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MinotStateUniversity Division of Arts and Social Sciences
English 251: British Literature Part I
Tuesday and Thursday 1-3:15
Hartnett Hall West, Room
Instructor: Robert E. Kibler, Ph.D.
Office: 229 Hartnett W
Hours: 1:00-2:00, T/Th, and 3:15-4:00 T/ThPhones: w) 6 3876 h) 838 3001 (between 6 am and 10 pm)
e-mail:
Beowulf, Cotton MS, Vitellius A.XV, f 132
Required texts:
M.H. Abrams, Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume 1, 8th Edition
Seamus Heaney’s Beowulf on CD
Course Overview:
English 251 begins the survey of British Literature. We first enter the early medieval world of hard warriors like Beowulf,, fretting monks, and wandering poets or scops—a society governed by the kind of grim stoicism that comes from a short and brutal nomadic life, lived by the sword. Bye and bye, the warriors either kill themselves off, or largely settle down into one of the three “estates of man”—those who fight, those who work, and those who pray. Later, the fourth estate--those who trade, arrives with the birth of towns in the 11th century C.E. So too came gothic cathedrals, stretching their pinnacles skyward towards an abstract divinity, made darker and stranger a few centuries later when the bubonic plaque of 1348blots the earthly horizon, the world of Chaucer and the Gawain poet, killing as many as 50% of those who lived in English villages and towns. But hold on! What happens next, do you think? A glorious rebound from religiosity to the secular splendor of the English Renaissance, fraught with earthly Machiavellians, courtly lovers, poets and militarists full of tales of adventure and of ships full of gold and bounty, bound from the New World to Spain, arch enemy of little Angle-land. And of course, the pendulum swings again, in time, from the color and splendour of this English Renaissance and Queen Elizabeth’s court, Marlowe’s plays and Shakespeare’s poems, to the colorless and spiritual desert of 17th century Lollardy and Puritanism, dominated by the fight against all that smacked of “popery.” The Puritansclose the London theaters, and as God’s anointed saints, hope to make their way to Rome, spilling Catholic blood all the way from Lincolnshire to the Vatican. Among such radical religious groups that made up the general Puritan cause--groups with names such as Levellers, Ranters, Muggletonians, and Quakers--was John Milton, champion of them all, the man whose literary arguments justified the beheading of an English King, Charles I. But after all of this irrational revolutionary fervour, the English settled back down into a different version of reality-- —a kind of practical, witty, mercantile, and civic minded world of Pope, of Swift, Sam Johnson, and their like in the 18th century. This is where English 251 ends, and 252 generally begins.
In short, English 251 will start our journey through the trials and tribulations of the specifically English version of the human spirit for a few centuries, and by doing so, will help us to develop means sufficient to compare and contrast the dispositions of those spirits from the past who left their indelible mark for us to track, to our own, here now, in Minot, 2008, caught as we are in our own swings of the cultural and historical pendulum.
English 251 also fulfills one of Minot State University’s General Education Requirements in Humanities, and is designed to help students 1) acquire fundamental knowledge of British history, culture, and literature, 2) engage such history, culture, and literature from both an aesthetic and a critical perspective, and 3) prepare for advanced upper-level study in English and Humanities. Students should expect a moderately heavy amount of reading, and to regularly participate in class discussions.
Course Specifics:
Reading quizzes, translation, performance, class participation: 25%
Exam #1 25%
Exam# 2 25%
Exam #3 25%
*English 251 operates as what generally is referred to as an “enquiry-based”classroom. We uncover and create meaning of what we read through discussing it. I personally have a certain amount of factual material to deliver to you—basic critical and historical understandings of the worlds, the authors, the works we inhabit, but by and large, we are learning to use this literary material as a means toward an end, as a way to seek and clarify human truths, and what they mean, through informed discussion. Who knows what we will discover? —Very Different from Lecture. Very Different from High School.
*Additionally, there is an ungraded take-home examination that is necessary to satisfy General Education assessment requirements. We will fit it in either during the term, or perhaps, if the majority would have it, along with the final examination.
Class Participation:
Class participation is so important to what we do in English literature that I am tracking it. Each time a person contributes to the class discussion by asking a question or asserting a point, I will put a mark in the gradebook for class participation. Roughly speaking, if you ask a question, expect ¼ credit point for participation, and if you contribute thoughtfully to classroom dialogue, expect ½ point, and if substantially, through some well reasoned and supported assertion, one full credit point--though there will be some days when our biorhythms will not cooperate. Mine too. I think everyone should feel comfortable not commenting on any particular day. Just avoid making a habit of it. After all, here at MSU, you are here to “be seen and be heard.” I intend to hold you to that charge, because it will ultimately increase the value of the course for you.
