Spring 2006 syllabus

The College of New Jersey
Ewing, NJ 08628
Department of English / Bliss Hall 129

LIT 251, British Literature to the Restoration, explores the literary history of the British isles before 1660, when the monarchy was restored after the 18 year Puritan Commonwealth had been in power.  It fulfills a requirement in the "old" ENGA and ENGT majors.  It also fulfills a requirement in the newly enhanced English Liberal Arts major, as it is one of the choices a student may make to fulfill any of the three literary history requirements.  Because this class does not have an attached fourth hour, students should expect to read in more depth, to spend more time preparing for class, to write longer essays that look at multiple literary works in relation to one another, and to meet periodically in small groups outside of the regularly scheduled class periods.

LIT 251 is what many have traditionally called a "survey" or "literary history" course, and such a course covers a large body of material quickly.  By its nature, such a course has disadvantages in that even though students read much, they seldom explore anything in much detail.  the advantages, however, are that students have a chance to see how periods and ideas relate to one another.  For example, we will be looking at literature composed during the so-called "Dark Ages" (500-1100), during the high Middle Ages (1100-1500), and during the late-arriving-in-England Renaissance (1500+).  These labels are useful, but we will also see that they can be misleading.  Because all of this literature was composed in a culture very different from our own, we'll all have to do the work of trying to enter into that culture's value system and ideology in order to appreciate its art and literature.

Any student who has a documented disability and is in need of academic accommodations should notify me and contact the Office of Differing Abilities Services (771-2571). Accommodations are individualized and in accordance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1992.

The "big" question which we will work with throughout the term is: "How does this literary work reflect the values of the culture out of which it came?"  Although most 21st century people tend to think of "medieval culture" as though this 1000 year period in European history had a single culture and single value system dominated by a universal belief in Roman Catholicism, I hope you will discover that Britain literature of this time reflects myriad cultures and their values.  Since those cultures are so different from our own, their literature, art, music, and architecture are often the best windows into them.  And since our contemporary Western (mostly Judeo-Christian) culture owes much to the European middle ages and Renaissance, exploring those values can be quite illuminating.  Other important questions will concern competing value systems in medieval and Renaissance literature (pagan vs. Christian values; Germanic, Celtic, and Latin values; and monastic vs. courtly values, to name a few), the role of the outsider (women, serfs, foreigners, Jews, Muslims), the increasing importance of the individual, and social class structures.

The goals of LIT 251 are myriad; by the end of the term students should be able to:

• engage in the analysis and interpretation of texts in their diverse historical, aesthetic, cultural, and theoretical contexts, understand and appreciate the development of literary traditions, cultural values, modes of thought, and uses of language.

• read critically, write and speak with clarity and grace, reason intelligently, and argue thoughtfully and persuasively about pre-1660 British literature.

• construct, integrate, and critique cultural and historical frameworks for early British literature and language, since the language and culture of pre-1660 British literature is so foreign to students, and since the forms and the aesthetic values of early British writers and readers differ significantly from postmodern forms and aesthetics.

• develop their understanding of the history, structure, and artistry of the language, literatures, and cultures of early British literature.

• conduct simple lexical and historical research in order to better read early British literature; be able to read texts in the original Early Modern and Middle English (such as Spenser and Chaucer, respectively).

• distinguish some early literary forms and conventions: for instance, beast fables, dream visions, epic poetry, fabliaux, frame tales, morality and mystery plays, pastorals, sonnets. 

• write with more attention to literary theory.  The literary theories most widely used by medieval and Renaissance scholars—New Historicism, with its emphasis on reading literary and non-literary texts in conjunction with one another; gender criticism, which interrogates the construction of gender and sexuality in early modern culture, and cultural criticism and Marxism, which examine the social class and power relations behind literary works—will be useful tools in the study of early British literature.

MATERIALS AND SUPPLIES

REQUIRED:

Chaucer, Geoffrey.  The Canterbury Tales: Fifteen Tales and the General Prologue.  Edited by V. A. Kolve and Glending Olson.  W.W. Norton & Co., New York: 2005.  Paperback.  ISBN # 0393925870 (any other ME text of Chaucer will do)

David, Alfred, ed.  The Norton Anthology of English Literature.  Series editor M. H. Abrams.  volume 1A: The Middle Ages.  7^th ed.  New York: Norton, 2000.  ISBN: 0-393-97565-7.  Paperback only.  Students may purchase the new 8th ed if they prefer.

Logan, George M. and Barbara K. Lewalski, eds.  Logan, George M. and Barbara K. Lewalski, eds.  The Norton Anthology of English Literature.  Series editor M. H. Abrams.  volume 1B: The Sixteenth Century / The Early Seventeenth Century.  7^th ed.  New York: Norton, 2000.  ISBN: 0-393-97566-5.  Paperback only.  Students may purchase the new 8th ed if they prefer.

RECOMMENDED: 

Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6^th ed.  New York: MLA, 2003. ISBN # 0-897352-986-3. Paperback only.  [This text is recommended highly, but you are NOT required to purchase the 6th edition; the 5^th  edition will also be acceptable.]

GRADING

Grades for LIT 251 will be derived from class participation, participation in small group enhancement activities, 2 essays, a midterm, and a final examination.  Here's what the breakdown looks like:

The participation grade is arrived at subjectively based on your participation out loud in class or on the discussion board (this works both for shy folks and for those who get their best ideas after class is over) and on your attendance.  I take attendance every day.  The small group activities are a mix of individual with group activities, multi-media with reading activities, and formal written, informal written, and oral responses.  Small group work will be submitted into the discussion board in SOCS--please rotate that task among group members.  The two essays will ask you to compare two works from the same time period (both medieval or both Renaissance).  The midterm and final examinations will ask you to identify important passages from works assigned for class (or for enhancement activities) and to write intelligently about those passages; the final exam will have an essay component that will ask you to compare a medieval with a Renaissance work..

As you do all the work for this class, remember that many students have found that about one third of the teacher praxis examination in English and of the literature GRE's (graduate record exam) comes from early British literature topics!

DAY BY DAY ASSIGNMENTS -- a * indicates a long reading assignment for that day; 7th edition page numbers in burnt and 8th edition page numbers in lilac; Page numbers for Chaucer come from the text edited by Kolve.