ENG 2223.002: British Literature I

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ENG 2223.002: British Literature I

This class is cross-listed w/ HON 3233.002. Credit cannot be earned for both ENG 2223 and HON 3233.

Spring 2010

Monday 2:00-4:45 PM

MB 1.208

Instructor: Dr. Bernadette Andrea

Office: MB 2.470

Email:

Phone: (210) 458-5339

Office Hours: Monday, 12:00 – 1:30 PM, and by appointment

Course Description: This course surveys British literary and cultural texts from the medieval to the early modern period, roughly from the seventh century through the seventeenth century. This historical sweep includes landmarks in the British literary tradition, such as Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, Donne, and Milton. The course also includes newly recovered women’s writing from this period, and challenges the relatively recent category of the “literary” by covering religious writing, travelogues, and popular pamphlets. We will approach this fascinating range of early British writing from textual, historical, and comparative perspectives. This course thus aims to enrich your understanding of early British literature in its full scope and to help you hone your critical reading and writing skills as you respond to the texts and contexts that constitute this tradition.

Required Textbook: These texts will be available at the UTSA Bookstore, although they can be purchased elsewhere. All students are required to obtain these texts and to bring them to class.

Longman Anthology of British Literature, Volume I, The: The Middle Ages through The Eighteenth Century, 4th edition, 2010. (Be sure to obtain this edition.)

I have ordered a package from the publisher that includes a free copy of Shakespeare’s Othello, which we will use in our class.

Recommended: I recommend the following web sites for reliable background information on the English Renaissance:

Broadview Anthology of British Literature http://broadviewpress.com/BABL/

The Queen Elizabeth I Society http://research.uvu.edu/Moss/Home.html

Luminarium: An Anthology of English Literature http://www.luminarium.org/

Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/

The Norton Anthology of English Literature http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/17century/welcome.htm

For all students: I recommend that you obtain the most recent edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. For honors students: All written assignments for this course must follow MLA guidelines for mechanics of writing, format of the research paper, and documentation. If you are using another edition, you must consult with me first.

Course Schedule: This schedule is subject to change as the class unfolds; all changes will be discussed in class; all students are responsible for keeping abreast of these changes.

Class Meetings
(M 2:00-4:45) / Required Readings
(All page numbers refer to the Longman Anthology, 4th edition) / Recommended Readings / Due Dates for Assignments
(See Assignment Sequence below for more details.)
January 11 / Syllabus
January 1 / MLK Day
(No Class)
January 25 / Beowulf (32-111) / “The Middle Ages” (2-32)
February 1 / Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (219-77)
Sir Thomas Malory, Morte Darthur (277-312) / “Perspectives: Arthurian Myth in the History of Britain” (182-99)
February 8 / Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales (312-58; 375-403)
February 15 / Julian of Norwich (480-501)
Margery Kempe (529-49)
Christine de Pizan (613-20) / “Perspectives: Ethnic and Religious Encounters” (153-68) / Unit Exam #1
February 22 / Sir Thomas More, Utopia (715-89) / “The Early Modern Period” (622-49)
March 1 / “The English Sonnet and Sonnet Sequences” (665-97)
March 8 / Christopher Marlowe, The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus (1091; 1110-60)
March 15-20 / UTSA Spring Break
March 22 / William Shakespeare, Othello (1199-1202; 1272-1359) / “Perspectives: England, Britain, and the World” (1173-99)
March 29 / John Donne (1586-1609)
Mary Wroth (1609-17) / “Perspectives: The Royal Society and the New Science” (2039-58) / Unit Exam #2
April 5 / Library Assignment (No Class)
April 12 / Library Assignment (No Class)
April 19 / John Milton, Paradise Lost (1698; 1726-47) / “Perspectives: The Civil War, or the Wars of Three Kingdoms” (1678-98) / Abstract of Final Paper Due (students in Honors 3233 only)
April 26 / Aphra Behn, Oroonoko (2125 -26; 2137-78) / “The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century” (1980-2009) / Annotated Bibliography for Final Paper Due (students in Honors 3233 only)
May 6 1:30-4:00 PM / Final Exam (in regular classroom) / Final Exam (students in English 2223 only);
Final Paper Due (students in Honors 3233 only)

Assignment Sequence: You will be evaluated in this class on a series of in-class writing assignments (distributed and completed in class, and based on the required readings for the day); two unit exams (involving short answer, identification, and essay responses based on the readings in each unit); and a final exam (with the same structure as the unit exams, but covering material from all three units). Each exam is worth 25% of your final grade; in-class writing assignments will be averaged for the remaining 25% of your final grade. I use a standard grade scale, which I will post for your reference. Please note that neither instructors nor office staff can report grades by telephone, mail, email, or fax.

Students enrolled in the Honors section will write a seminar paper in several stages in lieu of the final exam. These stages include a 1-2 page abstract; an annotated bibliography of secondary sources; and a 10-12 page final paper. Students will be required to meet with me at least once with a draft of their paper, although they are encourage to see me more frequently.

Honors 3233 students only:

·  Abstract for final paper:

o  One- to two-pages (not including heading with name, instructor, class, date);

o  Proposes a thesis (what you plan to argue), 2) outlines your evidence (from the texts and from supporting sources, which could include literary, historical, theoretical, and other forms of criticism), and 3) suggests how you will develop your paper, including further research, questions you plan to address, preliminary conclusions, etc.;

o  You must analyze at least three of the texts we have covered in this course, with at least one of the texts from the final unit; all references must be to the selections in the Longman Anthology, 4th ed.;

o  5% of final grade.

