
English 369 (01)
Milton: Major Poetry and Selected Prose
Paradise Lost: In Its Time and Our Own
September - December 2002
Meeting: Friday 9:00 AM - Noon
Room: Bldg. 345, Rm. 105
R.G. Siemens
Office: Bldg. 335, Rm. 120
Office Hour: F 1:00-2:00 PM
Course WWW page: http://web.mala.bc.ca/siemensr/teaching/Engl369-02.htm
Course Online Discussion Group: (now closed)
Description
This course will survey the writings of John Milton, one of most celebrated writers in English literature. We will work towards gaining an appreciation and understanding of Milton's work in several genres, ultimately concentrating on a full and close reading of Paradise Lost -- one that reflects the historical and intellectual context both in which Milton wrote and in which we encounter it today.
Course Materials
Course Requirements
Further 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:
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).
Syllabus
© R.G. Siemens, 2002-.
Last updated November 19, 2002
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