Daniel P. Gunn
Roberts 204
Ext. 7422
dpgunn@maine.edu
Required Texts:
Brower, et al, eds., Beginning with Poems (Norton)
Shakespeare, The Tempest (Penguin)
Milton, Paradise Lost & Paradise Regained, ed. Ricks (NAL)
Pope, The Rape of the Lock, ed. Tillotson (Routledge)
Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield (OUP)
Brontë, Wuthering Heights (Penguin)
[Note: Class texts are available at Devaney, Doak, and Garrett, Booksellers, on Broadway in Farmington. Please don’t ask for them at the UMF Bookstore.]
Bill of Fare. In this course, we will study seminal English poetry, prose, and drama from the Renaissance through the nineteenth century, with an emphasis on literary, historical, and cultural contexts. The material is divided into three loose historical clusters, each of which consists of a brief theoretical introduction and a series of texts. In the first part of the course, we’ll read selections from Sidney’s Apologie for Poetrie and consider work by Shakespeare, Milton, and some Elizabethan sonneteers in the light of Sidney’s ideas. Next, we’ll look at Addison’s papers on the “Pleasures of the Imagination,” which provide a useful introduction to eighteenth-century ideas about art, and then move on to two important eighteenth-century texts: The Rape of the Lock, by Alexander Pope, and Oliver Goldsmith’s The Vicar of Wakefield. Finally, we’ll read a selection of Romantic lyrics and Wuthering Heights against the background of Wordsworth and Coleridge’s Preface to the second edition of Lyrical Ballads, the key theoretical document of English Romanticism.
Our main goal, as always, will be to respond to the primary texts with care and sensitivity. These are complex and resonant works of literature, and we are gathered here, in this room, to see what it’s like to read them, to experience them, as art. However, as we move through this material, we’ll also try to develop an overview of English literary history, an acquaintance with some key traditions and literary paradigms, and some practical experience exploring the relation between literary texts and their historical and cultural contexts.
ENG 249 is meant to serve as a preparatory course for further study in British literature, and it will be listed as a prerequisite for 300-level courses beginning next year.
Format. A combination of informal lecture and class discussion, with the emphasis on the latter. There will be some lecturing, especially at the beginning of the semester, and you will be responsible for lecture notes on examinations. As the semester develops, however, I hope that we can proceed largely by discussion and relaxed conversation, mulling over passages from the primary texts, raising and thinking through questions, and making connections.
Requirements and Grading. There will be two medium-length essays (1200-1500 words), a course journal, two preliminary examinations, and a comprehensive final. One of the two papers must be rewritten, within two weeks of the date it is returned to you. Finally, you will be expected to attend class regularly, keep up with the reading, and contribute to class discussions. Semester grades will be computed as follows:
Papers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30%Late papers, journals, and rewrites will be penalized. If you choose, for some reason, not to do the writing assignments, or not to do them in a reasonably timely fashion, you won't get credit for the course.
Journal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15%
Prelims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25%
Class Participation . . . . . . . . .10%
Final . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20%
Attendance. Regular attendance is a requirement of the course. Except under extraordinary circumstances, frequent absences--more than two or three--will lower your final grade. A student absent for more than one-third of class meetings for any reason will not ordinarily receive credit for the course.
Schedule. Here is a tentative course outline. Note examination dates and due dates for papers in parentheses. Specific reading and writing assignments will be announced in advance.
Week beginning:
Accommodations. UMF strives to provide equal educational opportunities for students with special needs due to disability. Please notify me if you need a reasonable accommodation to meet course requirements.
September 1 Intro/Renaissance Literary Theory
(class W & F only)September 6 poems by Shakespeare, Sidney, Spenser, and others
(class W & F only)September 13 poems/Tempest September 20 Tempest September 27 Tempest/Paradise Lost October 4 Paradise Lost October 11 Paradise Lost/prelim
(class W & F only)
(first preliminary examination Fri., Oct. 15)October 18 18th C. Lit. Theory/The Rape of the Lock
(first paper due Fri., Oct. 22)October 25 The Rape of the Lock November 1 The Vicar of Wakefield November 8 Vicar/prelim/Romantic Lit.Theory
(second preliminary examination Wed., Nov. 10)November 15 poems by Keats, Wordsworth & others November 22 poems by Keats, Wordsworth & others
(class M only)
(second paper due Mon., Nov. 22)November 29 poems/Wuthering Heights December 6 Wuthering Heights December 13 Wuthering Heights
(class M only)December 15-21 Final Examination, Date & Time TBA
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