Carleton University
Fall 2010 / Winter 2011
Department of English
ENGL 2300B: British Literatures I
Prerequisite: 1.0 credit in ENGL at the 1000 level.
Professor Wallace
Classes: Wednesday and Friday, 11:35-12:55
Location: Please confirm on Carleton Central
Office Hours: Friday, 10:30-11:30
Office: 1922 Dunton Tower
Phone: 520-2600 ext. 1039
Email: [email protected]
The course introduces students to poetry and prose written during three tumultuous and rich periods of literary
history. The Fall term takes a very broad view of so-called “British” literary traditions during the Middle Ages (circa
597-1485); texts will be drawn from across the island of Britain (i.e., England, Wales, and, to a more limited
extent, Scotland) and also from Ireland. The Winter term studies English texts written during the Renaissance
(circa 1485-1660), and Restoration (circa 1660-1700). Readings will include heroic and romance texts in verse and
prose, lyrics and elegies, tragedy and epic, and poems of erotic frustration, revolution, king killing, and apocalypse.
The course aims to help students develop the skills in reading and written analysis that are expected of English
Majors. Lectures will combine close readings of assigned texts with constant attention to the linguistic and cultural
contexts that literature both springs from and fashions. Special care will be taken to introduce students to the
vocabularies of literary scholarship and theory, and to the formal requirements of essay writing. Anglo-Saxon, Irish,
and Welsh texts will be read in translation; all other texts will be read in the original.
Please note that ENGL 2300 is one of the English Department’s “writing-attentive” courses. In ENGL
2300, “writing-attentive” means the following:
1) Students will write at least one examination.
2) A portion of class time will be devoted to developing and improving essay-writing skills.
3) Students will write a number of formal essays in which they are expected to:
develop an argumentative thesis statement across each essay
develop complex ideas using correct and effective expression, according to academic English practice
use and cite evidence from primary texts appropriately
read genres and language from early periods critically
demonstrate mastery of MLA documentation practices
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Required Texts
Fall Term:
A Choice of Anglo-Saxon Verse, ed. and trans. Richard Hamer (Faber) [0571228364]
Beowulf, ed. and trans. R.M. Liuzza (Broadview) [1551111896]
The Táin [“Táin Bó Cúailnge”], trans. Ciaran Carson (Penguin) [0140455302]
Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde, ed. Barry Windeatt (Penguin) [0140424210]
Mabinogion, trans. Sioned Davies (Oxford) [0199218781]
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, trans. W. S. Merwin (Knopf) [0375709924]
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th ed. (MLA) [0873529863]
Winter readings:
Philip Sidney, The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia (“The Old Arcadia”), ed. Katherine Duncan-Jones (Oxford)
[0199549842]
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume B (“The Sixteenth Century / The Early Seventeenth Century)
(Norton) [0393927180]
Evaluations
Paper One
Paper Two
December Exam
Paper Three
Paper Four
Final Exam
15%
15%
20%
15%
15%
20%
You must complete all required assignments in order to be eligible to pass this course.
Members of the class are expected to attend all meetings and participate fully in discussion. You must bring your
copy of the main text to every class. I do not “grade” your participation in discussion. I do, however, take
attendance, which I regard as a measure of your investment and participation in the course. If you miss more than
four meetings in either term (i.e., more than 1/6 of the term’s meetings) you will not be permitted to write the
exam for that term. As a result, it will be impossible for you to receive a passing grade in the course.
Four short essays (two in each term) of 5 pages each will be submitted at the beginning of class on the assigned
deadlines. (This page limit should be regarded as both minimum and maximum length, but it does not include the
list of Works Consulted that you must submit along with your essay. The addition of this list will bring the essay
submission to 6 pages.) Successful papers will demonstrate familiarity with the central concerns of the course.
Deadlines are firm, though I make exceptions in three specific cases (bereavement, serious illness, heartbreak). You
must submit a hard copy of your paper. Please note that the syllabus distributed at our first meeting will contain all
of the assigned topics for each essay. Each essay has its own requirements and expectations. Note especially the
specific requirements (and late penalty) for Paper Three (the “close reading / scansion / commentary” assignment).
