Instructor: Dr. Steve Cirrone
Email: steve.cirrone@scc.losrios.edu
Office: RS322
Office Hours:
Class Meets: T/R 10:30-11:50am in RS208
WELCOME TO ENGLISH LITERATURE 310:
EARLY ENGLISH LITERATURE!
COURSE OVERVIEW
In this class, you will be exposed to a lot of English literature and its historical context—
from the Medieval period through the Restoration. In order to attempt to do this survey
class justice, which is impossible in 16 weeks, I have decided to focus the course on the
time period prior to the Restoration. I have selected from our text some of the most
relevant canonical literature to reflect these periods; I have also selected from our text
some of the historical, contextual literature that will help you build an understanding of
the early English world. There is a lot of reading for this class, to be sure; but I hope that
you will find this class entertaining, enlightening and even thrilling!
REQUIRED TEXT
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume I, 8th edition
There is no way for you to pass this course without this book. Considering the
book is nearly 3000 pages (don’t worry, you are only reading about 1200 this
term) and contains most of the canonical literature of the early English period,
your money will be spent wisely on this tome. English majors, you will be sure to
use this book for the rest of your life; I have ordered the hard copy of this book
through the bookstore for this very reason (the paperback is only a few dollars
less). I urge you all to look online for copies of this textbook—but make sure you
get the 8TH EDITION and the 8TH EDITION only because all the subsequent page
numbers in the syllabus correspond with that edition.
WRITING and READING EXPECTATIONS
This course is a requirement for English majors; as such, the expectation is that you know
how to write well and that you can accurately use MLA citation. If you are an
inexperienced writer—if you have not yet taken at least Freshman English—my
recommendation is that you take this course after you have done so. I cannot and will not
take up class time to teach you composition in this course. As you can tell by the
syllabus, we have a LOT of material to cover in class—I barely think we will get to it all,
but we shall give it a good effort.
It is expected that you read the assigned literature/pages in your text BEFORE coming to
class that day and that you have something meaningful to contribute to class when I call
on you—and trust me, I will call on you—in class.
ATTENDANCE POLICY
This is a college course that you will want to attend because the literature we will be
reading and talking about will amaze you. This course is also a requirement for English
majors, and as such, it is necessary that you come to class in order to fully learn and
assimilate the information. My attendance policy is fairly lax; my philosophy is:
If you don’t want to come to class, don’t—this isn’t prison, and I am not a
warden; just don’t expect to learn much of anything if you don’t come to class.
However, should you miss more than 5 class sessions in a semester for any reason
whatsoever, I reserve the right to fail you for the course. Special circumstances, such
as hospitalization, prison, the military, birth, death and other serious matters will be
considered—but not guaranteed—to give you more than six excused absences in this
course.
At the same time, you will note that “Participation” counst for 5 points of the final grade
in this course; I will determine how many of these five points you will get at the end of
the term based on, well, your attendance and participation.
OTHER EXPECTATIONS
You should activate your school email account ASAP. I will often contact the class via
the online email system, and sending emails to me is the best way to get a hold of me
about any concerns you have about the course. You may also come to my office hours.
No cell phones, pagers or beepers in class—if you must carry one because of a sick child
or parent at home, please put it on “stun” and don’t let it go off in class.
No outside business or other class work will take place in the classroom. If I see you
engage in this activity, I will ask you to leave.
I want you to contribute to discussions in class—I want to hear your views about what
you read. There will be times when it is necessary for me to lecture, but whenever I can I
will open the class up to discussion and call on you to respond to specific points of
interest. I ask that you respect me and each other in this course; all opinions matter. If I
am talking, I ask that you not talk over me, please.
If you have a learning disability or a physical impairment that will make success in this
course challenging, please inform me within the first week of class; I will try to make
accommodations for you if at all possible.
You will submit the long essay to me AS A WORD ATTACHMENT IN AN EMAIL
DIRECTLY TO MY SCHOOL EMAIL ACCOUNT by the time and date indicated in
your syllabus. You will lose 2 points on the assignment for every day your paper is late;
no exceptions. If you know that you cannot email your paper to me by 5pm on the day
requested—email it to me the night BEFORE it is due. At 5:01 pm, the paper will be late,
and you will receive 2 points off.
I will use turnitin.com on any paper I suspect of plagiarism, and you will receive a 0 on
the assignment for plagiarism.
I will use the “track changes” feature in WORD to grade and comment on your essays;
they will be returned to you online. There is NO NEED to print out your long essay.
I want you to have FUN in this course—yes, there is a LOT of reading—blessed
heaven—but much of this is really, really interesting stuff. So, please have fun with it!
