- Spring 2022
Syllabus Description:
Spring 2022 English 322a W.R. Streitberger CMU 230 Elizabethan Literature A-510 Padelford MW 9:30-11:20 streitwr@
TEXT: The Norton Anthology, English Literature, The Sixteenth Century, The Early Seventeenth Century, 10th ed
ABOUT THE COURSE: This is a 300 level, junior-senior level majors course in Elizabethan literature. All of the works we read were written early modern English. While the spelling and orthography have been modernized in our text, early modern syntax and word choice will occasionally make reading more challenging than you might be used to. You need to plan for this in terms of setting aside enough time to comprehend the reading assignments. In our class sessions you must have your text open in front of you so that you can follow along in our reading and discussions and take the appropriate notes
REQUIREMENTS: For each 50 minute class period I have assigned reading and provided three questions about it. Your job is to come to class fully prepared to discuss these questions. I will call on students to report on them. From five to seven times during the quarter I will ask you to choose one of the questions as the subejct of a 25 minute essay. You may choose any of the three questions assigned to that class period. I will allow you to make up two of these essays if you are absent or uprepared.
SCHEDULE
UTOPIAS Week 1. Over the course of this week read in Norton, 3-13 28 Mar Introduction. 30 Mar Sir Thomas More, Utopia, 44-117
Week 2. Over the course of this week read in Norton, 13-26 4 Apr Utopia 6 Apr Bacon, New Atlantis, 1231-36. Castiglione, The Courtier, 176-192. Find online and read Michele de Montaigne, On the Inconstancy of our Actions
LYRIC POETRY Week 3. 11 Apr Shakespeare, Sonnets 1, 18, 73. Wyatt, Surrey 119-142. 13 Apr Sir Philip Sidney, Sonnets, 586-603. Shakespeare, Sonnets, (between 1 and 126) 722-738
Week 4. 18 Apr Shakespeare Sonnets (between 127 and 152). Mary Wroth, Pampilia to Amphilanthus, 1116-1121, Amelia Lanyer, Eve’s Apology, 980-86, John Donne, The Flea, The Good-Morrow, The Ecstacy, The Cannonization, A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, and Holy Sonnets 5, 10, 14 (between 923-63)
LITERARY THEORY, EPIC POETRY 20 Apr Sidney, Defence of Poesy, 546-57, 564-67, 570-75, 578-81. Spenser, Faerie Queene. Read the letter to Raleigh and the Induction, 249-54
Week 5. Before Monday’s class find any Bible online. Read from the book of Revelation, chapters 12, 13, 17, 19-22. 25 Apr Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene. First Hour: Book 1 canto 1, stanzas 1-55 (Error and Archimago), canto 4, stanzas 1-36 (House of Pride), Second Hour: Book I, canto 9, stanzas 1-19 (Arthur’s story), stanzas 21-54 (The Cave of Despair)
27 Apr Faerie Queene, First Hour. Book I, canto 10, stanzas 1-68 (The House of Holiness), canto 11, stanzas 28-36, 44-52. Second Hour. Book I, canto 12, stanzas 24-36. Book II, canto 12, stanzas 42-87 (The Bower of Bliss)
Week 6 2 May John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book I.1-270 (Invocation; epic similies, Satan). Book I.376-521 (The devils). Book II.629-967 (Sin, Death, and Hell). Book IV.440-504 (Eve’s reflection). Book IV.610-775 (Sex in Paradise)
4 May Paradise Lost, Book V.1-135 (Eve’s dream). Book V.561-615 (Milton’s Christology). Book VII.70-564 (The Creation). Book VIII.283-643(Adam’s consciousness). Book IX.404-1189 (The fall)
DRAMTIC POETRY Week 7. This week read in Norton, 27-35. 9 May Christopher Marlowe, Dr. Faustus, 679-717 11 May Dr. Faustus
Week 8 16 May Shakespeare, Othello, 803-889 18 May Shakespeare, Othello
Week 9 23 May Shakespeare, Twelfth Night,739-802 25 May Twelfth Night
Week 10 30 May Jonson, Volpone, 991-1088 1 Jun Jonson, Volpone