ENG 2223: British Literature I
Instructor: Mark Allen
mark.allen@utsa.edu; 458-5358
Fall 2010
Office: MB 2.478
Hours: M 5:00-6:00
TTh 3:30-4:30
and otherwise by appointment
Description: Designed for English majors and minors, this course enables students to explore British
literary tradition from its beginnings to about 1700. It fulfills 3 of the 12 hours of literary survey
required in the English major and minor. Because UTSA English majors and minors are required to
take a separate course in Shakespeare’s drama, his plays are not included here. Nonetheless, you will
find Chaucer, Spenser, Milton, and much more. The course offers students opportunities to demonstrate
their skills of literary analysis and to examine aesthetic, linguistic, intellectual, and social backgrounds to
the literature of the medieval period and the early modern period (also known as the Renaissance).
Requirements: Two exams (each 20% of the course grade) and two brief papers (each 20% of the course
grade) are means for students to demonstrate both their skills of literary analysis and their knowledge of
the subject matter. Students must take both of the exams and submit both papers in order to pass the
course. Regular quizzes gauge fundamental knowledge of the assigned readings, while class discussion
will focus on analysis of these readings. Together the quizzes and attendance are worth 20% of the course
grade, determined by the cumulative point total of the quizzes. So be in class, be on time, and join in! If
you must miss an exam for religious or military reasons, or for official university functions, inform me in
accord with University Policy (http://utsa.edu/hop/chapter5/5-9.html); if you have a valid medical excuse,
you must produce written evidence. Missed quizzes cannot be made up, but each student’s two lowest
quiz grades, including missed quizzes, will be dropped from the semester calculation.
Text:
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume 1, A&B, edited by M. H. Abrams and others.
8th ed. New York: Norton, 2006.
NOTE: Page numbers below refer to this edition; the medieval materials are in volume 1A and the
early modern ones in 1B. The text is also available as a single volume.
Reading Schedule.
Note: September 10 is Census Date. Courses dropped or with drawn before this date will not appear on
the student’s transcript. December 1 is the last date of the semester to drop an individual course or to
withdraw from the University.
8/26
Introduction
8/31
9/2
“The Middle Ages” (1-14), Bede & “Caedmon’s Hymn” (24-27), “The Dream of the
Rood” (27-29), “The Wanderer” and “The Wife’s Lament” (111-14).
Early heroic narrative: Beowulf, Intro and lines 1799-3182, (29-33, 72-100)
9/7
9/9
Beowulf (72-100)
Celtic Contexts: “Sons of Uisliu,” Thomas’s Tristran, Marie’s Lanval (128-55)
9/14
9/16
Legendary History and King Arthur (117-28). Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur (438-56)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Parts 1 & 2 (160-85)
9/21
9/23
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Parts 3 & 4 (185-213)
Geoffrey Chaucer’s Wife of Bath’s Tale (213-18, 275-84)
9/30
Chaucer’s Miller’s Prologue and Tale (239-55); handout on Knight’s Tale
Paper number 1 due.
Chaucer’s Pardoner’s Prologue, Tale, and Epilogue (284-98)
10/5
10/7
Langland’s Piers Plowman (331-54)
Midterm examination
9/28
10/12 Mystery plays (406-07); The Second Shepherds’ Play (407-35)
10/14 The Second Shepherds’ Play (407-35); Actors From the London Stage
10/19 The Sixteenth Century (485-506) and Elizabeth I, poetry and prose (593-600)
10/21 Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene, Book 1, Cantos 1-2 (705-07, 714-42).
10/26 Spenser’s Faerie Queene, Book 1, Cantos 10-12 (820-56)
10/28 Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus (1002-04, 1022-57)
11/2
11/4
Dr. Faustus
Lyric Poetry: Marlowe’s “Passionate Shepherd”(1022), Sir Walter Ralegh’s “Nymph’s Reply”
(917-18), and John Donne’s “The Bait” (1274).
11/6
Sonnets: Sir Philip Sidney, from Astrophil and Stella, sonnets 1, 2, 5-7 (975-77); William
Shakespeare (1058-60), from Sonnets, 1, 3, 12, 15, 18, 19 (1062-64); Lady Mary Wroth
(1451-52), from Pamphilia to Amphilanthus, sonnets, 1, 16, 39, 40, 68 (1457-59)
11/9 The Early Seventeenth Century (1235-59).
11/11 John Donne, Introduction and secular poems (1260-76); from Holy Sonnets (1295-99)
11/16 Robert Herrick. Introduction and poems (1653-66)
11/18 Gender Wars (1543-49); Margaret Cavendish, selections (1774-85)
11/23 John Milton (1785-89), Paradise Lost, Introduction and Books 1-2; Book 3.1-55 (1830-73)
Paper number 2 due.
11/25 Thanksgiving Break
11/30 Paradise Lost, Book 5.308-505 (1915-19); Books 7-8 (1946-73).
12/2 Restoration Literature (2057-2075)
Final Exam Thursday, December 9, 10:30-1:00, in our classroom
Paper Number 1. Due in class, September 28. 4-6 pp. MLA for style, format, and documentation.
Explore a passage, brief scene or minor character from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and
consider what it contributes to the poem in terms of theme, atmosphere, tone, and/or reader response.
Do not try to treat the entire tale; rather, assess what your selected “part” contributes to the “whole.”
Here are several possibilities, but there are many more and your own choices might better suit your
interests and strengths:
the “calendar” passage (ll. 500-535);
the scene when Gawain first sees Bertilak’s castle;
the guide who directs Gawain to the Green Chapel).
In any case, narrow your focus to specificity and depth of analysis. Secondary research is welcome, but
not required.
Paper Number 2. Due in class, Nov. 23, 4-6 pp. MLA format for style, format, and documentation.
Select a sonnet or other lyric poem from our assigned reading that has attracted your attention or
raised questions for you. Study the lyric and explicate it for yourself as fully as you can. Consider the
dominant tone of the poem as it relates to its fundamental meaning; explore how the elements of prosody,
imagery, allusion, diction, drama, etc. combine to create tone and contribute to meaning. Once you’ve
thought through these concerns, fashion a thesis or argument that focuses on how the tone and/or meaning
result from the interaction of several poetic devices. Secondary research is welcome, but not required
Academic Dishonesty: Students are expected to be above reproach in scholastic activities. Students
who violate University rules on scholastic dishonesty, including, but not limited to plagiarism or
collusion, are subject to disciplinary penalties, including the possibility of failure in the course and
dismissal from the University. “Plagiarism” includes, but is not limited to, the appropriation, buying,
receiving as a gift, or obtaining by any means another's work and the submission of it as one's own
academic work offered for credit. “Collusion” includes, but is not limited to, the unauthorized
collaboration with another person in preparing academic assignments offered for credit or
collaboration with another person to commit a violation of any section of the rules on scholastic
dishonesty.
Disability Services: UTSA offers support services, including registration assistance and equipment, to
students with documented disabilities through the Office of Disabled Student Services (DSS), MS
2.03.18. Students are encouraged to contact that office at 458-4157 as early as possible in the semester.