DESCRIPTION
| REQUIREMENTS | TEXTS
| SCHEDULE | TOOLS
| QUIZZES
This
course examines the literature of the Old, Middle, and Early Modern English
periods and the contexts (literary, historical, social) that informed it.
Some texts that we will read include Beowulf, Chaucer's "General
Prologue" to
the Canterbury Tales, the "Pardoner's Prologue and Tale," Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight, selections from Morte Darthur,
Book 1 of Spenser's
Fairie Queene, Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Books I & IX
of Paradise
Lost, extracts from Pepys' Diary, and Gulliver's Travels.
Evaluation will be based on translation critiques, quizzes, a paper/project,
midterm, and final exam.
Texts
Norton
Anthology of English Literature 1a+1b+1c + the (free) Beowulf
Prose Norton Critical Edition 2e [ISBN for the bundle is 978-0-393-16893-8]
(These will be referred to as "NAEL" and "Donaldson," respectively.)
Requirements
Plagiarism
is a violation of the Tech
Honor System and, more to the point, a violation of intellectual integrity.
Such violations will be subject to the severest academic penalties. DON'T
DO IT! If you don't understand what plagiarism is, be sure to visit
the link at the head of this paragraph. If you still have questions, or
have questions at anytime during the semester, ASK BEFORE YOU TURN IN YOUR
WORK.
If you need adaptations or accommodations because of a disability
(learning disability, attention deficit disorder, psychological, physical,
etc.), if you have emergency medical information to share with me, or if
you need special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please
make an appointment with me as soon as possible.
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Schedule
[Readings
are to be done before class on the date they are assigned]
Revised Sept. 30 to update page references to NAEL 8th ed.
| Tues.,
Aug. 24 |
Introductory
sort of stuff: resources, language, etc. |
| Thur.,
Aug. 26 |
NAEL
1a, pp. 1-23; Donaldson, vii-xiv; Beowulf (through line
835, or p. 16 in the Donaldson translation) |
| Tues.,
Aug. 30 |
Finish
Beowulf |
| Thurs.,
Sept. 2 |
Discuss
translations of Beowulf and first translation critique
assignment |
| Tues.,
Sept. 7 |
No
Class; Quiz
1 due by midnight (See Scholar "Tests and Quizzes"); read
NAEL 1a, pp. 24-7: "Cędmon's Hymn"; begin Sir Gawain: pp. 160-72,
through line 490 |
| Thurs.,
Sept. 9 |
No
Class; Finish
reading Sir Gawain; work on Translation
Critique |
| Tues.,
Sept. 14 |
Discuss Sir Gawain |
| Thurs.,
Sept. 16 |
Quiz
2 due by midnight;
begin Chaucer's General
Prologue:
pp. 213-29, through line 446 |
| Tues.,
Sept. 21 |
Finish
the General Prologue;
Quiz 3 due by midnight |
| Thurs.,
Sept. 23 |
Pardoner's
Prologue & Tale; first translation critique due
by midnight |
| Tues.,
Sept. 28 |
Morte
Darthur, pp. 438-56 |
| Thurs.,
Sept. 30 |
NAEL 1b, The
English Bible (617-22); "The First Examination
of Anne Askew" and John Foxe (628-32); Ascham, "The
Schoolmaster" (641-45). |
| Tues.,
Oct. 5 |
Spenser's Faerie
Queene, pp. 705-8; 714-42 (Headnote, first two cantos of
Book I); "Roadmap" to
Book I of the Faerie Queene";
Quiz 4 due by midnight |
| Wed.,
Oct. 6 |
Take-home
midterm due by midnight |
| Thurs.,
Oct. 7 |
Faerie
Queene, pp. 742-820 (Book I, cantos 3-9) |
| Fri.,
Oct. 8 |
Fall
Break |
| Tues.,
Oct. 12 |
Faerie
Queene, pp. 820-56 (to end of Book 1) |
| Thurs.,
Oct. 14 |
Sidney, The
Defense of Poesy, headnotes (pp. 947-8; 953-4); pp. 954-75;
Marlowe, headnote (pp. 1002-4); "The Passionate Shepherd
to His Love" (1022);
Quiz 5 due by midnight |
| Tues.,
Oct. 19 |
Shakespeare's
Sonnets, NAEL 1b, pp. 1058-77
|
| Thurs.,
Oct. 21 |
Twelfth
Night pp.
1077-1108 (Acts 1 & 2); second
translation critique due by midnight |
| Tues.,
Oct. 26 |
Quiz
6 due by midnight; Twelfth
Night (finish)
|
| Thurs.,
Oct. 28 |
Video
clips of Twelfth Night |
| Tues.,
Nov. 2 |
NAEL 1b,
1234-62; Donne, "The Flea" (1263), "Song" (1264-5), "The
Bait" (1274), "Elegy 19. To His Mistress Going to Bed" (1283-4);
Aemilia Lanyer (1313-14); "Eve's Apology in Defense of Women" (1317-19), "The
Description of Cooke-ham" (1319-24); Ben Jonson (1324-6); "To
Penshurst" (1434-6); "To the Memory of William Shakespeare" (1444-6); NAEL 1b,
Andrew Marvell (1695-7); "To His Coy Mistress" (1703-4) |
| Thurs.,
Nov. 4 |
NAEL 1b,
John Milton, (1785-9); Paradise
Lost, Book 1: pp. 1831-50 |
| Tues.,
Nov. 9 |
NAEL 1b,
Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 9: pp.
