ENGLISH 2310: ENGLISH LITERATURE BEFORE 1790
FRANK GRADY FALL
2017
461 LUCAS TTh 12:30-1:45
516-5510 / fgrady@umsl.edu Clark
409
T&TH 3:00-4:30 & by appointment [SEC.
001, #13149]
In this course we will be reading, writing about and discussing
"representative works of selected major authors" from the tenth
century through the seventeenth. While
surveying the first eight centuries of English poetry, prose and drama, we'll
be asking what makes some works "representative" and some writers
"major," and what these works want of their readers--not so much what
they want us to know, but what they want us to do, what they want to do to us,
and why we might sometimes want to resist their designs for us. The author of The Battle of Maldon might assume that
you are a tenth-century, land-owning, English-speaking, Viking-hating patriot,
but you're not, and while there can certainly be some literary pleasure derived
from pretending for a little while that you are, there's often more to be
gained from resisting that assumption.
Thus we will be exploring the context as well as the content of the
texts we study, so as to reveal and understand the things they take for granted
that might or might not be true for us today.
We’ll also practice using some of the conventional tools of literary
analysis—formal, historical, and theoretical.
REQUIRED TEXTS:
·
The
Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Major Authors,
Volume 1. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt, et. al. 9th edition (Norton, 2013; hence NA).
·
Shakespeare, William. King Lear. Ed. Grace Toppolo.
Norton Critical Edition (Norton, 2007).
Additonal Resources:
·
Though relevant documents (e.g., essay topics) will be posted on
Canvas, the main course page will be at http://www.umsl.edu/~gradyf/F17SYLL2310.htm,
which can also be reached through my home page (www.umsl.edu/~gradyf).
·
Norton maintains a very useful web page designed to supplement our use
of the Anthology at http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/, to which we will make frequent
reference; in fact some of the texts we’ll be reading are stored in their
on-line archive.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
(What I want you to do):
·
Come to class, and come on
time. Arriving late is not an endearing
habit, and more than four unexcused absences (almost 15% of our brief semester)
will have an adverse effect on your grade.
Absences mean you will certainly miss some quizzes, which cannot be made
up. I take attendance every day.
·
Keep up with the reading. This won’t always be easy; this is a survey
course, which means that we'll be moving fairly quickly ( see “eight
centuries,” above) through a heavy and largely unfamiliar reading load, one
that cannot be adequately digested in an hour before class. Try to budget your time, and then try to add a
little more to the budget, whenever you can. Remember that we are not just reading the texts assigned, but studying them, so
·
Think about the reading and be
prepared to discuss it: about what happens in it, and to whom it happens; about
what it assumes that you know about the world and about how people ought to
behave (and how they actually do); about what it thinks is interesting, how it
tries to make you feel, and whether it succeeds; about what form it implies
that writing should take and how it tries to distinguish or beautify itself.
And please learn the names of major characters. (Further details on the English
Department’s goals for survey courses can be found here.)
·
Take two mini-midterms (10% each)
and one final exam (15%), and write one imitation (15%) and two longer four- to
six-page essays (20% each). The final
10% will be based on a combination of quizzes (there’s that word again!) and in-class
summaries. You will have three
chances to write the two longer papers, and I will distribute suggested topics
about ten days in advance of each due date (though you will not be limited to
those topics). Plagiarism on papers,
electronic or the old-fashioned kind, will mean an instant F for the
assignment, my undying disapprobation, and possible disciplinary action by the
university; please refer to this site for further
details, and please please
please ask me if you have any questions.
TENTATIVE
SYLLABUS:
T AUG 22 Introduction; The
Wanderer (NA 107-10)
TH
Aug 24 Anglo-Saxon
Literature (NA 6-10); The
Battle of Maldon [Canvas]
T AUG 29 Beowulf
ll. 1-1250 (NA 36-68)
TH
AUG 31
Caedmon’s
Hymn (NA 29-32); The Dream of the Rood (NA 32-36); “Anglo-Norman
Literature” (NA 10-13)
T SEP 5 Marie de France, Lanval (NA 120-34)
TH
SEP 7 “Middle English Literature…” (NA 13-18) and
“Medieval English” (NA 19-23); Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Fitt i (NA
135-47)
T SEP 12 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Fitts ii-iv (NA 147-88)
TH SEP 14 Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight (cont.)
T SEP 19 Medieval and Renaissance
Drama: “Mystery Plays” (NA 299-300); Play of Abraham and Isaac
[Canvas]; The
Elizabethan Theater (NA 373-79); Mini-Midterm
#1
TH
SEP 21
Marlowe, Doctor Faustus,
Scenes 1-3 (NA
500-10) “William Shakespeare” (NA 535-39); King Lear, Act 1(3-32)
*M SEP 25 FIRST
ESSAY DUE DATE * A
brief guide to quoting from the text & other relevant items
T
SEP 26 King
Lear, Acts 2-3 (33-74)
TH
SEP 28 King
Lear, Acts 4-5 (75-115)
T
OCT 3 King Lear; excerpts from Holinshed (KL 148-50) and
Geoffrey of Monmouth (KL 162-65); Medieval to Renaissance:
“The Sixteenth Century, 1485-1603” (NA 349-73)
TH
OCT 5 Sidney, Defence
of Poesy [Canvas]
Castiglione/Hoby, The
Courtier [Canvas];
Gosson,
from The School of Abuse
T OCT 10 Sidney,
cont.; 16th- and 17th-century sonnets (poems tba)
TH OCT 12 sonnets
(cont.)
T OCT 17 John Donne (poems tba); “John Donne” (NA 666-68); “The
Early Seventeenth Century” I (NA 637-54)
TH OCT 19 The Revolution; “Early
Seventeenth Century” II (NA 654-63); Mini-Midterm
II
*M OCT 23 SECOND
ESSAY DUE DATE *
T OCT 24 Imitation
workshop
TH OCT 26 Milton, Paradise
Lost, Book 1 (NA 799-819)
T OCT 31 Paradise
Lost, Book
2 & Book
3 (NA
819-54)
TH NOV 2 Paradise Lost, Book
4 (NA 854-70)
T NOV 7 Paradise
Lost, Book
5 & Book
8 (NA
870-86, plus Canvas supplements)
Some
additional Book 5 passages: God
to Raphael / Adam and
Raphael / God’s joke
/Satan and Abdiel
TH NOV 9 Paradise
Lost, Book
9 (NA
887-911)
T NOV 14 Paradise
Lost, Book
10 (NA 911-24)
Some
additional Book 10 passages: God to the Angels
/ Adam and the Son
TH NOV 16 Paradise
Lost, Book
12 (NA
924-29) and conclusions
Some
additional passages: Prevenient
grace / Michael and
Adam / Adam on
the Flood
T NOV 21
} Thanksgiving Break: No Class
TH NOV 23
T NOV 28 “Restoration and Eighteenth
Century” (NA 931-58)
TH NOV 30 Pope, The Rape
of the Lock (NA 1226-44)
T DEC 5 Pope, cont.
TH DEC 7 Conclusions
*F DEC 8 THIRD
ESSAY DUE DATE*
TH DEC 14 FINAL
EXAM 10:00-12:00
Students with disabilities who believe that they may
need accommodations in this class are encouraged to contact the Disability Access Services
Office in 144 Millennium Student Center at 516-6554 as soon as possible to ensure that such accommodations
are arranged in a timely fashion.