And know that I am not asking of you anything you should not expect of me—meaning, I
intend to re-read all of these works with you as we go!
GRADING CRITERIA—points out of 100
1 long MLA paper – 8-10 pages, typed double spaced, with citations: 25 points
3 in-class essay Unit Tests: 15 points each (45 points total)
Weekly Journal (collected every two weeks): 25 points
Participation: 5 points
Total points:
90-100 = A
80-89 = B
70-79 = C
60-69 = D
< 60 = F
EXPLANATION OF COLLECTED ASSIGNMENTS AND EXAMS
Weekly Journal: Every two weeks, in class, I will collect from you a 500-600 word
typed “response” to something specific that I will ask you to consider that period. There
will be six such foci and collections. These foci will be told to you in class and sent via
email to everyone in the class and will be collected at the next class meeting. I will use
the top five journal entries towards the 25 points you will receive for this part of the
course. I will grade these on a scale, therefore, from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest), and I will
consider CONTENT and FORM in assigning you these scores. Journals will
automatically receive a -1 for every class period that they are late—so, for instance, if
your journal would have received a 4 but is one class period late it will receive a 3, and so
on. No exceptions will be made to this deduction system. You must complete at least 4
of these journals to pass the course.
Long Essay: This MUST be on pieces of literature you read for ONE period of study in
this course. It must synthesis historical and literary texts in one of these time periods and
use the literature to reflect on a historical or cultural situation of the time. You are
essentially being asked to write an essay that adheres to one of the following literary
critical approaches: HISTORICISM or CULTURAL CRITICISM. If you are unfamiliar
with these critical approaches, you should place “Historical Literary Criticism” and
“Cultural Literary Criticism” into you web browser and read about them before deciding
on your approach. You will have to have your topic chosen and a thesis emailed to me by
5pm on March 17th. I will review these over the upcoming weekend and send you
comments/feedback that will help guide you with your paper. You must use MLA
citation in your essay, and your essay must use at least two primary sources and at least
two secondary (critical) sources. I will not accept any late essays.
Remember: you will email this to me as a WORD document by 5pm on April 20th.
Unit Tests: The three unit exams will be in-class essays that will require you to write
about what you have learned during that unit. These exams will NOT be cumulative. You
will have a choice of three essay questions on the day of exam. You will be given the
questions a week ahead of time, but you will not know which question you will be given
to write on until the time you take the exam. This will give you a chance to prepare
responses to the three possible questions. You will be allowed to use your textbook and
one index card of notes for each exam. You must take all three unit exams to pass the
course.
I will grade these exams on CONTENT and FORM.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
The following are from the SCC website with respect to this course:
Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to:
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recognize the contributions of major writers to the development of English
literature.
demonstrate the ability to read critically and draw inferences about the texts
assigned.
discuss relevant literary criticism.
evaluate literary works by examining the historical and cultural environments in
which they were written.
analyze inter-relations between literature, politics, and social and economic trends
produce written work that interprets, analyzes, and evaluates the literature and
successfully incorporate quoted and paraphrased passages into the student's own
writing.
discuss the connections between biographical information about the authors and
the literary works produce
WEEKLY SYLLABUS
Note: Please have pages 1-24 read before coming to class on the 18th; all subsequent text
selections and page numbers are found in The Norton Anthology of English Literature,
Volume 1, 8th edition, the required text for this course.
Jan 22: Class Scope; Introductions
24: OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE
Bede and Caedmon’s Hymn p. 24-27
The Dream of the Rood p. 27-29
The Wanderer p. 111-113
29: HISTORIES OF BRITAIN p. 117-128
31: Marie de France p. 141-157
Feb 5: MIDDLE ENGLISH LITERATURE
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight p.160-213
7: William Langland
The Vision of Piers Plowman p. 356-367
12: Middle English Lyrics p.435-438
Malory and Morte Arthur p. 438-456
Feb 14: In-Class Documentary on Medieval Literature and Drama
19: Medieval Drama
Everyman p. 463-485
21: UNIT EXAM ONE: Old and Middle English Literature
26: THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY p. 485-514
28: Wider World p.927-944; Drayton “Ode to the Virginian Voyage,” p. 1000-1002
March 5: More’s Utopia, Book One
7: More’s Utopia, Book Two
12: FAITH IN CONFLICT p. 616-640
14: WOMEN IN POWER p. 662-703
19 and 21: Spenser Faerie Queene p.714-719,
And excerpts:
Book I (excerpts TBA)
Book II p. 857-867
April 2: Sir Philip Sydney’s “The Defense of Poetry” and “Astrophil and Stella”
p. 953-992 (read defense well; briefly review the sonnet cycle, paying close
attention to the following sonnets: 1, 2, 6, 9, 15, 20, 31, 34, 37, 41, 45, 47, 49
52, 54, 56, 61, 71, 87, 94, “Eleventh Song,” and 108)
4: Christopher Marlowe p. 1001-1004
“Hero and Leander,” p. 1004-1022
“The Passionate Shepherd to His Love,” p. 1022
LONG PAPER TOPIC/THESIS DUE VIA EMAIL TO ME
BY 5pm on April 5th!
