English 100A / 1
English 100A
Literary History I
Autumn 2013-14
Professor Elaine Treharne and ProfsesorStephen Orgel
T/ TH 11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
English literature originated in the Medieval period and became fully established by the Early Modern period. During this course we will explore these origins, asking what "English literature" meant for its earliest practitioners and how the writings of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance influenced the literature that followed. Constructing the literary history of this period requires us to reimagine some of the most familiar features of our own literary landscape when they were still new and strange: manuscript culture, foreign lands, the monstrous, the printing press, literary journeys, the afterlife, and even the English language itself.
The course traces the development (and the transformation over time) of key literary concepts and forms, including the notion of literary character, the use and meaning of poetry (versus prose or other written forms), and the adaptation of literary conventions (such as courtly love) to changing historical circumstances. We will also pay close attention to changing technologies of writing and their transformation of texts, writers, and readers. And we will chart the literary impact of ideologies such as sinfulness, the heroic, humanism, and the Reformation in the process asking how literature reflects and adapts to social and cultural change. From our first week to our last, we will consider how the concept of English literature takes hold among readers, writers, and their changing world.
Schedule of Lectures
September 24
Introduction to the Course
September 26
Introduction to Medieval Literary Culture
Exeter Book Riddle 26 and the Beowulf-Manuscript
October 1
Introduction to Early Medieval Textuality I
Beowulf and Marvels of the East
October 3
Introduction to Early Medieval Textuality II
Saints and Sinners
October 8
Introduction to Early Medieval Textuality III
"The Grave" and Early Middle English Lyrics
October 10
The Medieval World and Pre-Modern "Character"
Geoffrey Chaucer, The General Prologue
October 15
Authorship and Authority in Medieval Literature
Chaucer, Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale
October 17
Technologies of Writing: From Manuscript to Print Culture I
Sir Thomas Malory, Books XX and XXI from Morte Darthur; Caxton’s Malory
October 22
Technologies of Writing: From Manuscript to Print Culture II
The Devonshire Manuscript and Tottel’s Miscellany: The Politics of Poetry (Surrey, Douglas, Howard)
October 24
Technologies of Writing: From Manuscript to Print Culture III
Dacre, Chaucer in print, Matthew Parker, Wyatt, Skelton, Thomas More Utopia
October 29
Desire and Power: The Court Seen from the Outside
Sir Philip Sidney, from Astrophil and Stella, from Defence of Poesy; Spenser’s Letter to Ralegh; Sir Walter Ralegh, "The Lie," "The Passionate Man's Pilgrimage," "Shepherd, what's love, I pray thee tell?" (Reader)
October 31
Chivalric Romance and Literary Culture
Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Book 2: Bower of Bliss
November 5
The Nature of Virtue and Heroism
Marlowe, Hero & Leander
November 7
Religion and Selfhood: The Subject of Devotion
Marlowe: Dr Faustus
November 12
The Making of a Renaissance Genre I: Drama
Shakespeare: Tempest
November 14
The Making of a Renaissance Genre I: Drama
The Alchemist
November 19
Love, Wit, and New Knowledge
John Donne, from Elegies and Songs and Sonnets (Reader)
November 21
Religion and Selfhood II: Protestant and Baroque Poetics
John Donne, from Holy Sonnets; Ben Jonson, Selections from the Reader; George Herbert, from The Temple;
November 26 (no class)
November 28 (no class)
December 3
John Milton Lycidas and Comus
December 5
Overview and Conclusions; Looking Ahead to Literary History II
Books and Materials
The following titles will be available at the Stanford Bookstore:
Editions of
William Shakespeare, The Tempest
Edmund Marlowe, Dr Faustus
Ben Jonson, The Alchemist
M. H. Abrams and G. G. Harpham, A Glossary of Literary Terms, 10th ed. (Boston: Wadsworth, 2012)
Course Reader: A reader for this course will be available at the beginning of the course.
Timeline: <
The timeline is an interactive tool designed for this course. You should refer to it regularly for a historical overview and links related to the materials and their contexts.
Students with Documented Disabilities
Students who may need an academic accommodation based on the impact of a disability must initiate the request with the Office of AccessibleEducation (OAE). Professional staff will evaluate the request with required documentation, recommend reasonable accommodations, andprepare an Accommodation Letter for faculty dated in the current quarter in which the request is being made. Students should contact the OAE assoon as possible since timely notice is needed to coordinate accommodations. The OAE is located at 563 Salvatierra Walk (phone: 723-1066,URL:
Honor Code
The Honor Code is the University's statement on academic integrity written by students in 1921. It articulates University expectations of studentsand faculty in establishing and maintaining the highest standards in academic work:
The Honor Code is an undertaking of the students, individually and collectively:
1. that they will not give or receive aid in examinations; that they will not give or receive unpermitted aid in class work, in the preparation ofreports, or in any other work that is to be used by the instructor as the basis of grading;
2. that they will do their share and take an active part in seeing to it that others as well as themselves uphold the spirit and letter of the HonorCode.
2. The faculty on its part manifests its confidence in the honor of its students by refraining from proctoring examinations and from takingunusual and unreasonable precautions to prevent the forms of dishonesty mentioned above. The faculty will also avoid, as far as practicable,academic procedures that create temptations to violate the Honor Code.
3. While the faculty alone has the right and obligation to set academic requirements, the students and faculty will work together to establishoptimal conditions for honorable academic work.