ENGL 502: Graduate Seminar [Fall 2007]
Dr. Ross Leasure
(410) 677-5009
trleasure@salisbury.edu
Epic Voices: Chaucer, Spenser, Milton
Office: HH 354
Office Hours: MWF 10-11;
MW 2-3; or by appt.
Description: The genre of epic poetry is virtually synonymous with the monumental works of
Homer and Virgil, namely the Iliad and the Aeneid (respectively). As such, later poets imagined
that they might only achieve the heights of literary grandeur if they too, following in the paths of
the Classical masters, composed an epic in verse. Those poets in the English tradition to harbor
such aspirations were, in particular, three literary giants in their own rights: Geoffrey Chaucer,
Edmund Spenser, and John Milton. Each was well-versed in the Classics, and the influences of
the Greek and Latin epics are apparent in those long narrative poems for which each became
most well-known. Chaucer produced Troilus and Criseyde, a chivalric romance in five books set
during the Trojan War. Spenser, although he never finished the project, managed to complete six
books of the allegorical epic, The Faerie Queene, which follows the adventures of a number of
Arthurian figures including the Celtic King himself. Milton, having considered a project not
unlike that of Spenser’s, chose rather to focus his own masterpiece, Paradise Lost, on all of
Salvation History from the Creation to the Apocalypse. In this seminar, we will interrogate the
poetic intentions of these transcendent English poets, investigate the nature of their own epics as
they reflect elements of an age-old genre, and study the more significant critical analyses each
has left in its literary wake. We will be begin however with a consideration of the nature of the
epic in general—is there such a thing as an originary, definitive exemplum of the genre, or does
each generation of authors reconfigure a new epic from older work? As a result we will first
examine Homer’s Iliad and Virgil’s Aeneid for the purposes of a “baseline” comparison.
Required & Optional Texts [in the order we will read them]:
Iliad [Penguin 0-14-044592-7]: Homer (optional)
Aeneid [Vintage 0-679-72952-6]: Virgil (optional)
Preface to Paradise Lost [Oxford 0-19-500345-4]: C.S. Lewis
Paradise Lost [Norton 0393924289]: John Milton
Faerie Queene [Hackett editions]: Edmund Spenser
Book 1 [0-87220-808-7]
Book 2 [0-87220-847-8]
Books 3-4 [0-87220-855-9]
Book 5 [0-87220-801-X]
Book 6 & the Mutabilitie Cantos [0-87220-891-5]
Troilus and Criseyde [Norton 0-393-92755-5]: Geoffrey Chaucer
Schedule of Readings/Activties/Assignments:
Week I
8/29
Homer’s Iliad
Virgil’s Aeneid
Aristotle’s Poetics [excerpts]
Hanford’s Appendix B: “Milton’s ‘Biographia Literaria’”
Week II
9/5
Paradise Lost I-III
Tillyard’s “English Epic Tradition”
Lewis’ Preface [1,3-8]
2
Week III
9/12
Paradise Lost IV-VI
Hale, Di Cesare
Week IV
9/19
Paradise Lost VII-IX
Lewalski (1999), Lewalski (2003)
Week V
9/26
Paradise Lost X-XII
Corns, Evans
Week VI
10/3
Rajan, Spencer
Kaske’s Introduction to FQ I
Spenser’s “Letter to Raleigh”
Week VII
10/10
Faerie Queene I-II
Précis II
Milton’s Areopagitica [excerpt: pp. 349-350]
Week VIII
10/17
Faerie Queene III-IV
Week IX
10/24
Faerie Queene V-VI
Week X
10/31
Kinney [cc. 1 & 3]
Week XI
11/7
Troilus I-II
Franzten: “Past & Present”
Précis III
Week XII
11/14
Troilus III-IV
Focus Paper II
Week XIII
11/21
Thanksgiving [NO CLASS]
Week XIV
11/28
Troilus V
Week XV
12/5
Friday
12/7
Kinney [cc. 2 & 4]
Synthesis & Summation
...
Grade Distribution:
Presentation (4)
Précis (3)
Focus Paper (2)
Term Paper (1)
Précis I
Focus Paper I
Term Paper
5%
10%
15%
20%
20%
30%
30%
20%
The Seminar in Focus:
Week II: Although everyone is always responsible for having read everything assigned, each of
you will “take point” on a single chapter of Lewis’ Preface or collaborate in doing so on
Tillyard’s article, “Milton and the English Epic Tradition.” Be prepared to help me
generate and guide discussion based upon your close examination of the material.
