<

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
 <head>
 <link href="formating.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
 <title>
 ENGL 2125
 </title>
 </head>
 <body>
 <div class="headdiv">
 
 ENGL 2125: SURVEY OF BRITISH LITERATURE I
 
 
 
 PAM 1002 MW 4:00
 
 
 
 
 Mr. Radcliffe drad@vt.edu
 
 
 
 Office Hours: TTh 2-3:00 412 Shanks Hall
 
 </div>
 <div class="navdiv">
 <img src="4166Images/JWright.jpg" alt="JWright" />
 
 
 
 </div>
 <div class="textdiv">
 
 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.
 
 Schedule
 
 
 Week 1 (January 17)
 
 Introduction
 
 
 January 22: Norton pp. 1-29.
 
 Beowulf (34-72)
 
 
 January 24:
 
 Beowulf (72-100)
 
 
 January 29:
 
 Gawain and the Green Knight (162-202)
 
 
 January 31:
 
 Gawain and the Green Knight (202-213)
 
 
 February 5: Chaucer:
 
 General Prologue (218-38)
 
 February 7: Chaucer:
 
 Wife of Bath's Tale (257-84)
 
 
 February 12: Norton pp. 485-511; Thomas Wyatt ("Whoso list to hunt," "My Galley," "Mine own John Poins" 595-606); Henry Howard ("The soote season," "So cruel prison how could betide" 608-11)
 
 
 February 14: Sonnets: Philip Sidney,
 
 Astrophel and Stella ( 1, 2, 6, 10, 34 975-81) William Shakespeare (Sonnets 1, 3, 12, 15, 18)
 
 
 February 19: Marlowe "The Passionate Shepherd" (1022); Raleigh, "The Nymph's Reply" (917); Spenser,
 
 Faerie Queene Book III Cantos 11-12 (880-902);
 
 
 February 21: Donne, "The Good Morrow" (1263-64), "The Canonization" (1267-68), "A Valediction forbidding mourning" (1275-76); Holy Sonnets 5, 7, 14 (1295-98); Herbert, "The Altar (1607), "Church Monuments" (1612), Love 3 (1624-25)
 
 
 February 26: Francis Bacon, "Of Great Place" (1554-56), "Of Studies" (1561-63),
 
 Novum Organum excerpts (1565-69)
 
 
 February 28: Marlowe,
 
 Doctor Faustus (1023-57)
 
 
 SPRING BREAK March 3-11
 
 
 March 12: 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)
 
 March 14: Marvell, "To his Coy Mistress" (1703-04), "The Mower against Gardens" (1706-07), "An Horatian Ode" (1712-16)
 
 
 March 19: Milton:
 
 Paradise Lost Books I-II
 
 
 March 21: Milton:
 
 Paradise Lost Book IX
 
 
 March 26: Norton pp. 2057-84. Butler,
 
 Hudibras excerpt (2161-67); Bunyan,
 
 The Pilgrim's Progress excerpt (2143-51)
 
 
 March 28: Dryden:
 
 Absolom and Achitophel
 
 
 April 2: Congreve:
 
 Way of the World Acts I-III (2228-48)
 
 
 April 4: Congreve:
 
 Way of the World Acts IV-V (2248-84)
 
 
 April 9: Addison & Steele,
 
 The Spectator excerpts (2470-92)
 
 
 April 11: Swift:
 
 Gulliver's Travels Book I, chapter 1, Book IV (2328-34, 2418-62)
 
 
 7-8 pp. Essay due 9 April
 
 
 April 16: Pope:
 
 The Rape of the Lock (2514-32)
 Montague, "The Reasons that induced Dr. Swift to write a Poem" (2593-94)
 
 
 April 16: Finch, "Nocturnal Reverie" (2297-98); Gray, "On a Distant Prospect of Eton College" (2863-65); Collins, "Ode to Evening" (2873)
 
 
 April 23: Gray:
 
 Elegy written in a Country Churchyard (2867-70)
 
 
 April 25: Goldsmith:
 
 The Deserted Village (2877-86); Crabbe,
 
 The Village (2887-90)
 
 
 April 30: Johnson:
 
 Rasselas (2680-712)
 
 
 May 2: Johnson:
 
 Rasselas (2713-43)
 
 
 Final Examination:
 
 Tuesday 8 May 3:25
 
 
 

 </div>
 </body>
</html>