·  Annotated bibliography of secondary sources:

o  At least five items related to your final paper (substantial articles or book chapters, but not short book reviews, abstracts, introductions, etc.);

o  Use the UTSA Library Catalog and the databases listed by the UTSA Library — http://lib.utsa.edu/Databases/?utm_source=homepage — to ensure that your sources are scholarly (i.e. “blind” Google searches are not reliable and Wikipedia is not acceptable). Electronic sources must be documented using MLA style;

o  Each item should be listed according to MLA guidelines, with a short summary of the work following each listing (I will post a guide to annotated bibliographies to assist you). This means you must read each article or book chapter prior to preparing your annotated bibliography;

o  5 % of final grade

·  Final research paper:

o  Ten- to twelve-pages, not including list of Works Cited (MLA format) in page count;

o  Develops thesis proposed in your abstract, incorporating my feedback and your further research;

o  Evaluated for content (argument, research), structure (complete, coherent), style (clear, correct);

o  You must include your graded abstract and annotated bibliography with your final research paper; if you want to receive your final paper back with comments, you should also include a self-address, sufficiently stamped envelope;

o  15% of final grade.

These assignments must be in MLA Style, using 12-point font (Times or Courier), one-inch margins, double spaced, etc. They must be submitted by 5:00 PM on the day they are due (see Course Schedule above). No late assignments will be accepted. These assignments must be submitted as hard copies; do not email as attachments.

Policies: Our classroom policies are based on department, college, and university policies. They are meant to optimize the learning experience for each class member. If you have any questions or comments about these policies, please do not hesitate to speak with me.

·  Attendance: This course assumes an interactive approach in its structure, which builds each class upon previous classes, and in its presentation, which requires engaged participation from all members of the class. Your presence is essential to the success of this course, and therefore to your success in it. Hence, attendance at all class sessions is required; unexcused absences (including habitual tardiness) will result a 1% reduction of your grade for each class hour missed. Valid excuses for missing class include documented medical reasons, authorized university activities, and established religious holidays (“Class Attendance Policies,” UTSA Handbook of Operating Procedures). If you must be absent for a legitimate reason, you are required to contact me before your absence to have it excused or to provide documentation afterwards. You are responsible for making up any work missed, and must consult me as soon as possible about making arrangements to do so (i.e., you will not be able to make up accumulated missed assignments at the end of the semester).

·  Classroom Environment: The following policy is drawn from the Provost’s statement on “Civility in the Classroom”: “Students are expected to assist in maintaining a classroom environment that is conducive to learning. To assure all students have the opportunity to gain from time spent in class, students are prohibited from engaging in any form of distraction. Inappropriate behavior in the classroom shall result, minimally, in a request to leave class.” Our goal is to create a classroom that fosters mutual respect among all participants. We may have differences of interests, approaches, ideologies, politics, academic experience, and personal backgrounds. However, we will seek to engage these differences from intellectually open and informed perspectives, and refrain from disruptive behaviors such as persistent ringing of cell phones or beepers, inappropriate challenges to the professor’s authority, excessive tardiness or leaving class early, making offensive remarks, missing deadlines, prolonged chatting, reading newspapers during class, sleeping, talking out of turn, dominating discussion, shuffling backpacks and notebooks, and overt inattentiveness (all examples listed in the Provost’s statement on “Civility in the Classroom”). Naturally, if you have a legitimate reason for being late, leaving class early, or missing a deadline, you should inform me in advance so we can make alternative arrangements. If you have concerns about the course, the instructor, or other students, you are invited to express your concerns in a constructive manner to me. I am open to suggestions at any point in the semester about modifying the course to best suit the participants’ needs and interests.

·  Disability Services: Support services, including registration assistance and equipment, are available to students with documented disabilities through the Office of Disabled Student Services (DSS), MS 2.03.19. Students are encouraged to contact that office at 458-4157 prior to starting classes to make arrangements, though they can contact the office at any time.

·  Electronic Equipment: Laptops are permitted in the classroom only to take notes or to consult electronic versions of required texts for the class and only with the explicit permission of the instructor. Students who elect to take notes with their laptop must sit so the screen is visible to the instructor; they may also be asked to forward their notes to the instructor. Laptops are not to be used for activities unrelated to the course (websurfing, checking email, working on assignments related to other classes, etc.). Such activities interfere with the classroom experience for everybody, particularly in a seminar setting. Students who engage in non-class related activities will not be allowed to use their laptop in subsequent classes and may face a reduction of their grade. This policy relates to similar electronic devices, including cell phones (no texting during class, etc.).

Please let me know in advance if you are recording the lecture. This syllabus cannot be posted on the internet or otherwise distributed without the instructor’s written permission nor can any recordings of the lectures.

·  Plagiarism and Collusion: UTSA defines “scholastic dishonesty” as including but not limited to “cheating, plagiarism, collusion, falsifying academic records, and any act designed to give unfair advantage to the student (such as, but not limited to, submission of essentially the same written assignment for two courses without the prior permission of the instructor, providing false or misleading information in an effort to receive a postponement or an extension on a test, quiz, or other assignment), or the attempt to commit such an act.” For more details, see the UTSA Student Code of Conduct at http://www.utsa.edu/infoguide/appendices/b.html.