Essays submitted more than two days late will not receive extended comments:
Paper One (a short essay on Beowulf). [15%] Late papers will be penalized 2% per day.
Paper Two (a short essay on Troilus and Criseyde. [15%] Late papers will be penalized 2% per day.
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Paper Three (a close reading/scansion/commentary assignment on an assigned stanza in Spenser’s
Epithalamion). The assignment will be distributed and discussed at our first meeting in January. The
purpose of this assignment is to enable you to familiarize yourself with the rhythms, textures, and
intellectual resources of poetry. Note: Due to the special nature of this assignment, late papers will be
penalized 10% per day. [15%]
Paper Four (a short essay on Paradise Lost). [15%] Late papers will be penalized 2% per day.
A three-hour December exam in which you are responsible for all of the first term’s readings. Expect to write on
every text on the reading list. The exam is to be administered during the exam period (Dec. 9 – 22). It will
emphasize, without being restricted to, material covered during lectures. [20%]
A three-hour April exam in which you are responsible for all of the second term’s readings. Expect to write on
every text on the reading list. The exam is to be administered during the exam period (Apr. 7 – 21). It will
emphasize, without being restricted to, material covered during lectures. [20%]
Plagiarism and Instructional Offences
Please see the section on “Instructional Offences” in the 2010-2011 Undergraduate Calendar. The Undergraduate
Calendar defines an act of plagiarism as an attempt “to use and pass off as one's own idea or product the work of
another without expressly giving credit” to the original author. Any act of plagiarism will be prosecuted to the full
extent of the guidelines set out in the Undergraduate Calendar. Penalties may include expulsion from Carleton
University; they will certainly include expulsion from this course with a grade of “F.”
The Undergraduate Calendar specifies that the act of submitting “substantially the same piece of work to two or
more courses without the prior written permission of the instructors from all courses involved” constitutes an
Instructional Offence punishable under the guidelines set out in the Undergraduate Calendar. Please note: “Minor
modifications and amendments, such as changes of phraseology in an essay or paper, do not constitute a significant
and acceptable reworking of an assignment.” No piece of work written for another course will be accepted for
credit in this course.
Accommodations
You may need special arrangements to meet your academic obligations during the term because of disability,
pregnancy or religious obligations. Please review the course outline promptly and write to me with any requests for
academic accommodation during the first two weeks of class, or as soon as possible after the need for
accommodation is known to exist.
It takes time to review and consider each request individually, and to arrange for accommodations where
appropriate. Please respect these timelines particularly for in-class tests, mid-terms and final exams, as well as any
change in due dates for papers.
You can visit the Equity Services website to view the policies and to obtain more detailed information on academic
accommodation at http://carleton.ca/equity/accommodation.
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Fall Term
10 September [F] / Introduction to the course; introduction to the early Middle Ages; “Caedmon’s Hymn”
15 September [W] / “The Ruin,” “The Dream of the Rood” (in A Choice of Anglo-Saxon Verse)
17 September [F] / “The Wanderer,” “The Seafarer” (in A Choice of Anglo-Saxon Verse, supplemented with
modernist versions of the poems by W. H. Auden and Ezra Pound) / Introduction to Beowulf
22 September [W] / Beowulf (pages 53-85)
Mock essay: Construct an argument about the relationship between monstrosity and heroism in the
Grendel sections of Beowulf.
24 September [F] / Beowulf (pages 85-110; in conjunction with “Wulf and Eadwacer,” “The Wife’s Lament,” and
“The Fight at Finnsburh” (in A Choice of Anglo-Saxon Verse)
29 September [W] / Beowulf (pages 110-150)
1 October [F] / Judith (in A Choice of Anglo-Saxon Verse)
6 October [W] / Ireland in the Middle Ages: Táin Bó Cúailnge (pages 3-50)
Paper One (Beowulf) due at the beginning of class.
