English Literature
The Middle Ages, Renaissance, Restoration Period
NEPTUNE CODE: BTANN307, 308
COURSE TYPE: Lectures and seminars
PROGRAMME: BA 2nd year
LINK TO COURSE HOMEPAGE: www.mfi.uni-miskolc.hu/dosa
TUTOR: Dr. Attila Dósa
CONTACT: Office: A/6 Room 9. Office Hours: as advertised on my door or by appointment.
Phone: 46/565-111 2285. E-mail: a_dosa@hotmail.com .
AIMS:
This survey course introduces you to the early development of English literature, from the
beginnings to the end of the seventeenth century. By the end of the term you will have gained
knowledge of several important writers including Marlowe, Shakespeare, Donne, Jonson, and
Milton, and will be familiar with the major theoretical and critical terms of the period.
ASSESSMENT:
The lecture course will end with a signature and a kollokvium grade. The grade will be based on
a written examination in the examination term. Please find a list of exam topics and set texts as
well as a bibliography of recommended readings below. Most of the texts will be covered in the
seminars and/or lectures but you are responsible for reading all the texts for the examination.
You will be able to access and download all the relevant primary texts from the course
homepage indicated above. You will also find a Course Reader there which contains all
readings (except Shakespeare’s plays), and a detailed Lecture Notes, which will help you
prepare for the examination as well as the weekly sessions. These documents are password
protected. I’ll let you know the passwords in the first week of teaching.
The seminar grade will be based on:
- a mid-term and an end-term paper;
- presentations (not more than 5 minutes in length, which will be strictly observed);
- a handout that must accompany your presentation;
- the occasional in-class test that is meant to check up on your reading;
- and finally your contribution to in-class discussion.
Your handout should contain: your name; the title of your presentation; and the precise
indication of your sources (i.e., a bibliography). Late handouts will not be considered. Please
note that only word-processed submissions are acceptable. Please find a list of the required
readings as well as a bibliography of recommended texts below.
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SCHEDULE:
WEEK 1: Introduction to the course
WEEK 2: Medieval Poetry
READINGS: The Wanderer, The Dream of the Rood
WEEK 3: Medieval Drama
READING: Everyman
WEEK 4: Elizabethan Drama
READING: Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus
WEEK 5: Elizabethan Drama
READING: William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
WEEK 6: Elizabethan Drama
READING: William Shakespeare, Hamlet
WEEK 7: Elizabethan Drama
READING: William Shakespeare, King Lear
WEEK 8: Elizabethan Drama
READING: William Shakespeare, Macbeth
WEEK 9: MID-TERM TEST
WEEKS 10-11: Elizabethan Poetry
READINGS: Sir Philip Sidney, Defence of Poesie (extracts)
Sir Thomas Wyatt, ‘The Long Love That In My Thought Doth Harbour’
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, ‘Love That Doth Reign and Live Within My Thought’
Sir Philip Sidney, Sonnets no. 1, 3, and 7 from Astrophel and Stella
Edmund Spenser, Sonnets no. 54 and 79 from Amoretti
William Shakespeare, The Sonnets (extracts)
WEEKS 12-13: Jacobean and Caroline Poetry; The Poetry of the Commonwealth Period
READINGS: John Donne, Sonnet no. 6 (‘Death be not proud…’) from Holy Sonnets,
‘The Good Morrow’, ‘The Canonization’, ‘Love’s Alchemy’, ‘The Flea’
Andrew Marvell, ‘To His Coy Mistress’, ‘The Definition of Love’, ‘The Garden’
Ben Jonson, ‘On My First Son’, ‘To the Memory of My Beloved, the Author Mr William
Shakespeare’
John Milton, Sonnets no. 17 (‘When I consider how my light is spent…’), 18 (‘On the
Late Massacre in Piedmont’), 19 (‘Methought I saw my late espoused saint…’), Paradise
Lost, extracts: Book I
WEEK 14: END-TERM TEST
EXAMINATION TOPICS:
1. Medieval Poetry: The Wanderer, The Dream of the Rood
2. Medieval Drama: Everyman
3. The English Renaissance: The Term and the Period
4. The Elizabethan Stage
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5. Christopher Marlowe, Dr Faustus
6. William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
7. William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
8. William Shakespeare, Hamlet
9. William Shakespeare, King Lear
10.
