English 201: Writing and Literary Studies II
Spring 2012
T Jan 31
Sections: E and G
Unless otherwise indicated, readings come from Literature in Context, volume I, with
pagination following. Readings marked "CNO" are available from Carson-Newman
Online’s Edvance 360 materials for our course as handouts for any given week.
Each week listed, you are responsible for knowing the concepts listed at the top of
each weekly entry. These concepts can be found in the back of your literature book and
as vocabulary terms on the class website at the following URL:
http://cnweb.cn.edu/kwheeler/lit_terms.html. For most texts, read-along questions can
found on the class website as well. Refer to the read-along questions and answer them as
you read to make sure you are on track and understanding the text. Bring your texts and
print-outs of assigned materials from CN-Online with you to class each day (the ones
marked “Print Me” when you look at the file on CN-Online). Note that this syllabus is
tentative. It can change according to the instructor's discretion.
R Feb 2
H ERO IC AND CLASSICAL W RITINGS:
Week 1:
R Jan 12
Week 2:
T Jan 17
R Jan 19
Week 3:
T Jan 24
R Jan 26
Week 4:
GETTING TO KNOW YOU
Concepts: close reading, peer-reviewed journal, periodization, periods
of literature, plagiarism
Introduction to the course. Purchase books and supplies.
THE MOTE IN THE CYCLOPEAN EYE
Concepts: close reading, epic, epic simile, epithet, heroic age,
imagery, in medias res, laws of hospitality, lyric, meter, mythology,
nostos
Read Plagiarism Statement at class website:
http://cnweb.cn.edu/kwheeler/plagiarism.html. Turn in a signed copy
of this plagiarism statement.
Various Handouts (CNO 02 “Classical Greek’s Homeric Age”)
"Unit One: The Classical or Ancient Age," pp. 1-3.
Start Homer: The Odyssey, pp. 5-34.
Finish The Odyssey, pp. 34-56; CNO 02 handouts continued
WISDOM AND DESIRE
Concepts. allegoresis, allegory, classical, parable, philosophy,
platonic forms, polis
Plato, "The Parable of the Cave," pp. 57-60; Various philosophy
handouts (CNO 03a “Classical Greece’s Golden Age, Philosophy”)
Close Reading Exercise Due. Library Instruction Section (class will
meet in the fourth floor of the Carson-Newman Library).
IRRESISTABLE FATE
Concepts: aidos, anagnorisis, antistrophe, arête, catharsis, choragos,
chorus, dramatis personae, hamartia, play, moira, polis, strophe,
tragedy
Week 5:
T Feb 7
R Feb 9
Week 5:
T Feb 14
Sophocles, Oedipus Rex, pp. 61-90. *Spoiler Alert! If you are already
familiar with the play, Oedipus Rex, go ahead and read the
introduction, which contains a reference to how the tale ends. If you
have never read Oedipus Rex and want the ending to be a surprise,
read the introduction after you finish the play.
Various Handouts (CNO 03b “Classical Greece’s Golden Age:
Tragedy”).
Finish Sophocles, Oedipus Rex, pp. 90-102.
Begin Virgil, The Aeneid. NOTE: This bit of the syllabus is going to
be a bit confusing. I want students to read alternating passages from
The Aeneid in our textbook and passages available as additional
excerpts from Carson-Newman Online. To do this, go to CNO
“Classical Roman Period,” and print out the two files marked
“READ ME FIRST: Guide to the Aeneid additional excerpts” and
“Additional Excerpts from The Aeneid.” Follow the first file’s
directions by reading Book I, pp. 103-05 from our textbook, then flip
back and forth between sections in the additional excerpts as
instructed. Bring these printouts with you to class.
RISING EMPIRE AND FALLING HEARTS
Concepts: cardinal virtues, epic, epic hero, iusticia, moderatio, pietas,
propaganda, prudentia, stoicism
Virgil, The Aeneid (continuing with last week’s CNO excerpts) and
Virgil, The Aeneid Book IV, pp. 103-109. (Follow directions in the
Course Packet, p. 49, to read the text in the appropriate order; we
will be flipping back and forth between the excerpts in the textbook
and additional excerpts from CNO).
Virgil, The Aeneid, pp. 109-132 (textbook) and continuing with last
week’s CNO excerpts, concluding with Book XII, lines 1178-1271
(CNO).
TESTS OF CHARACTER
Concepts: see list above February 16 readings.
Examination I: Heroic and Classical Writings
PATRISTIC AND MEDIEVAL WRITINGS:
R Feb 16
Week 6:
T Feb 21
Concepts: alliteration, alliterative verse, Anglo-Saxon (or Old
English), beôt, comitatus, cyning, hlaford, shame/fame culture, thegn
Anonymous, Beowulf, pp. 177-90 (line 875).
UNDER THE FANG AND UNDER THE WORLD
Concepts: contrapasso, foreshadowing, fourfold interpretation,
medieval, purgatory, rhyme, riddle, situational irony, symbolism, terza
rima, trilogy, vernacular
Remainder of Beowulf, through conclusion, pp. 190-210; various
handouts (CNO 07).
