Early British Literature

ENG 222 – EARLY BRITISH LITERATURE

From Heroism to the Self(?)

Eve, from John Milton’s epic Paradise Lost (1667, 1674), stands before a pool, staring at her own reflection against the vast landscape of Paradise (illustrated by Gustave Doré, 1866).

 

When did storytelling shift focus from the derring-do of heroes to something like the interiority of the self—that is, the inner life of a more recognizable protagonist? This transition—one that scholars have long insisted on—guides our panoramic introduction to English literature, from the elegiac meditations of Anglo-Saxon verse to the incisive wit of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, noting relevant sociopolitical factors along the way. We watch the medieval romances of knights and ladies yield to the thrilling grandiosity of Renaissance (romance) epic—in Shakespeare’s theater, Spenser’s Fairie Land, and Milton’s verse—before ending with Restoration and eighteenth-century experiments in putting an increasingly relatable hero at the center of their novelistic stage. (Though relatable to whom?)

We’ll also realize, however, that no narrative of literary history can adequately describe the complexities of the texts themselves—or the complicated narratives of race, gender, sexuality, ability (and more) that they engage. After all, ancient epic persists into “modernity” and conflicted inner lives—e.g., Chaucer’s Wife of Bath’s—crop up in apparently “medieval” texts. Which is to say that in this course, we learn from old ways of structuring the sweeping, exhilarating trajectory of English literature while devising new ones of our own.

 

INSTRUCTOR
Pasquale S. Toscano, Ph.D.
Sanders Classroom 102
ptoscano@vassar.ed

 

COURSE GOALS

  • Explore the first 1,000 years of English literary history, tending to its intricacies, appreciating its variety, enjoying its action, and understanding both its scope and interconnections.
  • Sharpen our readerly attention, particularly to the nuances of diction (word choice) and prosody (meter), as these literary features are used within specific works and across entire periods of literary creation.
  • Engage dynamically with the assigned texts for this course—and the scholars we encounter along the way—responding to them creatively and critically, with rewrites and argumentative theses, while newly understanding specific works and the larger arc of literature in English.
  • Cultivate a sense of class community—of eager, honest seminar discussion—as we rediscover the joys of reading great books.

 

GRADING & ASSIGNMENTS
Your grade in this course is based on three components, though improvement will also be weighed heavily. Individual assignment sheets with further information will be distributed at least two weeks in advance. Rather than prioritize long, research papers or weekly Moodle posts, I’ve tried to streamline the assignments, choosing ones that will encourage a closer intimacy with the texts while giving you enough time to read them thoroughly. In a survey, after all, the reading—more than the quality of your prose, even—is the most important thing. Or rather: the reading and our discussion of it because what’s the fun of experiencing great books without having anyone to talk to about them? With that in mind, participation, too, is weighted heavily.

  • Participation – 35% [Please consult the rubric on Moodle for specific guidelines; over spring break, you will receive a midterm participation grade from me so you can assess how you’re doing and prepare for any improvements necessary in the second half of the term.]

This course should be an ongoing conversation (or multiple conversations: between you and me; you and your peers; you and your writing; and you and the texts themselves). What I ask above all else is that you carefully read. This means annotating your texts; reviewing passages freighted with special, interpretive significance; jotting down thoughts about certain lines or sentences; and marking aspects of a section that seem to be working together to produce a particular effect. Never fear: we’ll discuss best practices for doing all of this. It may sound like a grind now, but I promise it will be intellectually rewarding, perhaps even exhilarating, with time.

Full participation also means engaging enthusiastically in seminar discussions and bringing questions, to open a class session, on mutually-agreed-upon days. You’ll also meet with me at least twice in the course of the term to talk about your writing, though of course you’re always welcome to drop by office hours or schedule additional appointments. (I’ll pass around a sign-up sheet in class.)

Most important, however, is the mutual respect and trust we’ll need to extend to one another for this seminar to succeed, especially as we discuss difficult topics and complicated issues facing our society today. Participation therefore means giving your classmates the benefit of the doubt, asking and responding rather than attacking or pigeonholing, and maintaining a curious desire to understand instead of judging or condescending. (Not that you would do either of those things anyway!) Certainly, we won’t always agree—nor would we want to—but we can allow a spirit of intellectual amity to guide our engagements. Through it all, we’ll work together to make sure that hate—including prejudice or bias in any form: e.g., sexism, racism, ablism, homophobia, classism—has no place in our classroom.

Never hesitate to reach out to me—by way of email, stopping by office hours, or scheduling an appointment—to discuss any concerns you might have regarding any aspect of the above.

 

  • Writing Assignments – 35%

This term, you’ll be responsible for three writing assignments. Two, in each half of the term, will be focused on particular formal features that we’ll discuss in class (i.e., diction/word choice and prosody/meter, respectively); the midterm paper is slightly longer, and asks you to take a broader, critical perspective. Though I’ve included a brief description of each assignment below, specific directions will be distributed at least two weeks before each of the due dates listed in the syllabus.