William Shakespeare, Macbeth
11.
Elizabethan Poetry: Wyatt, Surrey, Sidney, Spenser, Shakespeare
12.
Metaphysical, Cavalier and Puritan Poetry: Donne, Jonson, Marvell, Milton
REQUIRED READINGS FOR THE EXAMINATION:
1. Plays:
Everyman
Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus
William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, King
Lear, Macbeth
2. Poetry:
Sir Thomas Wyatt, ‘The Long Love That In My Thought Doth Harbour’
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, ‘Love That Doth Reign and Live Within My Thought’
Sir Philip Sidney, Sonnets no. 1, 3, and 7 from Astrophel and Stella
Edmund Spenser, Sonnets no. 54 and 79 from Amoretti
William Shakespeare, The Sonnets
John Donne, ‘The Good Morrow’, ‘The Canonization’, ‘Love’s Alchemy’, ‘The Flea’;
Sonnet no. 6 (‘Death be not proud…’) from Holy Sonnets
Andrew Marvell, ‘To His Coy Mistress’, ‘The Definition of Love’, ‘The Garden’
Ben Jonson, ‘To the Memory of My Beloved, the Author Mr William Shakespeare’, ‘On
My First Son’
John Milton, Sonnets no. 17 (‘When I consider how my light is spent…’), 18 (‘On the
Late Massacre in Piedmont’), 19 (‘Methought I saw my late espoused saint…’); Paradise
Lost, Book I
Thomas Gray, ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’, ‘The Bard’
William Cowper, ‘The Castaway’
Robert Burns, ‘Tam O’Shanter’
3. Essay:
Sir Philip Sidney, Defence of Poesie (extracts)
COURSE BOOKS:
Abrams, M.H. et al. (eds.), The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 5th edn (New York:
Norton, 1987) AIT
Daiches, David, A Critical History of English Literature, Vol. 1., From the Beginnings to Milton
(London: Mandarin, 1994) AIT, KLM C140.164
Ford, Boris (ed.), The Pelican Guide to English Literature (London: Penguin, 1982), Volumes:
2. The Age of Shakespeare, 3. From Donne to Marvell, 4. From Dryden to Johnson, AIT, KLM
C140.187, 188, 189
Géher, István, Shakespeare-olvasókönyv: Tükörképünk 37 darabban (Bp: Cserépfalvi, 1993)
KLM D93.540,41
Gray, Martin, A Dictionary of Literary Terms (London: Longman, 1992) AIT
Kocztur, Gizella, The History of English Prose in the Eighteenth Century (Bp.: Tankvk., 1992)
KLM 027.284,5,6,8,9,90,93
Országh, László, Szöveggyűjtemény a reneszánsz és polgári forradalom korának angol
irodalmából, 1-2. köt. (Bp.: Nemz. Tankvk., 1996) KLM 031.204, 031.206, 031.208, 031.205,
031.207, 031.209
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Pálffy, István and Szilassy Zoltán, English Literature from 1485 to 1660 (Bp.: Nemz. Tankvk.,
1993) AIT, KLM 030.727, 030.728
Róna, Éva, A XVIII. század angol irodalma (Bp.: Nemz. Tankvk., 1996) KLM 030.842,
030.844, 030.844, 030.846, 030.843, 030.845
FURTHER READING:
1. From the Renaissance to the Eighteenth Century: General Introduction
Baker, Ernst A., The History of the Novel, Vol. 4.: Intellectual Realism: From Richardson to
Sterne (1957) KLM C149.080
Bath, Michael, Speaking Pictures: English Emblem Books and Renaissance Culture (London:
Longman, 1994) AIT
Bevis, Richard W., English Drama: Restoration and Eighteenth Century: 1660-1789 (London:
Longman, 1992) AIT
Braunmuller, A. R. and Michael Hattaway (eds), The Cambridge Companion to English
