ENGL 211: SURVEY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE
READINGS AND ASSIGNMENT SCHEDULE
NOTE: You are expected to complete all readings for the week at the beginning of the week. Readings
marked CONTEXT are included to give you a sense of the contemporary debates that inform the
readings on that day. You are expected to make use of these contextual readings in your assignments
and in class discussion. We may not cover every single assigned text in detail in class, but you will be
expected to extrapolate from our discussions and, in assignments and on exams, to apply your
knowledge to those readings not covered in class. Classroom discussions and lectures are not designed
to expose a "correct" interpretation of each text but to provide you with intellectual/historical/artistic
contexts and examples—that is, tools—to guide your own interpretive practice.
NOTE: For each author, you should be sure to read the Introductory Headnote provided at the
beginning of the section on his or her work. Page numbers indicated below are for the first page of the
selection. Please be sure to read the entire selection unless otherwise indicated. Detailed assignment
descriptions are available on the course blog on the "Assignments" page.
Week
1
DATE
Sept. 3
READINGS
2012-13 Undergraduate Calendar, Regulations
and Policies: Academic Offenses, Procedure
on Suspicion of an Academic Offence,
Academic Sanctions.
ASSIGNMENTS
Introductions and
Administration;
Structure of the Course
2
Sept. 8-10
Context: The Middle Ages, Introduction and
Timeline (3)
Beowulf (36-58)
3
Sept 15-17
Sept. 17: Beowulf cont'd
Anglo-Saxon Epic;
Christian Remixing
SEPT. 10 HOMEWORK
#1 DUE
Courtly love; Romance;
Power and Moral
Authority
SEPT. 17 HOMEWORK
#2 DUE
The Sonnet and the
Subject
SEPT. 24 HOMEWORK
#3 DUE
4
Sept. 22-24
5
Sept 29-Oct 1
Sept 19: Context: "Geoffrey Chaucer" and
"The Canterbury Tales" (238-243)
Chaucer, "The Wife of Bath's Tale" (301)
Sept. 24: "The Wife of Bath's Tale" cont'd
Sept. 26: 16th and 17th Century: Context:
Introduction and Timeline (531)
Lecture: Reformation, Renaissance, The "Early
Modern"
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, "The Soote
Season" (671); Shakespeare #116 (1211)
Sonnets: Wyatt, "Whoso list to hunt" (649);
Shakespeare 116 (1182); Wroth Pamphilia to
OCT. 1: REMIX
ASSIGNMENT DUE
Amphilanthus #1 (1566); Milton "When I
consider how my light is spent" (1942)
6
Oct. 6-8
Context: Swetnam, "The Arraignment…"
(1650); Speght, "A Muzzle for Melastomus"
(1652); Bacon, "Of Marriage and the Single
Life" (1664)
Marlowe, "The Passionate Shepherd to His
Love" (1126); Raleigh, "The Nymph's Reply"
(1024); Donne, "The Flea" (1373); Marvell,
"The Definition of Love" (1798)
Replies and Remixes;
Dramatic Monologue;
Metaphysical Poetry
OCT. 8 HOMEWORK #4
DUE
7
Oct. 13-15
8
Oct. 20-22
OCT. 13 NO CLASSES
OCT. 15 MID-TERM EXAMINATION
The Book of Homilies: "An Homily Against
Disobedience and Willful Rebellion" (692);
Elizabeth I, "The doubt of future foes" (758),
Speech to the troops at Tilbury (762)
9
Oct. 27-29
The mid-term will cover
all materials to date.
Rule; Gender; The
King's Two Bodies;
Doctrine of Obedience
OCT. 22 HOMEWORK
#5 DUE
OCT. 29 ESSAY
OUTLINES DUE
10
Nov. 3-5
Lovelace, "The Grasshopper" (1780); Philips,
"Upon the Double Murder of King Charles"
(1785); Hutchinson, "Memoirs of the Life of
Colonel John Hutchinson" (1868)
Milton, Paradise Lost Book 1
11
Nov. 10-12
Behn, "The Disappointment" (2310);
Rochester, "The Disabled Debauchee" (2297)
12
Nov. 17-19
(2260); Montagu, The Turkish Embassy
Letters: "The Women's Coffee House" (2760);
Olaudah Equiano, "The Interesting
Narrative…" (3033)
13
Nov. 24-26
Catch-up and Review
Regicide; Revolution
NOV. 5 LAST DAY TO
HAND IN DISCUSSION
QUESTIONS FOR
GRADE
Revolution; Heroic;
Rhetoric
Mock Heroic
NOV. 19 RESEARCH
PAPERS DUE
Strangers in Strange
Lands; Memoirs;
Narrating the Self and
the Other