SURVEY OF BRITISH LITERATURE I

Syllabus

This class follows the development of English literature from its beginnings in oral and manuscript culture in the medieval period to the beginnings of modern commercial publishing in the eighteenth century. We will read a selection of seminal works in the more important genres of poetry and prose, considering how the sentiments they express address matters of concerns of their times and ours, and how the forms in which those sentiments were expressed laid the groundwork for literature as we know it today. Evaluation will be based on attendance and class participation, occasional short assignments (30%), two 5-6 page papers (40%), and a final examination (30%).

A survey course like this has several goals.  Since English literature is filled with allusions to landmark works, surveys of earlier literature are obviously useful for grasping references in later literature.  Surveys also introduce the ways of reading works in their historical, social, and intellectual contexts. Still another purpose is to cultivate an awareness of long-term historical continuity and change since literary works typically speak to contexts beyond those that originally gave rise to them.  And then, not the least important purpose of a survey course is to equip contemporary readers and writers with "the best that has been thought and said" by their predecessors.

To pursue these goals it is necessary to absorb a good deal of information intended for future use: in other literature and humanities courses, but also for making sense of the world beyond the walls of the academy.  Because there is much information to be absorbed in a short time, students are required to do the readings, attend the lectures, participate in discussions, and do the assignments. Attendance will be taken and late work will be accepted only with the prior permission of the instructor.  Work done for this class is expected to be your own.

Students with disabilities are encouraged to contact the instructor; all students are expected to abide by the Virginia Tech Honor System. Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays at 2:00, and by appointment. Come by to chat about literature, your essays, future plans, whatever.

Schedule

Week 1 August 26: Introduction

August 28: Norton pp. 1-29. Beowulf (34-72)

Week 2 September 2: Beowulf (72-100)

September 4: Gawain and the Green Knight (162-202)

Week 3 September 9: Gawain and the Green Knight (202-213)

September 11: Chaucer: General Prologue (218-38)

Week 4 September 16: Chaucer: Wife of Bath's Tale (257-84)

September 18: Norton pp. 485-511; Thomas Wyatt, "Whoso list to hunt" (595); Henry Howard, "The soote season," "So cruel prison how could betide" (608-11).

Week 5 September 23: Sonnets: Philip Sidney, Astrophel and Stella ( 1, 6, 975-77) William Shakespeare (Sonnets 1, 3, 12, 15, 18); Marlowe "The Passionate Shepherd" (1022); Raleigh, "The Nymph's Reply" (917)

September 25: Spenser, Faerie Queene Book III Cantos 11-12 (880-902)

Week 6 September 30: Francis Bacon, "Of Great Place" (1554-56), "Of Studies" (1561-63); Donne, "The Good Morrow" (1263-64), "The Canonization" (1267-68), "A Valediction forbidding mourning" (1275-76); Holy Sonnets 5, 7, 14 (1295-98)

5-6 pp. Essay due 30 September

October 2: Marlowe, Doctor Faustus (1023-57)

Week 7 October 7: Norton pp. 1235-57; Jonson, "Inviting a Friend to Supper" (1431-32), "Still to be Neat" (1444); Herrick, "Delight in Disorder" (1656), "Corinna's Gone A-Maying" (1658-59), "To the Virgins, to Make much of Time" (1659-60), "The Hock Cart, or Harvest Home" (1660-61); Carew, "Elegy upon the Death of Dr. John Donne" (1666-68); Lovelace, "The Grasshopper" (1682-83); Philips, "Friendship's Mystery" (1692-93)

October 9: Marvell, "To his Coy Mistress" (1703-04), "The Mower against Gardens" (1706-07), "An Horatian Ode" (1712-16); Herbert, "The Altar (1607), "Church Monuments" (1612)

FALL BREAK October 10-19

Week 8 October 14: Milton: Paradise Lost Books I-II (1831-1871)

October 16: Milton: Paradise Lost Book IX (1973-98)

Week 9 October 21: October 28: Norton pp. 2057-84. Butler, Hudibras excerpt (2161-67); Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress excerpt (2143-51)

October 23: Milton: Dryden: Absolom and Achitophel (2087-2111)

Week 10 October 28: Congreve: Way of the World Acts I-III (2228-48)

October 30: Congreve: Way of the World Acts I-III (2228-48)

Week 11 November 4: Addison & Steele, The Spectator excerpts (2470-92)

November 6: Swift: Gulliver's Travels Book I, chapter 1, Book IV (2328-34, 2418-62)

Week 12 November 11: Pope: The Rape of the Lock (2514-25) Cantos I-III

November 13: Pope: The Rape of the Lock Cantos IV-V (2525-32) Swift: "The Lady's Dressing Room" (2590-93) Montague, "The Reasons that induced Dr. Swift to write a Poem" (2593-94)

Week 13 November 18: Anne Finch: "A Nocturnal Reverie" (2294-97); Gray: "Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College" (2862-65)

November 20: Gray: Elegy written in a Country Churchyard (2867-70)

THANKSGIVING BREAK November 22-30

Week 14 December 2: Collins, Ode to Evening (2873); Goldsmith: The Deserted Village (2877-86)

5-6 pp. Essay due 2 December

December 4: Johnson: Rasselas (2680-712)

Week 15 December 9: Johnson: Rasselas (2713-43)

May 2:

Final Examination: Thursday, December 18 1:05