English 359 (01)
Studies in Renaissance Literature
September - December 2001
Meeting: Tu 6:30 - 9:30 PM
Room: Bldg. 345, Rm. 104
Office: Bldg. 335, Rm. 120
Office Hours: M 10:30-11:30; Tu 5:30-6:30; W 12:30-1:30
Course Newsgroup: news://nntp.mala.bc.ca/mala.engl359.f0101
Description
This course will survey the major non-dramatic literature of the 16th century, covering work by canonical Henrician and Elizabethan figures and also focusing on several literary contexts that positively inform the study of early modern writing.
- Course Texts:
- Castiglione, Baldassare. The Book of the Courtier. Trans. George Bull. New York: Penguin, 1976.
- Devonshire MS, Selections. Available on-line at: http://web.mala.bc.ca/siemensr/Teaching/Engl359-01-Devonshire.htm
- Henry VIII. Selected Lyrics. Available on-line at: http://web.mala.bc.ca/siemensr/Teaching/Engl359-01-Henry.htm
- Henry VIII MS, Selections. Available on-line at: http://web.mala.bc.ca/siemensr/Teaching/Engl359-01-HenryMS.htm
- Howard, Henry, Earl of Surrey. Selected Poems. Available online at: http://web.mala.bc.ca/siemensr/Teaching/Engl359-01-Surrey.htm
- Salzman, Paul, ed. An Anthology of Elizabethan Prose Fiction. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1998.
- Shakespeare, William. Shakespeare's Sonnets. Stephen Booth, ed. New Haven: Yale UP, 2000.
- Sidney, Philip. Sir Philip Sidney's Apology for Poetry and Astrophil and Stella: Texts and Contexts. Peter Herman, Ed. Glen Allen, VA. College Publishing, 2001.
- Spenser, Edmund. The Faerie Queene. Thomas P. Roche, ed. New York: Penguin, 1988.
- Wyatt, Thomas. Selected Poems. Available on-line at: http://web.mala.bc.ca/siemensr/Teaching/Engl359-01-Wyatt.htm
- Supplementary Texts:
- More, Thomas. Utopia. Robert M. Adams, ed. and trans. Norton Critical Edition. London and New York: W.W. Norton, 1975.
- Skelton, John. The Bowge of Courte. Available on-line at: http://web.mala.bc.ca/siemensr/teaching/Engl359-01-Skelton.htm
- Plus, selected readings assigned and provided during the term;
for weeks 1-3, the following are on reserve in the library:
- Fox, Alistair. "Literary Patronage: The System and its Obligations." 11-24 in Politics and Literature in the Reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1989.
- Loades, David. "Life at Court: Sports, Entertainments, and Pastimes." 96-113 in The Tudor Court. Bangor: Headstart History, 1992.
- Saunders, J.W. "From Manuscript to Print: A Note on the Circulation of Poetic Manuscripts in the Sixteenth Century." Proceedings of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society 7.5 (1951): 507-28.
- Starkey, David. "The Court: Castiglione's Ideal and Tudor Reality." Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 45 (1982): 232-9.
- Stevens, John. "The Game of Love." 154-202 in Music & Poetry in the Early Tudor Court. London: Methuen, 1961.
- Waller, Gary. "Reading the Poetry of the Sixteenth Century." 1-33 in English Poetry of the Sixteenth Century. London: Longman, 1986.
- Williams, John. "Preface: Three Phases of Renaissance Poetry." Renaissance English Poetry. Ed. John Williams. New York: Anchor, 1963. vii-xxxi.
- Additional Resources:
- English 359 Newsgroup: news://nntp.mala.bc.ca/mala.engl359.f0101
- Abrams, M. H. (gen. ed.), et al, eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol. 1. 7th ed. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 2000. (From English 200; 6th ed. will be fine as well.)
- Lunsford, Andrea, Robert Connors, and Judy Segal. The Everyday Writer: A Brief Reference. Canadian ed. New York: St. Martin's P, 1997. (The home page for most recent edition of this work is found at <http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/lunsford/everyday_writer/default.html>.)
- The Writing Centre at Malaspina U-C.
- Malaspina U-C, English Department Grading Standards
- Mid-term exam, 15%. (Week 4.)