April 9 and 11: Doctor Faustus p. 1022-1058
16: UNIT EXAM TWO: The 16th Century
18: THE EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY p. 1235-1260
23: John Donne p. 1260ff
Poems: The Undertaking; The Indifferent; The Canonization;
Air and Angels; Love’s Alchemy; The Apparition;
The Relic; A Lecture upon the Shadow; Elegy 19;
Holy Sonnets 1, 5, 10, 11, 13, 14
Meditations 4 and 17
25 and 30: John Webster p1461-1462
The Duchess of Malfi p. 1462-1536
May 2: Forms of Inquiry
Francis Bacon: p. 1550-1552; p. 1552-1561
The New Atlantis p. 1569-1573
Thomas Hobbes: p. 1594-1596
Leviathan p. 1596-1605
LONG ESSAY DUE May 3rd via Email to me by 5pm!
7: Crisis of Authority p. 1737-1751
9 and 14: John Milton p. 1785-1789
Paradise Lost: Books 1 and 2
Finals Week: UNIT EXAM THREE: Early 17th Century
To: 310 LT Students
Fr: Dr. Cirrone
Re: Historicism and Culturalism
Let me give you a brief definition of each of these praxes and identify a few online
sources of each in action. I recommend that you read at least one essay from each
category so you can see what each praxis requires/allows before deciding which to
implement when writing your essay for our LT course.
Historicism/New Historicism
This praxis insists that any primary source, any piece of literature, should be treated as a
historical document. The historicist, then, attempts to show how specific historical
events influenced or shaped a piece of literature or the reverse—how a specific piece of
literature shaped or encouraged specific historic events. The historicist must analyze the
literature in its immediate historical context, and in so doing, must identify aspects of
the literature that connect with the specific event(s) in history. Historical events include
such matters as: installation of a new government; introduction of a new technology; a
war; an act of treason; the erection of a building; the creation of a country; the writing
of a historical document; the death of a famous person; etc.
Examples of essays written from this praxis found online at Luminarium.org:
Literary Representations of History in Fourteenth Century England:
Shared Technique and Divergent Practice in Chaucer and Langland - Nicole Lassahn
Church Reformers' Ideas of Warfare and Peace in Fourteenth-Century England: Langland
- D. Lee
History and the Canon: The Case of Doctor Faustus - Michael H. Keefer
Doctor Faustus, the Harrowing of Hell, and the Problem of Satisfaction in Reformation
England - H. Hirschfeld
Completing the Conversation: Donne and Lady Mary Wroth - Maureen Quilligan
Religion, Politics, Revenge: The Dead in Renaissance Drama - Thomas Rist
Culturalism or Sociocultural Criticism
This praxis allows the writer to connect the primary source to a cultural or common
manifestation of ideas found in that source; it also allows the writer to show how a
primary text from one period of time influences a much later period of time—even
modern times. The connections between the primary source and the cultural
phenomenon must be specific and backed up by more than just the writer’s
observations. Cultural manifestations may include: a pop icon’s rise to power; a modern
application of a medieval theory; a “revival”; a primary source’s influence on any
medium of artistic expression; a misapplication of an old text by modern readers to
justify the modern culture; etc.
Examples of essays written from this praxis found online:
The Pageant Wagon as Iconic Site in the York Cycle - Ralph Blasting
Image Resurrection of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in The Silver Chair: C. S. Lewis as
a Medievalist - Masako Takagi
The Holy Grail: From Romance Motif to Modern Genre - Juliette Wood
The Devil and Capitalism in Marlowe's Doctor Faustus and Milton's Paradise Lost Meredith M. Hand
Plato in John Donne's 'The Good Morrow' - Christopher S. Nassaar
A History of Donne's "Canonization" from Izaak Walton to Cleanth Brooks - Dayton
Haskin
Lycanthropy in The Duchess of Malfi - Christina Hart
Here’s examples of essays that blend both praxes—yes, that happens often:
Prophecy, Dragons and Meaning in Malory - Lesley Kordecki
The "press and the fire": print and manuscript culture in Donne's circle - Richard B.
Wollman
Depicting Lesbian Desire: Contexts for John Donne's 'Sapho to Philaenis' - C. Annette
Grise