  • Career of a Word (3–4 pp.) – 10% [due Feb. 14, 11:59 p.m.]

Identify a word that is used several time in the texts, in apparently interesting, different, or thematically important ways. On the first  page, briefly sketch its etymology using the OED (accessible via the library website) and give us a sense of its various meanings; in the rest of the paper, describe the multiple connotations and denotations that the word assumes over the course of the text you’re examining; if they’re contradictory at times, explain how we might reconcile their apparent contestation; if they generate interpretive ambiguity, note it; if they participate in significant imagery or description, describe what work they do. The goal, ultimately, is to show that “complex words”—more on this term, the literary critic William Empson’s, later—can have careers across literary texts and contribute to our interpretation of them; my challenge to you is to explain how your particular word accomplishes as much.

  • Formal Analysis (c. 1000 words) – 15% [due March 7, 11:59 p.m.]

We’ll talk more about what it means to formally analyze or close-read a passage—in fact, we’ll be doing a lot of it in class—but this paper asks you to do that for an excerpt of your choosing. You’ll discuss the rhetorical particulars of a selection from one of our texts to support an argumentative thesis you’ve devised before ending with a note on the importance of your reading for understanding the text as a whole.

  • Life of a Line (3–4 pp.) – 10% [due April 18, 11:59 p.m.]

In this class, we’ll be tracking the rise of a particular metrical pattern—blank verse or unrhymed iambic pentameter (typically consisting of five metrical units, or feet, composed of one unstressed and one stressed syllable each)—that has hugely shaped the trajectory of English. This assignment asks you to pick four blank verse lines that particularly speak to you, from different period in the form’s development (in Surrey, Marlowe, Shakespeare, and Milton). Describe their particularities, compare and contrast them, and then reflect on how this prosodic feature has evolved over time (as scholars typically suggest it does)—or, actually, doesn’t.

 

  • Examinations (quizzes + final take-home) – 30%

Finally, there’s also an objective component to this course: three brief quizzes (roughly one per month), the last of them rolled into a final exam that asks you to reflect on larger themes that we’ve been discussing. Each one will be take-home, closed-book; you’ll answer ten short-answer questions—from a total of 13 (you can answer the remaining three for bonus)—about the authors, periods, or texts that we’ve read in that month of the class. There will also be a few quote IDs interspersed (that ask you to identity the text the quote comes from and give a sense of its context, in a sentence or two—max). The goal is not to trip you up: the questions asked, or quotes included, will be ones we have spent significant time in class discussing. Individual quizzes should take you no more than about a half-an-hour so let me know if they becomes time prohibitive. A final note on dates: quizzes will become available on Moodle by 6:00 p.m. on the Tues. before they’re due.

  • Quiz #1 (5%) – due 31, 11:59 p.m.

[10/13 short-answer/quote IDs, all of which can be answered in a sentence or two, sometimes even with a word]

  • Quiz #2 (5%) – due April 4, 11:59 p.m.

[same as Quiz #1]

  • Take-home final (20%) – due May 14, 11:59 p.m.

[Two parts: the first is a normal, though slightly longer (15-question), quiz; the second invites you to answer four, from a possible six, essay questions, which will ask you to engage with, and extrapolate from, the course material in overarching, even creative ways: this might mean comparing/contrasting several texts/authors or commenting on a significant theme, topic, or question we’ve touched on in class. Further explanation will be offered far in advance of the exam itself.]

N.B. In the event that you are unhappy with either one of your quiz grades—and receive less than a B—you may choose to make-up one quiz; the better of the two performances will then count toward your final grade.

 

COURSE TEXTS

The texts I’m asking you to purchase are available from the Three Arts bookstore (3 Collegeview Ave #1), which I highly recommend supporting since it’s a great resource in our community. Everything else will be available on our course website. If you do need to purchase the texts independently, make every effort to get these editions (since it will make for smoother class discussions). Finally, I realize that some of you use Project Guttenberg, which can be a great and affordable resource, though I would highly encourage you to check-out either the tenth (or a previous) edition of The Norton Anthology from the library instead, since its marginal annotations, footnotes, and headnotes will be far more helpful than an unadorned, public-domain version of the text. (As always, don’t hesitate to come to me with any questions.)

  • Stephen Greenblatt, et al., eds, The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Middles Ages through the Restoration and the Eighteenth Century [i.e., vols a-c], 10th (Norton, 2018).
  • William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I, Folger Shakespeare Library, ed. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine (Simon and Schuster, 2020).
  • Jane Austen, Persuasion, ed. Gillian Beer (Penguin, 2003).

 

COURSE PLAN

N.B. Two things about readings: (1) unless otherwise noted, they are from the Norton Anthology; (2) all readings include the biographical headnote and, if one’s provided, the brief, preceding introduction to the assigned text.

 

Week 1: Introduction/English Literature before English

Jan. 23    “The Wanderer,” “The Wife’s Lament” (earlier than the late 10th c.)

 

Week 2: Romance to Realism: Round 1

Jan. 28     Marie de France (fl. 1180), “Chevrefoil”; Sir Orfeo (ca. 13th/14th c.)

