English 50aOffice hours:
Professor TargoffThu 10:15-12 PM and by app’t
Fall 2014Mandel Center for Humanities 107
Tue/Thu 2-3:206-2138
LOVE POETRY FROM SAPPHO TO NERUDA
Course books
Sappho,If not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho (Vintage)
Catullus, The Poems of Catullus (Penguin)
Ovid, The Erotic Poems (Penguin)
Propertius, The Poems (University of Oklahoma Press)
Petrarch, The Poetry of Petrarch (Farrar, Strauss)
Sidney, Sir Philip Sidney: The Major Works (Oxford)
Shakespeare, Sonnets (Oxford)
Donne, The Complete English Poems (Penguin)
Neruda, 100 Love Sonnets (Univ of Texas)
Course Schedule
Thu 8/28Course Introduction
Tue 9/2Sappho, poems 1-90 (pg. 2-177)
Thu 9/4Sappho, poems 91-end (p. 178-355)
Tue 9/9Catullus, poems to be announced
Thu 9/11Catullus
Tue 9/16Ovid, The Amores, Book 1 and 2
Thu 9/18Ovid, The Amores, Book 3; The Art of Love, Book 1
Tue 9/23Ovid, The Art of Love, Book 2 and 3; Propertius, poems to be announced
Thu 9/25No class—holiday
Mon 9/29First paper due
Tue 9/30Propertius
Thu 10/2Petrarch, Rime Sparse (poems to be announced)
Tue 10/7Petrarch, Rime Sparse (poems to be announced)
Thu 10/9No class—holiday
Mon 10/13Sidney, Astrophil and Stella 1-36
Tue 10/14Sidney, Astrophil and Stella 37-75
Thu 10/16No class—holiday
Tue 10/21Sidney, Astrophil and Stella 76-109
Thu 10/23In class mid-term exam
Tue 10/28Shakespeare, Sonnets1-20
Thu 10/30Shakespeare, Sonnets 21-66
Tue 11/4Shakespeare, Sonnets67-126
Thu 11/6Shakespeare, Sonnets 127-154
Tue 11/11Donne, Songs and Sonnets
Thu 11/13Donne, Songs and Sonnets
Tue 11/18Herrick, Hesperides (selections to be distributed)
Thu 11/20Marvell, “To His Coy Mistress,” “The Nymph Complaining for the Death of her Fawn”; “The Definition of Love (to be distributed)
Tue 11/25Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Sonnets from the Portugese” (to be distributed)
Thu 11/27No class—holiday
Tue 12/2Neruda, 100 Love Sonnets
Thu 12/4Neruda, 100 Love Sonnets
Fri 12/5 Second paper due
Course Requirements
•Attendance and participation in class
All students are required to attend class, and to be prepared to participate in class discussion. More than 3 unexcused absences will result in failure for the term. If you must miss class, or if you are ill, please send me an email before class meets to inform me of your absence.
•Weekly reading response
Every week you will be asked to post a short—1 to 2 paragraph—reading response to our latte site for one of the two days we meet. Responses to Tuesday’s readings are due by 10 PM Monday evening; responses to Thursday’s readings are due by 10 PM Wednesday evening. These responses will be ungraded, but they will be weighed, along with your attendance and participation record, as 15% of your final grade. Instructions about posting your responses will be given in class.
•Two papers
Topics will be handed out in class for both papers (if you’d like to devise your own topic, it will need to my approval in advance). Papers must be typed, double-spaced, with reasonable margins and font-size. Pages should be numbered. Please proofread carefully—more than 3 typos will bring your grade down 1/3 of a grade. No papers will be accepted late without an official excuse from the Dean’s office or by agreement with me. Late papers will be marked down 1/3 grade per day. Papers must be submitted as hard copies—no emailed papers will be accepted unless a special arrangement has been made.
•Mid-term exam
This exam will be held Oct. 23 in class, and will be worth 25% of your final grade for the course. It will cover all material up to this point in the course.
Note on Plagiarism: All work that you submit must be your original work. If you use secondary sources, whether published books, articles, or websites, these sources must be cited. Please consult the Chicago Manual of Style, MLA Handbook, or another standard guide on appropriate footnote or endnote format, and please ask for guidance if you are unsure about proper attribution. The University policy on academic honesty is distributed annually in the Rights and Responsibilities handbook. Instances of alleged dishonesty will be forwarded to the Office of Campus Life for possible referral to the Student Judicial System. Potential sanctions include failure in the course and suspension from Brandeis.
Grade break-down:
Class participation15%
First paper 30%
Mid-term exam25%
Second paper:30%