This syllabus is subject to change at the instructor’s discretion.
3
Weeks III-VI: For Paradise Lost, I have garnered and provided for you key critical articles or
chapters by giants in the field of Milton studies; these essays relate directly to the
appropriation and adaptation of the epic as genre and/or the role of the narrator—the epic
voice. Each of you, as before, is responsible for thoroughly digesting a particular piece
of scholarship so that you are prepared to help me generate and guide discussion during
the designated seminar meeting.
Weeks VI-XI: Each of you is responsible for tracking down and preparing a single substantive
article or chapter regarding Spenser’s Faerie Queene that highlights one or multiple
books as it/they exhibit epic qualities, or the poet as the narrator of the epic. It is
important to have acquired the reading far enough in advance to distribute it, giving the
other seminarians sufficient time to peruse it before the class in which we will discuss
your selection.
Weeks XI-XV: We will follow the same protocol as described above regarding Chaucer’s socalled epic poem, Troilus and Criseyde.
Note on Seminarian “presentations”:
* be conversant with the content/argument
* be able to contextualize the reading
* provide your own critical commentary
* devise strategies to facilitate discussion
* produce a brief written précis and review of in-class discussion
[Each précis should be 500-750 words, formatted correctly in MLA style.]
Focus papers: The three précis you produce pursuant to each of your presentations should be of
value in the composition of two essays, the first of which is to consider Paradise Lost as a text
which participates in the literary tradition upon which the seminar focuses, and the second of
which accomplishes the same end with regard to The Faerie Queene. Making use of the primary
text and the ancillary readings we study in conjunction with each, compose an essay that either
situates the text as epic or destabilizes its traditional poetic designation. Each focus paper should
be approximately 1500 words or more, formatted correctly in MLA style.
Seminar research/term paper: In addition to producing the three short written assignments
based upon your respective presentations, and the two focus papers, your final essay, a true
“term” paper, is to be a synthetic consideration of Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde that discusses
at length the “epic” poem has or does not have within the tradition upon which the seminar
focuses. This requires the development and use of some historical, literary-critical, or theoretical
framework as a tool by which you situate the text or destabilize its position. It will necessarily
draw upon our study of the other two epics and the ancillary readings concerning both Paradise
Lost and The Faerie Queene. The term paper should be approximately 2000 words or more,
formatted correctly in MLA style.
This syllabus is subject to change at the instructor’s discretion.
4
Writing Quality/Quantity: In addition to adhering to the code of academic integrity, the written
work you produce this semester should be as close to publishable quality or otherwise suitable
for presentation at a scholarly conference as possible. Minimum word requirements do not
include “Works Cited.”
Deadlines: Although there is a designated deadline for each of the written assignments for the
semester, you may submit the précis early if you have already presented, rather than waiting for
the submission date.
www.Turnitin.com: The two focus papers and the term paper should be uploaded in electronic
form to the Turnitin.com website. I will configure the course site to allow you access to your
own originality reports. This is a tool by which you can discover the proportion of critical
citations you include in relation to your use of an original authorial voice.
Paradise Lost “Casebook” Articles [on electronic reserve]
Corns, Thomas. “The English Epic.” Regaining Paradise Lost. New York: Longman 1994, pp.
107-125.
Di Cesare, Mario A. “‘Not Less but More Heroic’: The Epic Task and the Renaissance Hero.”
Yearbook of English Studies 12 (1982): 58-71.
Evans, J. Martin. “The Narrator.” Milton’s Imperial Epic: Paradise Lost and the Discourse of
Colonialism. Ithaca: Cornell UP 1996, pp. 112-140.
Hale, John K. “The Classical Literary Tradition.” Companion to Milton. Ed. Thomas Corns.
London: Blackwell 2003, pp. 22-36.
Hanford, James H. “Appendix B: Milton’s ‘Biographia Literaria’.” Milton Handbook. 4th ed.
New York: Appleton Century Crofts 1954, pp. 365-383.
Lewalski, Barbara. “Genre.” Companion to Milton. Ed. Thomas Corns. London: Blackwell
2003, pp. 3-21.
_____. “The Genres of Paradise Lost.” Cambridge Companion to Milton. 2nd ed. Ed. Dennis
Danielson. Cambridge: Cambridge U P 1999, pp. 113-129.
Rajan, Balachandra. “Paradise Lost: The Uncertain Epic.” John Milton: Twentieth-Century
Perspectives, vol. 4. Ed. J.M. Evans. New York: Routledge 2003, pp. 41-55.