Note on Academic Expectations at the University: According to the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction (DPI), in their report to the state legislature, North Dakota sends a high number of students from High School to University. At the same time, however, according to the report, only 1 in 4 students come to the university with the skills necessary to succeed academically. This is a very serious problem, and there are doubtless many causes for it that will need to be addressed over many years by many people. At the same time, here we are, now, and you are trying to make your way. What to do?
Too often, with many under prepared students in a class, the overall level of academic instruction falters. But I have taught at seven different universities in three states, so know the expectations that you as a young professional will meet, and I very much intend to offer you a course as rigorous as are others like it elsewhere in the country, and am committed to helping those of you who are willing to help yourselves succeed here. The course will be tough for many of you unused to long hours of study and rigorous in-class note taking, but let me assure you, if you do well in this class, you can do well in any like class offered anywhere else in the country.
Just remember, it is supposed to be tough. Otherwise, why would you be here?
Attendance:
We will spend much of our class time identifying and discussing the critical issues and conclusions found in our readings. As a result, it is essential for you to come to class. I reserve the right to lower your course grade by one letter grade for every ‘third’ absence.
Plagiarism:
Plagiarism means using the words, phrases, or ideas of others as if they were your own. Please do not plagiarize. It is the high crime of the professional world, and getting caught plagiarizing leads to very serious consequences. If you are unsure concerning whether or not you are ‘crossing the line’ in your writing, please see me and I can help you recognize what is acceptable usage of other’s work, and what is not. In any case, as a general rule, when in doubt, cite the source. Also see English Department Policies on Inclusive Language and Plagiarism, linked on the Fall 2008 Syllabus page.
Cultural Coupons: There are many important cultural and intellectual events that occur on campus throughout the term. I think that these events are so important to your experience and growth as a university student that I am willing to provide you incentive to attend them. Attend 10 agreed-upon MSU events, get me to sign the coupons--then sign them yourself--and I will bump your grade by one letter for the term. Cultural Coupons attached.
Syllabus
***keep in mind that this syllabus is a rough map of where we hope to go this term and when. As a rough map, it is subject to change, and we will likely change it as the need arises. Bring this syllabus with you to class so that you can record the changes as they are likely to happen.
***please also note that we will try to stress a ‘skill of the week,” a certain way of treating literature in order to make sense of it. We will examine style, themes, memorize bits, perform bits, read for plot, tropes and figures, meter, genre, imagery, and within the framework of sacred rites, ceremonies, beliefs, and literary theories.
Week 1 August 25-29
Course Intro
Beowulf Intro
Skill: Reading for Style
Beowulf
Week 2 Sept 1-5
Skill: Reading for Language (translations)
Beowulf
Week 3 Sept 8-12
Translation workshops (Wife’s Lament)
Skill: Literary Presentation (Translation)
Intro Chaucer and the Middyl Middle Ages
Week 4 Sept 15-19
Chaucer’s “Miller’s Tale,” Pardoner’s “Prologue” and “Tale” and “Wife of Bath’s Tale”
Skill: Reading with and against Genre
Week 5 Sept 22-26
Introduction to Courtly Love, Medieval Lyric
Skill: Reading for Theme
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Week 6 Sept 29-October 3
Skill: Reading to Imitate and Create
Medieval Lyrics
Week 7 Oct 6-10
Everyman
Exam Questions
Exam
Skill: Preparing for Exams
Week 8 Oct 13-17
Introduction to the Renaissance as emergent from the Black Death
Skill: Reading for Form, Tropes, Figures of Speech
Sonnets by Spenser, Sidney, Wyatt, Shakespeare
John Lyly’s Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit
Week 9 Oct 20-24
Renaissance Women in Power: Mary I, Lady Jane Grey, Mary, Queen of Scots, Elizabeth I, Jane Anger
Skill: Reading through a Feminist lens
Week 10 Oct 27-31
The Protestants: Bits of Foxe, Askew, Calvin, contra Anglicans, Ascham, Hoby, Book of Homilies
Skill: Reading with and against Ideology
Week 11 November 3-7
Marlowe’s “Mighty Line”: “Hero and Leander
John Donne’s Metaphysical Conceits
Skill: Reading for Image and Metaphor
Week 12 Nov 10-14
Introduction 17th Century Puritanism
Exam Questions
Exam
Skill: Creating Great Test/Essay Questions
Week 13 Nov 17-21
Milton’s Paradise Lost Bks 1-4-9
Skill: Reading through the Historical and Scholarly Lens
Week 14 Nov 24-28 Thanksgiving
Paradise Lost
Skill: Navigating Milton
Week 15 December 1-6
Introduction to the Restoration and the 18th Century
Alexander Pope’s Rape of the Locke and An Essay on Man
Jonathan Swift’s Modest Proposal
Skill: Reading Social Satire and Plot
Week 16 December 8-12
Collaborative Literary Activity
Exam Questions
Final Exam to be held on December _____, at ______, in 330 Hartnett Hall.
Notes and Changes
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