1973-98;
Quiz 7 due by midnight |
| Thurs.,
Nov. 11 |
NAEL 1c,
pp. 2057-82; Dryden (2083-4), "In Praise of Chaucer" (2132); Pepys'
Diary, (2133-42); John Locke (2151-2); "Concerning
Human Understanding" (2152-5);
Samuel Johnson (2664-6); "A Dictionary of the English Language" (2749-55); "The
Preface to Shakespeare" (2755-66) |
| Tues.,
Nov. 16 |
Swift
(2301-3), Gulliver's
Travels, pp. 2323-56 |
| Thurs.,
Nov. 18 |
Swift, Gulliver's
Travels, pp. 2356-405; Quiz
8 due by midnight |
| Nov.
20-26
|
Thanksgiving
Break
|
| Tues.,
Nov. 30 |
Swift, Gulliver's
Travels, pp. 2405-49 |
| Wed.,
Dec. 1 |
Term
papers/projects due |
| Thurs.,
Dec. 2 |
Quiz
9 due by midnight;
finish Gulliver's
Travels; Dream of the Rood (NAEL 1a, pp. 27-9). |
| Tues.,
Dec. 7 |
Evaluations;
Final Exam info. |
| Tuesday,
December 14: 10:05AM-12:05PM |
Final
Exam
|
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Tools
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Translation
Critiques
Since much of what we read
in the early part of this class is translated from an early form of English
into a modern equivalent, it is worth considering, I think, what that means:
on the plus side, this makes your access to those texts easier and expedites
your reading of the material. But there is always a trade-off involved in
reading a translated text, and these excercises are intended to make you more
aware of these consequences.
We will practice for these
by looking at several translations of a passage from Beowulf and
the "original." The two texts you will write on will be Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight and early English translations of the Bible.
Your critiques should be 2.5-3 pp. each and consider issues such as word
choice (does a particular word or phrase constrain meaning in a particular
way, provide greater resonance or ambiguity, or what?); reflection of poetic
devices in the original (where appropriate: e.g., rhyme, alliteration); syntax
(the organization of words into phrases and sentences); clarity of expression.
For the Bible passages you won't really have an "original" to work
from, so you will have to look closely at what the passages have in common
and consider the impact of the ways in which they vary.
In evaluating your critiques,
I will look at how well you frame your discussion (thesis statement), its
organization, your use of specific detail to support and illustrate the assertions
of your thesis, and the quality of your own writing (cohesiveness, word choice,
sentence structure, absence of grammatical and mechanical problems). More
details as we get closer to the first assignment...
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Quizzes
The quizzes for this class
are available through the Scholar
site for
our class. You will have two opportunities to take a quiz, with the highest
score being the one recorded as your grade, but note that the quizzes are
compiled from question pools and the likelihood of having the same quiz
twice is generally remote. Quizzes are worth a maximum of 5 points each;
I will drop the three
lowest scores (or as many as there might end up being over the six that will
be counted) . Any quizzes taken after the day and time the quiz is due will
receive no higher than half credit. Be
sure to click on the "Submit for grading" button at the bottom of the
quiz!
Here
is a tentative description of what the quizzes will cover:
Quiz
1 covers the Introductory Material
in NAEL 1a, Beowulf.
Quiz
2 covers "Cædmon's Hymn" and Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight.
Quiz
3 covers Chaucer's General Prologue, and the Pardoner's Prologue
and Tale.
Quiz
4 covers the Morte Darthure, NAEL
1b, pp. xxxvi-1, pp. 538-542;
547-553; 565-567.
Quiz
5 covers The Faerie Queene, Book 1; Sidney (933-4; 935-54);
Marlowe (970-1;989-90).
Quiz
6 covers Twelfth Night .
Quiz
7 covers the Donne, Lanyer, and Johnson readings (NAEL 1b, pp. 1209-35;
1236; 1237-8; 1256-7; 1281-2; 1287-92; 1292-4; 1399-1401; 1414-16; 1684-5;
1691-2); John Milton (1771-74); Paradise Lost, Books 1 and 9.
Quiz
8 covers NAEL 1c, "Introduction:
(pp. 2045-70); Dryden (2071-2); "In Praise of Chaucer" (2121-2); Pepys'
Diary,
(2122-31); Locke (2145-6); "Concerning Human Understanding"
(2146-50); Johnson (2660-2); "A Dictionary of the English Language"
(2719-25); "The Preface to Shakespeare" (2725-36); Gulliver's
Travels, pp. 2329-64.
Quiz
9 covers Gulliver's Travels, pp. 2364-2479.
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| DESCRIPTION | REQUIREMENTS | TEXTS | SCHEDULE | TOOLS | QUIZZES
