English 305-01: British Literature I: 450-1785Dr. Kozikowski (2-3:30 MW // F7)

christine.kozikowski@cob.edu.bs Office: C3Office Hours: M/W 12-2

This course will introduce you to the first half of English literary history (from Anglo-Saxon literature to the Enlightenment). We will read significant texts from each period, analyze their content, and discuss their potential meanings, both in the context of their historical culture and our own period. We will also identify and interpret significant thematic emphases of individual works and authors, distinguish the characteristics of each period and writer, and look for both significant continuities and crucial innovations within and between writers and periods. As a way of examining the complicated relationship between literature and culture, I will frame each period according to its historical context and anchor each literary unit in a specific set of social practices characteristic of that period. By looking at how different literary forms and genres (poetry and prose, comedy and tragedy, romance and neoclassicism) interacted with changing social realities, we’ll explore the various uses of literature, how it was used both to explain a changing world and to resist those changes by building refuges from them.

Required TextsGreenblatt, Stephen and M. H. Abrams, eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 9th Ed.

New York: Norton, 2006.Abrams, M. H. A Glossary of Literary Terms. 9th ed. Boston: Wadsworth, 2009.

Course Requirements Students will come prepared and ready for each discussion by completing the homework

assignments prior to the beginning of class. Students MUST bring the books with the texts we are covering to class. Assignments are to be completed prior to the beginning of class on the day that they are due.

Attendance & In-Class Behavior You are expected to be in class on time. You are late if the lesson has begun when you enter,

and if you are more than 15 minutes late, I will refuse to admit you. Excessive tardiness—more than five minutes and on more than one occasion—will

detrimentally impact your grade as well. Two tardies will be counted as an absence. If you are not in class during class (ie, leaving for long periods), you will not be considered

present. Turn off cell phones and electronic devices before class.

o Anytime I see a student using his or her phone in class, he or she will have 1% deducted from their final grade.

Do not leave the room during a lesson unless there is an emergency. Do not ask friends to visit you during class time. Put away any portable music devices.

Assignments & GradingAll assignments are due at the beginning of class. Anything handed in after class has started will be considered late and be penalized one half letter grade per day.

1

Technology failures are no excuse – back up everything often! Do not email me any work! If you know you will be absent, make arrangements to turn your assignment in ahead of time.

Three Major Papers (60%) –These will be 4-6 pages long and include critical analysis. I will grade you on complexity, originality, organization, clarity, and evidence.

Quizzes, tests, assignments (25%)o Daily reading quizzes (10%)o Tests (10%)o Assignments (5%)

Seminar Presentation (20%) – Each student will choose a text(s)/author and lead discussion

FormattingAll assignments are to be completed in MLA format. In other words, Times New Roman, 12 pt font, 1” margins, double-spaced, with appropriate heading (your name, my name, course section, and date). Multiple page documents MUST be stapled (and I do not carry a stapler) and numbered with your last name. If you are unsure, consult an MLA handbook (or the St. Martin’s Guide) – no one should get this wrong more than once.

PlagiarismPlagiarism is the use of another’s language and/or ideas without acknowledging the source, or using an essay for more than one course. The College considers plagiarism a serious form of academic dishonesty. Plagiarism in this course results in one or more of the following consequences: failure of the assignment, failure of the course, and disciplinary action by The College.

Those who pay careful attention to what they write and how they write do not need to worry. Do not allow pressure and distractions to force you into anxious situations where you are tempted to rush through assignments without citing accurately, and NEVER consider stealing work from the Internet or other places. It is better to discuss an emergency or unusual situation with me than to make a terrible mistake that will result in failing the course and damaging your academic reputation.

SchedulePlease note that the day the assignment appears on the syllabus is the day I expect you to come to class having completed it. You should read the headnote in addition to the primary text. **Items on the schedule may change with appropriate notice.

