ENGLISH 3310: ENGLISH LITERATURE BEFORE 1790

FRANK GRADY FALL 2019

461 LUCAS MW 11:00-12:15

516-5510 / fgrady@umsl.edu JC Penney 63

M 2:30-4:30, W 1:00-2:30 [SEC. 001, #14994]

& by appointment

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 or 10^th edition (Norton, 2013 & 2018; hence NA).

· Shakespeare, William. King Lear. Ed. Grace Toppolo. Norton Critical Edition (Norton, 2007).

Additonal Resources:

· Though relevant documents (e.g., supplementary readings, ssay topics) will be posted on Canvas, the main course page, which we will use in class every day, resides at http://www.umsl.edu/~gradyf/F19SYLL3310.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 https://digital.wwnorton.com/englishlit10major, 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 metabolized 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 and here.)

· Take two mini-midterms (10% each) and one final exam (10%), and write one imitation (15%) and two longer four- to six-page essays (15 % and 20%). The final 15% will be based on a combination of quizzes (there’s that word again!) and a trio of in-class summaries. [See the attached assignment summary sheet for an overview.] 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:

WEEK	DATE	READING	ASSIGNMENTS
1	M AUG 19	Introduction; The Wanderer (NA 110-13)
	W AUG 21	Anglo-Saxon Literature (NA 6-11); The Battle of Maldon [Canvas]
2	M AUG 26	Beowulf ll. 1-1250 (NA 37-70)	Summaries due Quiz forecast:
	W AUG 28	Caedmon’s Hymn (NA 30-33); The Dream of the Rood (NA 33-37);	Quiz forecast:
3	M SEP 2	NO CLASS—LABOR DAY
	W SEP 4	“Anglo-Norman Literature” (NA 10-13); “Romance” (NA 115-16); Marie de France, Lanval (NA 116-3)	Summaries due Quiz forecast:
4	M SEP 9	“Middle English Literature…” (NA 14-20) and “Medieval English” (NA 20-25); Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Fitt i (NA 140-53)	Quiz forecast:
	W SEP 11	Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Fitts ii-iv (NA 153-95)	Summaries due Quiz forecast:
5	M SEP 16	Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (cont.)	Quiz forecast:
	W SEP 18	Medieval and Renaissance Drama: “Mystery Plays” (NA 308-09); Play of Abraham and Isaac [Canvas]; The Elizabethan Theater (NA 383-89);	Summaries due Quiz forecast: J
6	M SEP 23	“Christopher Marlowe” (NA 511-12);Marlowe, Doctor Faustus, Scenes 1-3 (NA 513-23) “William Shakespeare” (NA 550-54); King Lear, Act 1	Summaries due Quiz forecast:
	W SEP 25	King Lear, Acts 2-3; Mini-Midterm #1	Summaries due Quiz forecast:
			FRI SEP 27 First Essay due date
7	M SEP 30	King Lear, Acts 4-5	Summaries due Quiz forecast:
	W OCT 2	King Lear; excerpts from Holinshed (KL 148-50) and Geoffrey of Monmouth (KL 162-65); Medieval to Renaissance: “The Sixteenth Century, 1485-1603” (NA 359-83)	Quiz forecast:
8	M OCT 7	“Sir Philip Sidney” (NA 503-04); Sidney, Defence of Poesy [Canvas] Castiglione/Hoby, The Courtier [Canvas]; Gosson, from The School of Abuse	Quiz forecast:
	W OCT 9	Sidney, cont.; 16th- and 17th-century sonnets (poems tba) Copia exercise results	Quiz forecast:
9	M OCT 14	TBA	Quiz forecast:?
	W OCT 16	Sonnets (cont.)	Quiz forecast:
10	M OCT 21	John Donne (poems tba); “John Donne” (NA 684-86); “The Early Seventeenth Century” I (NA 655-72)	Quiz forecast:
	M OCT 23	The Revolution; “Early Seventeenth Century” II (NA 672-81); Mini-Midterm II	Quiz forecast:J
			FRI OCT 25 Second Essay due date
1	M OCT 28	“John Milton” (NA 789-92); Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 1 (NA 820-41)	Quiz forecast:
	W OCT 30	Imitation workshop	Quiz forecast: J
12	M NOV 4	Paradise Lost, Book 2 & Book 3 (NA 841-77)	Summaries due Quiz forecast:
	W NOV 6	Paradise Lost, Book 4 (NA 877-93)	Summaries due Quiz forecast:
			FRI NOV 8 Imitations due
13	M NOV 11	Paradise Lost, Book 5 & Book 8 (NA 893-910, plus Canvas supplements)	Summaries due Quiz forecast:
	W NOV 13	Paradise Lost, Book 9 (NA 911-36)	Summaries due Quiz forecast:
14	M NOV 18	Paradise Lost, Book 10 & Book 12 (NA 936-53, plus Canvas supplements) · Some additional Book 10 passages: God to the Angels / Adam and the Son · Some additional passages: Prevenient grace / Michael and Adam / Adam on the Flood	Summaries due Quiz forecast:
	W NOV 20	Paradise Lost, conclusions (+1)	Quiz forecast:
M NOV 25 & W NOV 27—THANKSGIVING BREAK; NO CLASS
15	M DEC 2	“Restoration and Eighteenth Century” (NA 955-83); “Alexander Pope” (NA 1266-70); Pope, The Rape of the Lock (NA 1286-1305)	Quiz forecast:
	W DEC 4	Pope, cont. ; Conclusions	Summaries due Quiz forecast: J
			FRI DEC 6 Third Essay due date
	M DEC 9	Final Exam, 10:00AM -12:00PM

Students with disabilities who believe that they may need accommodations in this class are encouraged to contact the Disability Access Services Office in 131 Millennium Student Center at 516-6554 as soon as possible to ensure that such accommodations are arranged in a timely fashion.