Renaissance Drama (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Pr., 1995) AIT
Eliot, T. S., Elizabethan Dramatists (London: Faber, 1968) KLM A14.775
Fabiny, Tibor, et. al. (eds), A reneszánsz szimbolizmus: Tanulmányok: Ikonográfia,
emblematika, Shakespeare (Szeged: JATEPress, 1998) MIT, KVA, KLM C144.674, C144.675
Kiss, Attila, The Semiotics of Revenge: Subjectivity and Abjection in English Renaissance
Tragedy (Szeged: JATEPress, 1995) KLM C135.362
Leggatt, Alexander, English Drama: Shakespeare to the Restoration 1590-1660 (London:
Longman, 1993) AIT
Lonsdale, Roger (ed.), Penguin History of Literature: Dryden to Johnson (London: Penguin,
1993) AIT, KLM C140.166
Parry, Graham, The Seventeenth Century: The Intellectual and Cultural Context of English
Literature, 1603-1700 (London: Longman, 1993) AIT
Probyn, Clive T., English Fiction of the Eighteenth Century: 1700-1789 (London: Longman,
1994) AIT
Ricks, Christopher (ed.), English Drama to 1710 (London: Penguin, 1993) AIT, KLM C140.167
Ricks, Christopher (ed.), Penguin History of Literature: English Poetry and Prose 1540-1674
(London: Penguin, 1993) AIT, KLM C140.183
Sambrook, James, The Eighteenth Century: The Intellectual and Cultural Context of English
Literature: 1700-1789 (London: Longman, 1993) AIT
Shepherd, Simon and Peter Womack, English Drama: A Cultural History (Oxford: Blackwell,
1996) AIT
Spiller, Michael R. G., The Development of the Sonnet: An Introduction (London: Routledge,
1992) MIT, AIT
Székely, György, Lángözön: Shakespeare kora és kortársai (Bp.: Európa, 2003) KLM
H24C174.997, C174.998
Szenczi, Miklós, English Drama During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (Bp.: Tankvk.,
1992) KLM 026.702,3,4,5,6
Szilassy, Zoltán, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century English Poetry and Prose (Bp.: Tankvk.,
1992) KLM 026.692,3,4,5,6
Trigg, Stephanie (ed.), Medieval English Poetry (London: Longman, 1993) AIT
Trócsányi, Miklós (ed.), Szöveggyűjtemény a reneszánsztól a romantika koráig (Bp.: Tankvk.,
1993) KLM 027.663,4,5,6,7
Waller, Gary, English Poetry of the Sixteenth Century (London: Longman, 1993) AIT
2. John Donne
Cookson, Linda and Bryan Loughrey (eds), The Metaphysical Poets, Longman Critical Essays
(Harlow: Longman, 1994) AIT
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Winny, James, A Preface to Donne (London: Longman, 1993) AIT
3. Henry Fielding
Bell, Ian A., Henry Fielding: Authorship and Authority (London: Longman, 1994) AIT
4. John Milton
Corns, Thomas N., Regaining Paradise Lost (London: Longman, 1994) AIT
Milton, John, English Minor Poems; Paradise Lost; Samson Agonistes; Areopagitica (Chicago:
Encycl. Britannica, 1992) KLM D91.307
Potter, Lois, A Preface to Milton (London: Longman, 1992) AIT
5. William Shakespeare
Bradley, A. C., Shakespeare tragikus jellemei: Előadások a Hamletről, az Othellóról, a Lear
királyról és a Machbethről (Bp.: Palatinus, 2001) MIT, KLM A22.186, A22.187
Brooks, Harold F. (ed.), William Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream (London:
Routledge, 1994) AIT
Charney, Maurice, All of Shakespeare (New York: Columbia Univ. Pr., 1993) AIT
