English 205
Backgrounds in British Literature to 1700
Mon/Weds 2-3:50, Craig-Lee 252
Professor Russell A. Potter
[email protected]
Poets that lasting Marble seek
Must carve in Latine, or in Greek;
We write in Sand, our language grows,
And, like the Tide, our Work o’erflows
-- Edmund Waller
This course will both survey the shifting sands of the English canon -- paying homage alike to wellestablished monuments and the odd, forgotten Ozymandius -- and investigate the strange and
diverse forces through which canons themselves take shape. We will begin by looking at the
history of English as an academic field, and the cultural histories that have brought the “canon
wars” to their current, uneasy truce. We will read a wide variety of primary texts from the full
range of historical periods up until 1700, along with selected commentaries and a few brief
supplemental texts. Weekly response essays of one page each will be the basis for our class
discussions; there will also be two formal literary essays on selected texts or themes. Our textbook
is the Norton Anthology of English Literature, Ninth Edition, which is also available in three subvolumes A, B, and C (we’ll be using volumes A and B heavily, but only the first part of C).
ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION
Regular attendance and class participation are required; more than two absences or two missing
responses will have an adverse effect on your final grade. Class participation is vital, the more so as
some of the texts we’ll be reading will take some considerable effort to fully access and understand.
ACADEMIC HONESTY
In accordance with College and departmental policy, I take instances of academic dishonesty very
seriously. Any instance of plagiarism, which is the use of texts written by others without appropriate
credit – and therefore claimed as one’s own – will result in an automatic grade of “F” on a written
paper. All instances of academic dishonesty are reported to the Chair of the department.
COURSE SCHEDULE
WEEK I – (Jan. 18). Wednesday: Introduction to course – The brief history of "English Literature"
as a field.
WEEK II – (Jan. 23, 25) Monday: Wednesday: Caedmon’s Hymn, The Dream of the Rood (with
online edition of DOTR via blog link). Wednesday: Beowulf, Prologue, “The Hero Comes to
Heorot,” “Feast at Heorot” lines 1-661).
WEEK III – (Jan. 30, Feb. 1) Monday: Beowulf, “The Fight with Grendel,” first part of "Celebration
at Heorot" (lines 662-914). Wendesday: Beowulf, Second part of “Celebration at Heorot” (lines
915-1061; skipping Hnæf’s song; 1158-1250).
WEEK IV (Feb. 6, 8) Monday: “Another Attack,” “Beowulf fights Grendel’s mother,” “Another
Celebration at Heorot” (1250-1798). Wednesday: Monday: Introduction to Chaucer's English.
Week V (Feb. 13, 15) Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, General Prologue, continued. Wednesday, finish
the General Prologue.
WEEK VI – (Feb. 20, 22) Monday and Wednesday: “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue.”
WEEK VII – (Feb. 27, March 1) Monday and Wednesday: Chaucer’s House of Fame.
SPRING BREAK
WEEK VIII (March 13, 15) Monday: Margery Kempe, excerpts from The Book of Margery Kempe.
Wednesday: Julian of Norwich, from Showings. Essay #1 Due Wednesday.
WEEK IX – (March 20, 22). Monday: De Hæretico Comburendo, “The Dangers of the
Vernacular,” “Hoccleve on the Vernacular Bible”; Confession of Hawisa Mone, testimony of
William Thorpe (blog links). Wednesday: Later controversies on Heresy and English scriptures.
Readings: Comparative translations of I Corinthians 13; Tyndale, from The Obedience of a
Christian Man, Thomas More, “A Dialogue Concerning Heresies” (NAEL), License to Possess
Heretical Books; Statute against public reading of the Great Bible (blog).
WEEK X – (March 27, 29) Monday: Skelton, Vppon a deedmans hed (blog link), excerpts from
Mannerly Margery Milk and Ale, from The Tunning of Elinour Rumming. Wednesday: E.K.’s
preface to Spenser’s The Shepheardes Calendar, “To his Booke,” and “October.”
WEEK XI – (April 3, 5) Monday: Shakespeare, Selected Sonnets: 15, 18, 29, 71, 73, 129, 130, 144.
Wednesday: John Donne, “The Flea,” “Song (‘Go and catch a falling star’),” “The Sun Rising,”
“Love’s Alchemy,” “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning.”
WEEK XII – (April 10, 12). Monday: Southwell, “The Burning Babe”; Marvell, “The Garden,” “To
his Coy Mistress”; Herrick, “On Julia’s Clothes.” Wednesday: Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progerss,
“The Author’s Apology,” with discussion of visual adaptations of PP including The Grand
Moving Panorama of Pilgrim’s Progress (blog links).
WEEK XIII – (April 17, 19) Monday: Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress, “Part I, First through Fourth
Stages (p. 42 in our e-book edition). Wednesday: Fourth through Eighth Stages (p. 91).
WEEK XIV – (April 24, 26) Monday, Pilgrim’s Progress, pp. 92-120 (end). Wednesday: Milton,
“Lycidas” Final Paper due Wednesday.