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Syllabus
Course Goals
To offer first-hand experience with a broad range of literary texts from the earlier British tradition.
To establish some acquaintance with the cultural and historical traditions of which these texts are a part.
To create a more acute awareness of the nature and function of the texts in relation to their various contexts.
To develop some familiarity with the scholarly literature on the texts.
To develop further critical skills for writing and speaking about literature.
To promote active engagement with literary texts, rather than simply passive reception of information about them.
Texts
Beowulf: A verse Translation . Trans. Seamus Heaney ( Norton Critical Editions)
Geoffrey Chaucer. Canterbury Tales Ed. Jill Mann (Penguin)
Pearl (edition to be determined)
Sir Thomas More. Utopia. Trans. Robert Adams (Norton Critical Editions)
Christopher Marlowe. Complete Plays. Ed. Romany & Lindsey. (Penguin)
Ben Jonson: Volpone and The Alchemist. (Dover)
Course Requirements
| Critical speculations |
30% |
| Critical papers |
30% |
| Research Project |
20% |
| Class Participation
|
20%
|
Critical speculations: Informal writing assignments will be made on a weekly basis. Students will be expected to turn in responses of at least 300 words for each assignment. These are not meant to be formal papers. Rather, they are exploratory exercises which will form the basis for class discussion.
Critical papers: Each student will write three medium-length (6-10 page) papers on one or more of the works covered in the class. A draft of the paper will be brought to class for comments, critique and discussion by the rest of the students in the class.
Research project: Each student will select, in consultation with the professor, one of the works from the class and will investigate the current state of scholarship on that work. S/he will present the results of this investigation in class. The intent of this presentation will be to familiarize the other students with relevant scholarship on the work, and to stimulate discussion on the critical issues raised.
Class Participation: Class participation is essential to the success of the course. Students will be evaluated on both the quantity and the quality of their participation on a day-to-day basis.
Attendance: Any absence in excess of three may result in a lowered final grade.
Academic Honesty: Students are expected to familiarize themselves with the academic honesty policies of the college and to adhere to them in work done for the course.
| Week | Topic | Assignment |
| 1 | Introduction to Old English literature | Old English readings (on Additional Readings page) |
| 2 | Old English poetry; Beowulf | Beowulf |
| 3 | Beowulf | |
| 4 | Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales | Canterbury Tales |
| 5 | Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales | |
| 6 | Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales | |
| 7 | Pearl | Pearl |
| 8 | Pearl | Forum; read Mabinogion (on Additional Readings page) |
| 9 | Sir Thomas More, Utopia | Utopia |
| 10 | Sir Thomas More, Utopia | |
| 11 | Renaissance lyric poetry | Read Philip Sidney, Fulke Greville, Mary (Sidney) Herbert, Spenser (on Additional Readings page) |
| 12 | Renaissance lyric poetry | Read Shakespeare (on Additional Readings page) |
| 13 | Marlowe, Dr. Faustus | Dr. Faustus |
| 14 | Jonson, The Alchemist | The Alchemist |