"Anglo-Saxon Riddles," pp. 211-14. Note: One of these riddles may
R Feb 23
Week 9:
T Feb 28
R Mar 1
Week 10:
T Mar 6
R Mar 8
Week 11:
T Mar 13
R Mar 15
March 19-23
Week 12:
T Mar 27
R Mar 29
appear as a bonus question on a future examination.
Powerpoint: The High Middle Ages. Various Dante handouts (CNO
08b “High Middles Ages Dante”; Dante, The Divine Comedy, Inferno,
Canto I, V and IX, pp. 215-27.
SAINTS AND SINNERS? HERETICS AND HAZELNUTS?
Concepts: anchoress, anchorhold, Breton lai, court of love,
fairy-tale, heresy, imagery, Lollard, mystics, satire
Dante, Inferno, excerpts from Cantos XXIV-XXXIX, pp. 227-40.
Inferno Projects due for students who signed up for this slot.
Various Handouts (CNO 08e “High Middle Ages Mystic Writers”)
Julian of Norwich, "Revelations of Divine Love," pp.
289-97. Margery Kempe, "The Book of Margery Kempe," pp. 299312. Heresy Trials! Heresy Trial Materials Due for students who
signed up for this slot.
IT’S NOT EASY BEING GREEN
Concepts: alliterative verse, alliterative revival, archetype, bob-andwheel, chivalry courtly love, fit, five wounds of Christ, folkloric motifs,
leit-motif, medieval romance, temptation motif
Various Handouts (CNO 08d “High Middle Ages Pearl Poet”); The
Pearl Poet, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Fit I-II), pp. 313-28.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Fit II-III), pp. 313-46.
DISTANT JOURNEYS
Concepts: bourgeoisie, couplet, frame narrative, Middle English,
pilgrimage, relic, satire, unreliable narrator
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Fit IV), pp. 347-52.
Chivalry Trials! Chivalry Trial Materials Due for students who
signed up for this slot.
Various Chaucer handouts (CNO 08c “High Middles Ages Chaucer”).
Chaucer’s Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, pp. 241-61.
SPRING BREAK Note that by the end of Spring Break, you should
have completed reading the primary text for your major project as well
as selected several secondary sources from electronic journals, books,
etc.]
A WHOLE LOT OF WOMAN: THE WIFE OF BATH
Concepts: the Great Vowel Shift, guild, ambiguity, mock sermon,
satire, stereotype, the Great Vowel Shift, Middle English, narrator,
pilgrimage, relic, satire
Chaucer, Prologue of the Wife of Bath, pp. 262-88.
Chaucer, Tale of the Wife of Bath, pp.
Week 13:
T April 5
WANING OF THE MIDDLE AGES
Examination II: Medieval Materials
RENAISSANCE LITERATURE:
Concepts: act, anagnorisis, aside, blank verse, body politic, crisis,
dialogue, dramatis personae, Globe Theater, groundlings, hamartia,
hubris, iambic pentameter, Machiavellian, macrocosm, meter,
microcosm, peripeteia, play, primate, primogeniture, scene, soliloquy
R April 7
Shakespeare, King Lear (Acts I), pp. 366-89. Various Handouts
(CNO 11 “Renaissance Jacobean Period”).
Week 14:
NATURE, BE THOU MY GODDESS. . . .
Concepts: act, anagnorisis, aside, blank verse, body politic, crisis,
dialogue, dramatis personae, Globe Theater, groundlings, hamartia,
hubris, iambic pentameter, Machiavellian, macrocosm, meter,
microcosm, peripeteia, play, primate, primogeniture, scene, soliloquy
Shakespeare, King Lear (Acts II-III), pp. 389-406
Shakespeare, King Lear (Acts IV), pp. 406-440.
T Apr 10
R Apr 12
Week 15:
T Apr 17
R Apr 19
THE DEATH OF KINGS
Shakespeare, King Lear (all), pp. 440-52.
NO CLASS: Research Performance Day.
Three copies of Rough Draft due for peer evaluations. 201 Students
will (a) attend presentations by the English 475 class, (b) swap papers
for peer evaluation with partners.
Week 15:
FROM PLAYBOY TO POET TO PREACHER
Concepts: homily, meditation, metaphysical conceit, metaphysical
poets, neologism, puritans
Donne, "The Flea," "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning," and
"Meditation 17," p. 453-56; Milton, Areopagitica, pp. 457-59.
“Paradise Lost 1647 Chart” (CNO 13—ignore other handouts).
Start Milton, Paradise Lost, pp. 460-462 (first 125 lines of opening)
Milton, Paradise Lost, pp. 460-76 (end at Book IX).
R Apr 24
R Apr 26
Week 16:
T May 1
THE SERPENT’S SMILE
Concepts: Byronic hero, etiology, Miltonic imagery, providence
Continue Milton, Paradise Lost, pp. 476-91. 103-04.
Final Day of Regular Office Hours
Spring 2012 Final Examination: The final exam time for the 8:00 (section E) class is
tentatively scheduled for 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, May 8th. The final exam time for the
noon (section G) class is noon on Wednesday, May 9th. The examination will be
comprehensive. Fear the test and study for it meticulously each week. Check the CarsonNewman Website for any changes to this schedule.