8/24 Introduction8/26 “The Middle Ages to ca. 1485” (p. 3-28)

Bede - Cædmon’s Hymn & From An Ecclesiastical History (p. 29-32)“The Dream of the Rood” (p. 32-36)“The Wanderer” (p. 117-120)“The Wife’s Lament” (p. 120-122)

8/31 Beowulf (headnote & lines 1-1798)9/2 Beowulf (lines 1799 – end)9/7 Irish/Welsh Literature (p.122-3)

Cuchulainn’s Boyhood Deeds (p. 123-128)Mabinogion (handout)

9/9 Marie de France, “Milun” “Lanval” (p. 142-167)

2

“Bisclaveret” & “Eliduc” (Handouts)9/14 No class; reading questions due

“The Owl and the Nightingale” (Handout)9/16 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Headnote & lines 1-490)9/21 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (lines 490-end)9/23 Chaucer, “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue & Tale (Headnote & p. 282-310)9/28 Ancrene Wisse (p. 137-140)

Julian of Norwich, “Showings” (412-424)Margery Kempe, “Book of Margery Kempe” (424-438)“The York Play of the Crucifixion” (439-447)Paper 1 (Answer one of the following questions):Considering the Old and Middle English works we have read so far, write a 4-page paper that compares the roles of women in medieval literature. Support your claims with quotations and/or textual evidence from three texts. You do not need outside sources.ORConsidering the medieval texts we’ve read so far, write a 4-page paper that analyzes the way that texts combine both secular and ecclesiastical elements. Support your claims with quotations and/or textual evidence from three texts.

9/30 The Sixteenth Century 1485-1603 (531-563)Thomas Wyatt the Elder “I Find No Peace” & Rima 134(650-51); “My Galley” & Rima (651-52); “My Lute, Awake!” (655-56); “Blame Not My Lute” (656-57) Howard, “The Soote Season” & Rima 310 (661-14); “Love that Doth Reign” (663); “Alas! So All Things Now Do Hold” & Rima 164 (664); “So Cruel Prison” (665-66)

10/5 Marlowe, “The Shepherd to His Love” (1022)Raleigh, “ Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” (917), “The Lie” (919)Thomas, Lord Vaux, “The Aged Lover Renounces Love” (1005)

10/7 The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (p. 1127-63)10/12 Discovery Day – No class10/14 Test #110/19 “The Early Seventeenth Century, 1603-1660)” (1341-69)

Donne “The Flea,” (1373); “The Good-Morrow” (1373); “The Sun Rising” (1376); “The Canonization” (1377), “The Bait” (1384),”, “The Ecstasy” (1386)Lanyer, Salve Deus Rex (1430-46)Jonson (1324-26); “To My Book” (1539); “To John Donne” (1541); “To Lucy, Countess of Bedford, with Mr. Donne’s Satires” (1543); “A Sonnet, to the Noble Lady, the Lady May Wroth” (1550)

10/21 Gender Relations, 1648-60No class; reading questions due

10/26 Herbert, “The Altar” (1707); “Easter Wings” (1709); “The Collar” (1720-21); Death & Love (3) (1725)Herrick, “Corinna’s Going A-Maying” (1760-62), “To Virgins, to Make Much of Time” (1762)Philips, “A Married State” (1784);Marvell, “To His Coy Mistress” (1796)Paper 2 DueConsider poems that begin the Renaissance; how do they employ imagery or

3

symbolism to illustrate their meaning? Support your claims with quotations and/or textual evidence from at least two texts.ORWrite a paper comparing/contrasting how two different seventeenth-century poets use “metaphysical conceit” in their texts. Support your ideas with quotations and/or textual evidence.

10/28 Milton, Paradise Lost (1945-86)11/2 “The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century, 1660-1785” (2177-2207)

Dryden (2083-84), “Mac Flecknoe” (2236-42-17) Swift (2633-39) A Modest Proposal

11/4 Swift, “The Lady’s Dressing Room” (2590-93)Montagu, “The Reasons That Induced Dr. Swift to Write a Poem Called the Lady’s Dressing Room” (2593-95)Astell, From A Preface, in Answer to Some Objections (3018-22)

11/9 Congreve, The Way of the World, Prologue, Act I-III11/11 Congreve, The Way of the World, Act IV-V, Epilogue11/16 Aphra Behn (2313-58), Oroonoko (2183-2226)11/18 Johnson, A Brief to Free a Slave (3032)

Olaudah Equiano, Interesting Narrative (3033-43)11/23 Thompson, From The Seasons (3044-46)

Gray, Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (3050-51)Smart, From Jubliate Agno (3059-60)Cowper, “The Castaway,” (3077-78)

11/25 Test #2Paper 3 DueConsidering the Restoration texts that we’ve read, write a 4-6 page essay that discusses the literary shifts from the beginning to the end of the period. Quote from at least three sources to support your points.ORBased on your readings of Montagu, Swift, Dryden, and Congreve, define and discuss the elements of Restoration satire. Quote from at least three authors in order to justify your definition.

4