English 301/10537
English Literature to 1800
3 Credits
MWF 9.00 – 9.50 am
Eberly Hall 266
M.
G. Aune
Office Hours: MWF 2.30 – 3.30
and by appointment
aune(at)cup.edu
724.938.4341
223 Azorsky Hall
Subject to change
NB:
I expect you to have the works listed after “Read:” to be read an annotated
before class so that we may discuss them.
I also assume that you will have read the relevant introductions,
headnotes, timelines, and footnotes.
The works listed after “Additional:” we will discuss generally in class.
You are encouraged to read them, especially if you are an English major.
“Topics:” list the lecture and discussion points for that week.
Part 1 Medieval England, Old English and Middle English, Manuscript culture
Week 1
27-31 August Introductions, Topics: Old English and Anglo Saxon England, AS
Poetry, genre, Beowulf, AS Bible, prose, gender
Read: “Cædmon’s Hymn,” (24-26), Riddles (handout), “The Wanderer,” (111-13),
“The Wife’s Lament,” (113-14). Additional: Beowulf, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Week 2
3
September no class
5-7
September Topics: Middle English and Anglo-Norman England, Middle English Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight, Norman Conquest, Domesday Book, King Arthur, The
Magna Charta, Black Death, Hundred Years War. Read: Chaucer, The Canterbury
Tales, General Prologue (218-38), Additional: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,
John Gower, “The Lover’s Confession,” and William Langland, The Vision of Piers
Plowman
Week 3
10-14 September Chaucer and Middle English Continued
Week 4
17-21 September Topics: Devotional writing, Langland, Medieval drama. Read:
Incarnation & Crucifixion Lyrics (367-70) and Margery Kempe (395-97),
Wakefield Second Shepherds’ Play
(407-35). Additional: Everyman
Annotation Project 1 due.
Week 5
24-26 September Continued, watch film of WSSP
28
September Examination 1
Part 2 Early Modern English, the Renaissance and Reformation, Print Culture
Week 6
1-5
October Read: Sir Thomas Wyatt, “Whoso list to hunt” (595), Henry Howard, Earl
of Surrey, “Love, that doth …” (608), Edmund Spenser,
The Shepheardes Calendar: October (709-13), Sir Philip Sidney,
“Loving in Truth…” (975), “Queen Virtue’s Court…” (977), William Shakespeare,
Sonnet 130 (1074), Christopher Marlowe, “The Passionate Shepherd…” (1022), Sir
Walter Ralegh, “The Nymph’s Reply…” (917).
Topics: Manuscript and print culture, sonnet tradition, circulation, publication
Week 7
8-12 October Read: Christopher Marlowe,
The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus (1022-55)
Topics: humanism, early modern English drama, Reformation
Week
8
15
October Mission Day, no class
17-19 October Read: John Donne, “The Flea,” “Go and Catch…,” “A Nocturnal on St.
Lucy’s Day…,” “The Bait,” Ben Jonson, “On Lucy, Countess of Bedford,” (1403),
“To Penshurst,” Mary Wroth, Pamphilia to
Amphilanthus, 1 (1457), Aemilia Lanyer, “The Description of Cookham,”
(1319-24).
Week 9
22-24 October Read: George Herbert, ““The Altar,” “Easter Wings,” “The Windows,”
“Affliction (1);” Andrew Marvell, “To His Coy Mistress,” (1703), Robert Herrick,
“To the Virgins…” (1659), Thomas Carew, “To Saxham,” (1671).
26
October Study Day, No class
Week 10
29-31 October, John Milton, Paradise Lost
Book 1 (1831-50), Annotation Project 2 due
2
November Examination 2
Part 3 The Restoration, the Enlightenment, Imperial England
Week 11
5 -
9 November Katherine Philips, “A Married State,” Upon the Double Murder…”
(1691), Margaret Cavendish, “The Poetess’s Hasty Resolution,” “The Hunting of
the Hare” (1774-75)
Week 12
12
– 16 November John Dryden, “Epigram on Milton,” “From Annus Mirabilis,” (2085-86) “From An Essay of Dramatic Poesy,” (2125-29), Alexander Pope, “An
Essay on Criticism,” (2497-2513) Aphra Behn, “The Disappointment” (2180-83),
Earl of Rochester, “Upon Nothing” (2171-72)
Additional: Dryden, “Alexander’s Feast,” Behn,
Oroonoko
Week 13
19
November Jonathan Swift, “A Modest Proposal” (2462-68)
Additional: Gulliver’s Travels
21
& 23 November no class Thanksgiving
Week 14
26
– 30 November TBA William Congreve, The
Way of the World (2228-84),Annotation Project 3 due, Additional, John Gay,
The Beggar’s Opera
Week 15
3
-5 December Thomas Gray, “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College,” “Ode on
the Death of a Favorite Cat,” “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” (2862-70)
5
December Poetical Miscellany Project due
13
December Thursday, Final Exam, 8.00 – 9.50 am, regular room (EBE 266)