Spencer, T.J.B. “Paradise Lost: The Anti-Epic.” Approaches to Paradise Lost: The York
Tercentenary Lectures. Ed. C.A. Patrides. Toronto: U of T P 1968, pp. 81-89.
This syllabus is subject to change at the instructor’s discretion.
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Blackwell Library Reserves:
Arthos, John. Approaches to Paradise Lost: York Tercentenary Lectures. PR3562 .A8
Blessington, Francis. Paradise Lost and the Classical Epic. PR3562 .B535
Boitani, Piero. Cambridge Chaucer Companion. PR 1924 .C28
Demaray, John. Milton’s Theatrical Epic: The Invention and Design of Paradise Lost.
PR3562 .D44
Ferry Anne. Milton’s Epic Voice: The Narrator in Paradise Lost. PR 3562. F4
Forsyth, Neil. The Satanic Epic. PR3562 .F64
Fowler, Alastair. Kinds of Literature: An Introduction to the Theory of Genres and Modes.
PN45.5 .F6
Greene, Thomas. The Descent from Heaven: A Study in Epic Continuity. PN1303 .G7
Grose, Christopher. Milton’s Epic Process: Paradise Lost and its Miltonic Background. PR
3562. G75
Guillory, John. Poetic Authority: Spenser, Milton, and Literary History. PR508.A88 G84
Hadfield, Andrew. The Cambridge Companion to Spenser. PR2364 .C36
Hanford, James Holly. A Milton Handbook. PR3588 .H2
Heiatt, A. Kent. Chaucer, Spenser, Milton : Mythopoeic Continuities and Transformations.
PR508.M87 H5
Lewis, C.S. Preface to Paradise Lost. London: Oxford UP 1961.
Maresca, Thomas. Three English Epics: Studies of Troilus and Criseyde, The Faerie Queene,
and Paradise Lost. PR509.E7 M3
Martin, Catherine. The Ruins of Allegory: Paradise Lost and the Metamorphosis of Epic
Convention. PR 3562. M287
McAlpine, Monica. The Genre of Troilus and Criseyde. PR1896 .M3
Meech, Sandford. Design in Chaucer’s Troilus. PR 1896 .M4
Miskimin, Alice. The Renaissance Chaucer. PR1924 .M5
This syllabus is subject to change at the instructor’s discretion.
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Patrides, C.A. The Grand Design of God: The Literary Form of the Christian View of History.
BR115.H5 P28
Rosenberg, D. M. Oaten Reeds and Trumpets: Pastoral and Epic in Virgil, Spenser, and Milton.
PR408.P3 R67
Salu, Mary. Essays on Troilus and Criseyde. PR1896 .E8
Schofield, William H. Chivalry in English Literature: Chaucer, Malory, Spenser, and
Shakespeare. PR149.C5 S4
Shoaf, R. A. Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde. PR1896 .C47
Steadman, John. Epic and Tragic Structure in Paradise Lost. PR3562 .S64
Suzuki, Mihoko. Metamorphoses of Helen: Authority, Difference, and the Epic.
PA3015.R5 H377
Tillyard, E. M. W. The English Epic and Its Background. PR125 .T5
Webber, Joan. Milton and His Epic Tradition. PR3562 .W34
TEXTS ON ORDER:
Borris. Allegory and Epic in English Renaissance Literature. Cambridge 2000. ISBN
0521781299
Cook, Patrick. Milton, Spenser and the Epic Tradition. Ashgate 1996. ISBN 0859282717
Demaray. Cosmos and Epic Tradition. Duquesne U P 1991. ISBN 0820702315
Gregerson. Reformation of the Subject: Spenser, Milton, and the English Protestant Epic.
Cambridge 2006. ISBN 0521034906
Harrison. They Tell of Birds: Chaucer, Spenser, Milton, Drayton. U of Texas 2003. ISBN
0758115431
Kinney. Strategies of Poetic Narrative : Chaucer, Spenser, Milton, Eliot. Cambridge University
Press 1992. ISBN 0521405424
Pearsall. Chaucer to Spenser: A Critical Reader. Blackwell 1999. ISBN 0631199373
Quilligan. Milton's Spenser. Cornell U P 1983. ISBN 080141590X
Wu, Duncan. Poetry from Chaucer to Spenser. Blackwell 2002. ISBN 0631229876
This syllabus is subject to change at the instructor’s discretion.