiglione/Hoby (973-75, 980-87); Hooker (1013-18) |
| Th Oct. 1 | Wyatt (438-50); Surrey (450-54); Chaucer, "Truth" (199) |
| T 6 | Sidney, Astrophel and Stella #1, 5, 6, 15, 18, 71, 74 (460-69), "Thou Blind Man's Mark," " Leave Me, O Love" (500-1); from The Defense of Poesy (479-87); Spenser, Amoretti #1, 54, 64, 74, 75, 79 (501-3, 734-38) |
| Th 8 | Spenser, Shepheardes Calender: April (503-9); Mary Herbert, "Dialogue between two shepherds" (1046-48); Shakespeare, sonnets # 3, 12, 18, 29, 30, 55, 73, 116, 128, 129, 130, 138, 144, 146 (801-3, 808-22) |
| T 13 | MID-TERM EXAM |
| Th 15 | Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I (822-88) |
| T 20 | Henry IV, Part I |
| Th 22 | Henry IV, Part I |
| T 27 | Seventeenth Century: 1069-79; Donne (selections 1080-94, 1108-19); Jonson (1126-29, 1220-26, 1241-43) |
| Th 29 | Herrick (selections 1354-67); Herbert (selections l369-88); Marvell (selections 1414-33) |
| T Nov. 3 | Milton (1433-35): Paradise Lost, Book 1 (1474-95); from Book 4 (1532-49) |
| Th 5 | Paradise Lost, Book 9 (1566-93); Aemilia Lanyer, "Eve's Apology in Defense of Women" (1059-62); from Book 12 (1606-10) |
| T 10 | backgrounds (1767-74); Bacon (1257-76); Hobbes (1658-67); Locke (1755-61) |
| Th 12 | Restoration literature (1774-79); Dryden (1786-88), Mac Flecknoe (1815-21); "Song for St. Cecilia's Day" (1827-29); "The Secular Masque" (1834-37); literary criticism (1837-42) |
| T 17 | Behn, Oroonoko (1864-1910) |
| Th 19 | Oroonoko; Anne Finch (1991-93); Earl of Rochester (1989-91); Lady Montagu (2003-7) |
| T 24 | Eighteenth century (1779-86); Pope, The Rape of the Lock (2212-16, 2233-54); from An Essay on Man (2263-70) |
| Th 26 | THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY |
| T Dec. 1 | Swift, Gulliver's Travels, Parts I and II (2007-9; 2039-123) |
| Th 3 | Gulliver's Travels, Part IV (2136-81); A Modest Proposal (2183-87) |
| T 8 | NO CLASS |
| Th 10 | Johnson (2295-97): "On the Death of Dr. Robert Levet" (2307-8); "A Brief to Free A Slave" (2379-80); from the Dictionary (2386-92); from Lives of the Poets (2404-5); Boswell, from the Life of Johnson (2416-18, 2420-21, 2429-36); Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (2458-61) |
| M, Dec. 14: | PAPER DUE in my office by 10:00 a.m. |
| Th, Dec. 17: | FINAL EXAM, 6:00-8:00 p.m. |
Additional reading: see pages 2548-71 as needed for
summaries of both historical material (British coinage,
titles, rulers) and literary terminology.
Course requirements (ENG 321):
1) Journals/participation (20% of grade). For each
day's assignment you should write out a journal entry
before coming to class, recording your
responses/observations/questions on the material
assigned. It should be more than just a few sentences,
but not more than one page for each day. Since the
class is small, we will try to work from discussion
and questions as much as possible, so it's important
that you be prepared to contribute to class, and your
daily writing will function as a prompt to what sorts
of things we discuss. I will collect your journal
entries after each class and return them to you with
comments. At the end of the semester I will collect
all your journal contributions, and base your grade for
this part of the course in large part on them. If you
miss a class, turn in your journal comments on that
assignment the following period.
Note: this course is more a reading than a writing
course, and some of the reading is demanding. Please
bring to class any problems you're having at the level
of comprehending the text. Some of your journal
entries may involve questions about meaning at this
level, but don't give your journals over exclusively to
problems of that sort. I'll be very happy to work
with you outside of class if you feel you're struggling
with some of the material.
2) Quizzes or other short exercises (15%), a number
of which will be given -- announced or unannounced --
throughout the semester. If you happen to miss a day
when a quiz is given, it is your responsibility to
arrange with me to make it up before I hand the quizzes
back to the class. Once the quizzes have been
returned, no makeup is possible. In averaging your
grade for this part of the course I will drop the
lowest quiz grade.
3) Mid-term exam (20%), as listed on the syllabus.
It will cover the work of the first half of the course
and will include both essay and short-answer questions.
4) Final exam (20%), as listed on the syllabus. It
will cover the work of the second half of the course
and will include both essay and short-answer questions.
On both mid-term and final you will be held responsible
for all assigned readings and all material presented in
class.
5) Paper (25%). I will expect you to produce one
critical paper, about six pages long, on any one of the
works read in this class, or on a related work. You
could tackle some particular aspect of a long work that
was not treated substantially in class, or work in
detail with some material not read in class (e.g., one
or two of Sidney's sonnets that were not assigned).
You may take whatever approach you want to, but in
writing the paper be sure to make reference to
appropriate historical/contextual information from
class. You may want to develop a paper out of one of
your journal responses. All paper topics need to be
cleared with me by Nov. 24; papers are due on the
Monday of exam week at the latest. I will be happy to
discuss possible topics with you at any time and to
look at work in progress.
Note: I reserve the right to fail any student who
fails any of the above components or who misses five or
more classes.
Course requirements (ENG 500):
As above, but with a few additional readings and one
or two additional meetings with the instructor, and
with a more substantial paper required (10-12 pages,
involving some original research). The paper will
count one-third of the course grade, with the other
components proportionally reduced. You will need to
have cleared a topic with me by Nov. 24.