English 205

Backgrounds in British Literature to 1700

Mon/Weds 2-3:50, Craig-Lee 252

Professor Russell A. Potter rpotter@ric.edu

Poets that lasting Marble seek Must carve in Latine, or in Greek;

We write in Sand, our language grows, And, like the Tide, our Work o’erflows

-- Edmund Waller

This course will both survey the shifting sands of the English canon -- paying homage alike to well-established monuments and the odd, forgotten Ozymandius -- and investigate the strange and diverse forces through which canons themselves take shape. We will begin by looking at the history of English as an academic field, and the cultural histories that have brought the “canon wars” to their current, uneasy truce. We will read a wide variety of primary texts from the full range of historical periods up until 1700, along with selected commentaries and a few brief supplemental texts. Weekly response essays of one page each will be the basis for our class discussions; there will also be two formal literary essays on selected texts or themes. Our textbook is the Norton Anthology of English Literature, Ninth Edition, which is also available in three sub-volumes A, B, and C (we’ll be using volumes A and B heavily, but only the first part of C).

ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION Regular attendance and class participation are required; more than two absences or two missing responses will have an adverse effect on your final grade. Class participation is vital, the more so as some of the texts we’ll be reading will take some considerable effort to fully access and understand.

ACADEMIC HONESTY

In accordance with College and departmental policy, I take instances of academic dishonesty very seriously. Any instance of plagiarism, which is the use of texts written by others without appropriate credit – and therefore claimed as one’s own – will result in an automatic grade of “F” on a written paper. All instances of academic dishonesty are reported to the Chair of the department.

COURSE SCHEDULE

WEEK I – (Jan. 18). Wednesday: Introduction to course – The brief history of "English Literature"

as a field. WEEK II – (Jan. 23, 25) Monday: Wednesday: Caedmon’s Hymn, The Dream of the Rood (with

online edition of DOTR via blog link). Wednesday: Beowulf, Prologue, “The Hero Comes to Heorot,” “Feast at Heorot” lines 1-661).

WEEK III – (Jan. 30, Feb. 1) Monday: Beowulf, “The Fight with Grendel,” first part of "Celebration

at Heorot" (lines 662-914). Wendesday: Beowulf, Second part of “Celebration at Heorot” (lines 915-1061; skipping Hnæf’s song; 1158-1250).

WEEK IV (Feb. 6, 8) Monday: “Another Attack,” “Beowulf fights Grendel’s mother,” “Another

Celebration at Heorot” (1250-1798). Wednesday: Monday: Introduction to Chaucer's English. Week V (Feb. 13, 15) Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, General Prologue, continued. Wednesday, finish

the General Prologue. WEEK VI – (Feb. 20, 22) Monday and Wednesday: “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue.” WEEK VII – (Feb. 27, March 1) Monday and Wednesday: Chaucer’s House of Fame. SPRING BREAK WEEK VIII (March 13, 15) Monday: Margery Kempe, excerpts from The Book of Margery Kempe.

Wednesday: Julian of Norwich, from Showings. Essay #1 Due Wednesday. WEEK IX – (March 20, 22). Monday: De Hæretico Comburendo, “The Dangers of the

Vernacular,” “Hoccleve on the Vernacular Bible”; Confession of Hawisa Mone, testimony of William Thorpe (blog links). Wednesday: Later controversies on Heresy and English scriptures. Readings: Comparative translations of I Corinthians 13; Tyndale, from The Obedience of a

Christian Man, Thomas More, “A Dialogue Concerning Heresies” (NAEL), License to Possess Heretical Books; Statute against public reading of the Great Bible (blog).

WEEK X – (March 27, 29) Monday: Skelton, Vppon a deedmans hed (blog link), excerpts from

Mannerly Margery Milk and Ale, from The Tunning of Elinour Rumming. Wednesday: E.K.’s preface to Spenser’s The Shepheardes Calendar, “To his Booke,” and “October.”

WEEK XI – (April 3, 5) Monday: Shakespeare, Selected Sonnets: 15, 18, 29, 71, 73, 129, 130, 144.

Wednesday: John Donne, “The Flea,” “Song (‘Go and catch a falling star’),” “The Sun Rising,” “Love’s Alchemy,” “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning.”

WEEK XII – (April 10, 12). Monday: Southwell, “The Burning Babe”; Marvell, “The Garden,” “To

his Coy Mistress”; Herrick, “On Julia’s Clothes.” Wednesday: Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progerss, “The Author’s Apology,” with discussion of visual adaptations of PP including The Grand Moving Panorama of Pilgrim’s Progress (blog links).

WEEK XIII – (April 17, 19) Monday: Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress, “Part I, First through Fourth

Stages (p. 42 in our e-book edition). Wednesday: Fourth through Eighth Stages (p. 91). WEEK XIV – (April 24, 26) Monday, Pilgrim’s Progress, pp. 92-120 (end). Wednesday: Milton,

“Lycidas” Final Paper due Wednesday.