8 October [F] / “University Day” (no class)
13 October [W] / Táin Bó Cúailnge (pages 51-100)
15 October [F] / Táin Bó Cúailnge (pages 101-208)
20 October [W] / Táin Bó Cúailnge (conclusion if necessary) / Anglo-Norman poetry (handout of the lai called
“Chevrefoil,” drawn from the Lais of Marie de France) / Introduction to Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde,
(Book I, lines 1-56)
22 October [F] / Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde (Book 1, esp. lines 57-1092)
27 October [W] / Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde (Book 2, esp. lines 1-931)
29 October [F] / Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde (Books 2 and 3, esp. lines 2.932-1757 and 3.1-420)
3 November [W] / Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde (Book 3, esp. lines 421-1820)
5 November [F] / Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde (Book 4, esp. lines 1-1085)
10 November [W] / Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde (Book 4-5, esp. lines 4.1086-1701 and 5.1-686)
12 November [F] / Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde (Book 5, esp. lines 687-1869); very brief overview of (and
extract from) Henryson, The Testament of Cresseid [handout]
Mock essay: Scholars have long been puzzled by the fact that Troilus and Criseyde concludes with an
elaborate epilogue or coda (5.1765-1869) that appears to disavow many of the aspirations and desires that
seemed dear to the poem and its narrator. Construct an argument about the relationship between the action
of Troilus and Criseyde and the poem’s conclusion.
17 November [W] / Wales in the Middle Ages: Mabinogion (pages 3-64; “The Four Branches of the Mabinogi”)
19 November [F] / Mabinogion (pages 65-138; “Peredur son of Efrog,” “The Dream of the Emperor Maxen,” “Llud
and Llefelys,” “The Lady of the Well”)
24 November [W] / Mabinogion (pages 139-226; “Geraint son of Erbin,” “How Culhwch Won Olwen,”
“Rhonabwy’s Dream”)
Paper Two (Troilus and Criseyde) due at the beginning of class.
26 November [F] / Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Fitt 1)
1 December [W] / Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Fitts 2 and 3)
3 December [F] / Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Fitt 4)
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Winter Term
5 January [W] / Introduction to the Renaissance; Wyatt, “They flee from me,” “The long love,” “Who so list to
hunt,” “I find no peace”; Surrey, “The soote season,” “Alas! so all things now do hold their peace,”
“Th’Assyrians’ king”; verse exchange between Queen Elizabeth and Sir Walter Ralegh; Sidney, Astrophel
and Stella 71 (“Who will in fairest book of Nature know”), Certain Sonnets 30 (“Ring out your Belles”)
7 January [F] / Marlowe, “The Passionate Shepherd to his love”; Ralegh, “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd”;
Marlowe, Hero and Leander
12 January [W] / Sidney, The Old Arcadia (1)
14 January [F] / Sidney, The Old Arcadia (2-3)
19 January [W] / Sidney, The Old Arcadia (3-4)
21 January [F] / Sidney, The Old Arcadia (5)
26 January [W] / Spenser, The Faerie Queene (1.1)
28 January [F]/ Spenser, The Faerie Queene (1.2-4)
2 February [W] / Spenser, The Faerie Queene (1.5-7)
4 February [F] / Spenser, The Faerie Queene (1.8-9)
9 February [W] / Spenser, The Faerie Queene (1.10-12)
11 February [F] / Spenser, Amoretti (67-71); Epithalamion
Paper Three (scansion) due at the beginning of class.
16 February [W] / Shakespeare, Hamlet
18 February [F] / Shakespeare, Hamlet
21-25 February / Winter Break (no classes)
2 March [W] / Shakespeare, Hamlet
4 March [F] / Shakespeare, Hamlet
9 March [W] / Milton, Lycidas
11 March [F] / Marvell, The Nymph Complaining for the Death of her Faun / Marvell, An Horatian Ode Upon
Cromwell’s Return from Ireland
16 March [W] / Introduction to the Restoration; Milton, Paradise Lost (Books 1 and 2)
18 March [F] / Milton, Paradise Lost (Books 3 and 4)
23 March [W] / Milton, Paradise Lost (Books 5 and 6)
25 March [F] / Milton, Paradise Lost Books 7 and 8)
30 March [W] / Milton, Paradise Lost (Books 9 to 12)
1 April [F] / Rochester, “The Imperfect Enjoyment”; Behn, “The Disappointment”
Paper Four (Paradise Lost) due at the beginning of class.