Cookson, Linda and Bryan Loughrey (eds), William Shakespeare: Hamlet, Longman Critical
Essays (Harlow: Longman, 1994) AIT
Cookson, Linda and Bryan Loughrey (eds), William Shakespeare: King Lear, Longman Critical
Essays (Harlow: Longman, 1994) AIT
Drakakis, John (ed.), Shakespearean Tragedy (London: Longman, 1994) AIT
Draper, R. P., William Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream, York Notes (Harlow:
Longman, 1993) AIT
Garner, Shirley Nelson and Madelon Sprengnether (eds), Shakespearean Tragedy and Gender
(Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana Univ. Pr., 1996) AIT
Géher, István (ed.), William Shakespeare: Romeo és Júlia (Bp.: PannonKlett, 1997) KLM
D103.457
Géher, István, Shakespeare (Bp.: Corvina, 1998) KLM D103.962, D103.964, D103.965
Géher, István, Shakespeare-kollégium: Tanulmányok (Bp.: Argumentum: Eötvös J. Collegium,
2000) MIT, KLM A23.771
Hankiss, Elemér, Hamlet színeváltozásai : Hamlet-értelmezések a XVIII. századtól napjainkig
(Szombathely: Savaria Univ. Pr., 1995) KLM C131.979, C131.980, C131.980, C131.981
Heller, Ágnes, Kizökkent idő: Shakespeare, a történelemfilozófus (Bp.: Osiris, 2000) MIT, KLM
A20.773, A20.774, A20.775, A20.777, A20.776, A20.778
Hollindale, Peter, William Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Penguin Critical Studies
(London: Penguin, 1992) AIT
Lings, Martin, Shakespeare titka (Bp.: Stella Maris, 1995) KLM C134.444
Lott, Bernard (ed.), William Shakespeare: King Lear (Harlow: Longman, 1992) AIT
Lott, Bernard (ed.), William Shakespeare: Hamlet (Harlow: Longman, 1993) AIT
Macrae, Alasdair D. F., William Shakespeare: Macbeth, York Notes (Harlow: Longman, 1993)
AIT
McEvoy, Sean, Shakespeare: The Basics (London: Routledge, 2001) AIT
Peck, John and Martin Coyle, How to Study a Shakespeare Play (Houndmills: Macmillan, 1995)
AIT
Rehder, Robert M., William Shakespeare: King Lear, York Notes (Harlow: Longman, 1992)
AIT
Schiffer, James (ed.), Shakespeare's Sonnets: Critical Essays (New York: Garland, 1992) AIT
Scragg, Leach, Shakespeare's Mouldy Tales: Recurrent Plot Motifs in Shakespearean Drama
(London: Longman, 1992) AIT
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Scragg, Leach, Discovering Shakespeare's Meaning: An Introduction to the Study of
Shakespeare's Dramatic Structures (London: Longman, 1994) AIT
Szaffkó, Péter, Shakespeare és az angol klasszikus történelmi dráma: Kritikatörténeti áttekintés
(Bp.: Eötvös J. Kvk., 1999) KLM C143.697, C143.698
Tótfalusi, István, Ki kicsoda Shakespeare világában (Bp.: Anno, 2000) KLM C152.740
Vendler, Helen, The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets (London: Belknap Pr., 1999) MIT
Wells, Stanley and Sarah Stanton (eds), The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Stage
(Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Pr., 2002) KLM C171.720
KEY:
AIT (Angol Irodalom Tanszéki Könyvtár), FTT (Filozófiatörténeti Tanszéki Könyvtár), KET
(Közép-Európa Tanszéki Könyvtár), KLM (Központi Egyetemi Könyvtár, Levéltár és Múzeum),
KVA (Kulturális és Vizuális Antropológia Tanszéki Könyvtár), MIT (Magyar
Irodalomtudományi Tanszéki Könyvtár)
Dr Attila Dósa
Department of English Literature
University of Miskolc