- This 1.5-hour exam will cover the material considered up to and including that presented in week 3. It will have 3 sections: [1] identification of passages and expansion on their significance, [2] short answer (paragraph), and [3] long answer (essay).
- Research Presentation, 15%. (Due throughout the term.)
- A well-researched and formal presentation on your topic, which will be assigned during the second week of class. The presentation will [1] be approximately 10 minutes in length, and [2] will include, for each member of the seminar, a one-page handout that outlines your presentation and lists useful secondary resources (in MLA style) for those who wish to know more about your topic.
- Due for approval in office hours one week before the night of your presentation are: [1] the complete script or outline for your presentation, [2] the handout, and [3] an annotated bibliography, MLA style, of between 5-8 secondary academic resources pertinent to your topic. Without approval, your presentation cannot go forward.
- Research Paper, 25%. (Due two weeks after your presentation.)
- A formal research paper on your topic, having its origins in your research presentation; it will be presented in MLA style, ca. 2,000 words, and will include an annotated list of works cited.
- To be presented in the instructor's office.
- Class and Seminar Notes / Participation, 25%.
- The seminar for this course meets 2 hours per week, consisting equally of in-class and on-line components. Seminar notes are a one page, single-spaced, typed exploration of the topics under consideration in our seminars for the current week; seminar notes are due at the beginning of each seminar.
- Final Exam, 20%.
Notes:
- All deadlines are firm. Attendance is mandatory. All course requirements must be met (and a mark of greater than F received) for a passing grade to be issued in the course.
- This course assumes training and/or ability in the use of our library (and ILL facilities), its catalogue, and the various specialized indexes and bibliographies related to literary studies in the areas covered by the course.
- All written work will be submitted as per MLA style (parenthetical citation). All students are advised to consult and use The Everyday Writer as part of their course and assignment preparation. All students are advised to be familiar with Malaspina's Student Conduct Policy (available at: http://www.mala.bc.ca/www/crsinfo/calendar/STUDCOND.HTM), which includes a section on plagiarism.
- What is an annotated bibliography? For our purposes here, and in short, an annotated bibliography is a list of critical/scholarly works that includes a brief summary of the argument of each work. Works are to be listed as per MLA Style. A sample entry follows:
Syllabus
- Frye, Northrop. "The Argument of Comedy." 165-179 in Alvin B. Kernan, ed. Modern Shakespearean Criticism: Essays on Style, Dramaturgy, and the Major Plays. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1970.
Frye discusses ideas on the evolution from Old to New Comedy, and therein touches upon a number of elements of the New Comedy, among them the basic plot and movement towards resolution. Of interest is his relation of the individual and the societal, in the resolution of the comic drama: "The essential comic resolution," Frye states, ". . . is an individual release which is also a social reconciliation" (167). His comments on the structural relation of the comedy and the tragedy are particularly useful: "Comedy," he notes, "grows out of the [tragic] ritual, for in the ritual the tragic story has a comic sequel" (168).
- Week 1 (Sept. 4): Introductions; overview; lecture on Skelton, The Bowge of Courte, and More, Utopia.
- Week 2 (Sept. 11): Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier; and other selections.
- Week 3 (Sept. 18): Sidney, An Apology for Poetry; and other selections.
- Week 4 (Sept. 25): Henry VIII, Lyrics; and other
selections.
- Mid-term Exam.
- Week 5 (Oct. 2): Wyatt, Surrey, and others (Tottel's Miscellany, The Devonshire MS, The Henry VIII MS); seminars begin.
- Week 6 (Oct. 9): Gascoigne, The Adventures of Master F.J.
- Week 7 (Oct. 16): Sidney, Astrophil and Stella.
- Week 8 (Oct. 23): Greene, Pandosto. The Triumph of Time.
- Week 9 (Oct. 30): Spenser, Faerie Queene.
- Week 10 (Nov. 6): Spenser, Faerie Queene.
- Week 11 (Nov. 13): Spenser, Faerie Queene.
- Week 12 (Nov. 20): Greville, Ralegh, and Marlowe.
- Week 13 (Nov. 27): Shakespeare, Sonnets.
- Week 14 (Dec. 4): Shakespeare, Sonnets.