Steve Phelan - Spring 2008

Revised 4/17/08

WEEK	DATE	READING ASSIGNMENTS (subject to adjustments made in class)	LITERARY ANALYSIS

		THE ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD
		600 – 1100

1	Jan. 15	An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon Culture (read Norton’s introduction, pp. 1-21) “The Wife’s Lament”
		The Sutton Hoo Ship Burial – slides
	Jan. 17	Caedmon’s “Hymn of Creation” and “The Wanderer”

2	Jan. 22	BEOWULF: lines 1-1650	STRUCTURES
	Jan. 24	Rest of BEOWULF

3	Jan. 29	workshop on plot structure	*** Focus Paper 1

		THE MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD	also called The Late Middle Ages
		1100 – 1500

	Jan. 31	SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT (part I: 1-490)	SETTINGS

4	Feb. 5	Rest of SGGK	SYMBOLS
	Feb. 7	Workshop on structures of opposition using evidence of either setting or symbolism	*** Focus Paper 2
		An Introduction to Middle English (review pp 14-19)

5	Feb. 12	Chaucer’s General Prologue to the CANTERBURY TALES	CHARACTER
		Be prepared to read one of the portraits and talk about Chaucer’s technique(s) of characterization
	F. 14	Rest of the characters and Chaucer’s Plan for the whole

6	Feb. 19	The Miller’s Tale
	F. 21	The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale	POINT OF VIEW

7	Feb. 26	The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale
	Feb. 28	Workshop on Chaucer’s tricks between tellers and tales	*** Focus Paper 3

		THE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE
		1500 – 1660
8	Mar. 4	Introduction to Humanism and the Renaissance	THEME
		Review for midterm examination
	Mar. 6	MIDTERM EXAMINATION – five identifications leading to an essay (three options)

	11-13	SPRING BREAK

9	Mar. 18	More’s UTOPIA: Bk. I– identify England’s problems	HISTORY OF IDEAS
	Mar. 20	Read UTOPIA, Bk. II with a focus on some important social concept (relating to your paper topic?)	*** report to class

10	Mar. 25	More reports	Focus Paper 4

	Mar. 27	Introduction to the lyric – from Sappho to Surrey	PROSODY

11	Apr. 1	John Donne’s SONGS AND SONNETS –
	Apr. 3	More Donne love poems

12	Apr. 8	Bring one poem fully scanned and marked for changes inà	***TONE Focus Paper 5

	A. 10	THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF DR. Fox Day – Marlowe	GENRE

13	Apr. 15	Intro to Milton
	A. 17	Milton’s PARADISE LOST, Books I and II

14	Apr. 22	PL: Book VIII
	A. 24	PL: Book IX & review for final exam
15	Apr. 29	Focus Paper #6 Due in Carnegie 103: No class {Optional IF you’ve already done five papers}
	May 1	Final Exam: 11:00-1:00 (extended time available for all)
	Thurs.

THE SEMINAR FORMAT and THE FOCUS PAPERS:

Students should come prepared to talk about the text, following the techniques of literary analysis which have informed their reading and interpretation of it. Discussion with each text will cover all these techniques, but for the sake of instruction, you will be asked to present a worksheet of data respecting a particular technique of analysis for each major text and a focus paper presenting a thesis of your own based on that evidence.

The capitalized terms in the last column of the syllabus indicate the kind of analysis to be done and the date when they will be discussed. The worksheets and focus paper are due on the date where the triple asterisks appear, but you should be constructing them from the beginning of each assignment (see my web site--cited below-- for descriptions of these Techniques of Literary Analysis). Gather the evidence from the text first and then write a two-page argument presenting your conclusions based on the evidence and your interpretation of the text as a whole. Your responses do not have to be appreciative or approving, but may indeed provide a spoof of the historical text from your own contemporary perspective.

GRADE FORMULA:

Participation and attendance = 20%

Workshop responses including the five focus papers = 50%

Midterm and final = 10% and 20% respectively

Credit in the course requires satisfactory completion of all three parts of the grade formula.

ATTENDANCE:

Less than 90% attendance is grounds for failure. Please negotiate with me as soon as you accumulate anything more that three absences.

CONFERENCES AND INFORMATION:

Please visit me at my spacious office in Carnegie 103. For my office hours and class schedule, consult my web site (http://web.rollins.edu/~phelan). Make appointments after class or by phone (x2409) or through email (sphelan@rollins.edu). On my web site, in addition to this syllabus, you may find a wealth of information about the basic concepts of my courses, my own critical perspectives, and my criteria for grading papers. Just click on COURSES, then CONCEPTS (at the bottom of the table).