A note on language: since contemporary English hails from Chaucer’s East Midlands dialect of Middle English—which was spoken in London—we can read the The Canterbury Tales in its original verse (as we could not for Sir Orfeo). This takes time, but it’s worth it (and we’ll talk a lot more about why that is in class itself). Till you get the hang of Middle English, though, these two resources may be helpful (and of course, the NA’s glosses and footnotes will assist you as well):

Feb. 1     Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343–1400), The Canterbury Tales (1400), “General Prologue”

 

Week 3: The Tales of Real Folk: Geoffrey Chaucer, Father of English Poetry

Feb. 4     “General Prologue” (fin.), “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue” (start)

Feb. 6     “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue” (fin.)

DUE (Fri., 11:59 p.m.): Quiz #1 (10 short answer questions and/or quote IDs + 3 bonus)

 

Week 4: Going Medieval/Making It Modern

Feb. 11   Chaucer, “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”

.               Margery Kempe (c. 1373–1438), The Book of Margery Kempe (selections, in-class).

Another note on language: though Spenser was writing after the rise of what we now call “early modern English”—the kind that Shakespeare wrote and that, for all its apparent oddities, is not fundamentally different from ours—he uses an archaic, even Chaucerian, kind of idiom for The Faerie Queene. Again, I’m asking that you lean into the strangeness of the language—read it in its original and consider how it contributes to the meaning of the text—but as you do so, this resource (a canto-by-canto summary) might be helpful, so long as it doesn’t replace actually reading the poem.

Feb. 13    Edmund Spenser (1552/3–1599), The Faerie Queene (1590), Book I, canto i & “A Letter of the Authors”

 

Week 5: Epic & Empire in the Age of Elizabeth: Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene

Feb. 18     FQ I (cont.)

.                 Elizabeth I (1533–1603), “A Speech to a Joint Delegation” (1566)

Feb. 20     FQ I (fin.)

.                 Elizabeth I, “The Golden Speech” (1601)

DUE (Fri., 11:59 p.m.): Career of a word (2 pg. analysis, with etymological description)

 

Week 6: From Rome, with Love: A Form of the Future for the World of the Past

 Feb. 25    Christopher Marlowe (1564–93), Dido, Queen of Carthage (1587) [M]

.                 Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1516/17–1547), Certain Bokes of Virgiles Aeneis (1557)

.                            [selections, M]

.                 Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586), Defense of Poesy (1579, pub. 1595)

.                            [one para., NA, p. 567, “There rests … Horace saith”]

Feb. 27      Dido (fin.)

.                 Elizabeth I, “To the Troops at Tilbury” (1588)

SCREENING/PIZZA PARTY: Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I; details TBD.

 

Week 7: The Globe of Professional Theater: Old Stories, New Minds on Shakespeare’s Stage

March 4    William Shakespeare (1564–1616), Henry IV, Part I (c. 1597)

March 6    Henry IV, Part I (fin.)

DUE (Fri., 11:59 p.m.): Formal analysis (3–5 pp.)

BREAK – Enjoy the rest (you’ve earned it), but also try to read as much of Milton’s Paradise Lost as you can. (You’ll thank me later; promise!)

 

Week 8: “What is that honour? Air”: Ancient Genre, Modern Stress

March 25    Shakespeare, Henriad, selections [M]

.                    John Milton (1608–1674), “On Shakespeare” (1632), The Reason of Church Gov.

.                            [Plans and Projects] (1642), “When I Consider How My Light Is Spent” (c. 1653)

March 27    Milton, Paradise Lost (1667, 1674), Book 1.

 

Week 9: “Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme”: The Pluck of Paradise Lost

April 1       PL 2–3

April 3       PL 4

DUE (Friday, 11:59 p.m.): Quiz #2

 

Week 10: The Greatest Story Ever Told: Biblical Truth, Modern Invention

April 8      PL 9

April 10    PL 10, 12.606–49.

 

Week 11: What Comes Next?: Storytelling after Milton

April 15    John Bunyan (1628–1688), Pilgrim’s Progress (1678) [selections]

April 17     Alexander Pope (1688–1744), The Rape of the Lock (1712, 1714, 1717)

 

Week 12: Brave “New” Worlds: Authors of Color Begin to Write Back

April 22     Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753–1784), selected poems

April 24     Olaudah Equiano (1745–97), Interesting Narrative (1789) [selections]

DUE (Friday, 11:59 p.m.): Life of a line (iambic pentameter compare/contrast; c. 3–4 pp.)

 

Week 13: Breaking Novel Ground: The Wonderful Wit of Jane Austen 

April 29    Jane Austen (1775–1817), Persuasion (1817)

May 1      Persuasion (fin.)

 

Final Day: Reconceiving the History of English Literature

May 6     Concluding discussion

FINAL TAKE-HOME ESSAY EXAM – 15/20 short-answer questions or quote IDs + 3/5

Informal, reflective commentaries from a pre-circulated selection of prompts.