English 2610 Course outline
Dr. Mary Keating
Office number: CC-222 2015/2016
Phone: 563-1623
E-mail:
Office Hours: MW 10:00 - 12:00
Thursday 10:30 - 11:30
English 2610 covers the British literary tradition from the Anglo-Saxon period to the Modern era. We will study various genres from the different periods of English literature, examine the evolution of those genres through the ages and the role of culture in canon formation, as well asanalyse the way in which historical context shapes literary trends and interpretation. We will also focus this year on the concept of identity through its manifestation and complex representations in literary works.
READING OUTLINE - FIRST TERM
Introduction: T.S. Eliot “Tradition and Individual Talent” (Moodle and text)
Anglo-Saxon Poetry: Beowulf
Medieval Narrative Poetry -- Courtly Love and the Chivalric Tradition
Marie de France’s Lanval
Geoffrey Chaucer –The Franklin’s Tale (e-text), The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale
Renaissance Poetry – 16th and 17th centuries
Early lyric and sonnet: Sir Thomas Wyatt – “Whoso list to hunt”, “Love that doth reign”; Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey – “Love, that doth reign”
Elizabeth I – “When I was fair and young”
Sonnet sequence: Edmund Spenser, Amoretti(student selections)
Sir Philip Sidney, Astrophil and Stella(student selections)
Wm. Shakespeare –Sonnets (student selections)
Pierre Ronsard – “When you are very old, by candle’s flame”
Michael Drayton – Sonnets 8, 11, 53 and 61
Pastoral tradition: Christopher Marlowe – “The Passionate Shepherd to his Love” and Sir Walter Raleigh – “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd”
Drama: Wm. Shakespeare, TBA
Metaphysical Poetry: John Donne – “The Flea”, “The Good-Morrow”, Elegy 19, Sonnets 5, 10, 13, 14; Andrew Marvell – “To His Coy Mistress”
Female Writers of the Renaissance: Amelia Lanyer – “Eve’s Apology in Defense of Women”
Late Seventh Century and Restoration Literature:
John Milton: Paradise Lostfrom Book I and IX(selections)
Katherine Philips: “A Married State”
Lady Mary Wroth: Sonnets (student selections)
Aphra Behn “The Disappointment”
Anne Finch – “The Spleen”
The Novella:Aphra Behn – Oroonoko
Eliza Haywood – Fantomina: or Love in a Maze
Satire: John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester – “A Satire against Reason and Mankind”
Johnathan Swift, “The Lady’s Dressing Room” and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s reply “The Reasons that…”
Lyric poetry: “Stella’s Birthday” (Swift)
Didactic Poetry An Essay on Man, Epistle I (Pope)
The essay: Samuel Johnson “On Fiction”
Nineteenth Century:
Anna Laetitia Barbauld: “Washing Day”, “The Rights of Woman”
Mary Wollstonecraft: from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
William Blake: Songs of Innocence and Experience (students’ choice)
William Wordworth: “The World is too much with us”, “Surprised by Joy” “The Solitary Reaper”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge: “Dejection: An Ode”, “Frost at Midnight”, “Kubla Khan”
P. B. Shelley: “Ozymandias”, “Mutability”
John Keats: “To Homer”, “When I have fears that I shall cease to be”, “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer”, “Ode on a Grecian Urn”. “To Melancholy”
Victorian Age
Alfred, Lord Tennyson: “The Lotus Eaters”, “The Lady of Shallot”
Robert Browning, “The Bishop Orders His Tomb”
Matthew Arnold: “Dover Beach” “The Scholar Gypsy”
Christina Rossetti: “In An Artist’s Studio”
The Novel:
Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Modern Age
A. E. Housman: “Terence, This is Stupid Stuff”
W. B. Yeats: “When you are old”, “Leda and the Swan”, “Sailing to Byzantium”
Virginia Woolf: “Professions for Women”
T. S. Eliot: “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, “Journey of the Magi”
W. H. Auden: “As I walked out one evening”, “Musée des Beaux Arts”, “In Memory of W. B. Yeats”
Eaven Boland: “Listen, this is the noise of myth” (handout)
Evaluation:
Short analysis and commentary: 20% (4 out of 5 commentaries, 5 points each)
First essay proposal and research plan: October 5th , 5%
First essay: October 31st, 10%
Second Essay: November 30th, 20%
Short in-class questions:5%
Christmas Exam:40%
The first term is worth 40% of the final mark for the course
In the second term, the first assignment will be a presentation (in whatever format the student is comfortable with– lecture, debate, QA delivered in advance to me, etc.).There will be a final essay assignment. The details will be provided in January.
REQUIRED TEXTS:
The Broadview Anthology of British Literature.
The Portrait of Dorian Gray
A Shakespeare play, TBA
A good English Handbook, such as the Harbrace College Handbook, and a good Handbook of Literary Terms are recommended but not required. I also have grammar handbooks to lend upon request.
SUPPLEMENTARY EXAMS: Because of the mark distribution in English courses, supplementary exams are not offered. Students should familiarize themselves will all policies related to exams, including the process to follow in the event of a health or family crisis.
Attendance is important to your success in this class. The format of the class combines lecture with discussion, and many of the exam questions and essay assignment topics are drawn from class discussion. Those students who regularly miss class are, therefore, at a disadvantage when writing papers or exams.
Students should familiarize themselves with the regulations governing their program and academic performance. In particular, students should be aware of the penalties regarding plagiarism. “Plagiarism is act of representing the intellectual work of others as one’s own.” It has a broader context than just copying someone’s written works. Consult your Academic Calendar for information on these matters, and if you have any questions regarding the calendar or regulations, I will be glad to answer them or direct you to someone who can.
Text-messaging or the use of a cell phone is not permitted in class. Cell phones must be turned off in the classroom. Laptops may only be used in special circumstances and with permission of the instructor.
Essays and assignments are given due dates which allow a certain level of flexibility, but once the due date window closes, penalties will be assessed. Requests for extensions may be made but only prior to the due date or in the case of an unforeseen health or family emergency. Essays that are submitted late without prior permission will be deducted 5 points a day.
Inclement Weather Policy: Please check the webpage for the university protocol for storm days. If classes are not cancelled but you are unable to get to class due to road conditions or other weather related circumstances, please contact me to find out what was covered in class or to make up any written work.
Editing services policy: Students may not use third-party editing services. All essays must be original work only. Students may go to the Writing Centre for help with their writing. Tutors at the Centre are trained to instruct students but not correct their material for them.