Homework Page, English Literature 1 Spring 2014 -- Prof. Furr

English Literature 1 Spring 2014 -- Mr. Furr

Homework Page

Back to Home Page for this course. To schedule of readings.

I will post all writing assignments on this page.. You should create a 'bookmark' of your own to this page, so you can go to it without having to first go to the Home Page for the course.

NOTE: BE SURE TO USE THE PROPER SUBJECT LINE ON ALL HW ASSIGNMENTS! SEE BOTTOM OF HOME PAGE FOR EXAMPLE!

Be sure to "send a copy to yourself" of ALL your homework assignments!

IMPORTANT

We cannot have good in-class discussions unless each student has 1. the TEXT we are discussing that day; and 2. a copy of his/her HW assignment, to refresh your memory about what you have written.

Therefore, be sure to bring with you to class, every day:

The TEXT WE ARE DISCUSSING THAT DAY and on which you have written your HW assignment;
A PRINTED COPY OF YOUR HW ASSIGNMENT for that day.

If you have either or both of these on a laptop or tablet and bring that to class, you do not need to print them.

Be sure these items are clearly visible on your desk as I take attendance each day. I will take note.

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS

For Thursday January 23: You have a lot, to get us started.
- send me two emails, from different email accounts, on two different servers
  - One of these MUST be the MSU 'mail' account. It is "free" (you've already paid for it, in your tuition), but you MUST use it for this course.
  - See the full instructions on the Internet page.
See the list of free web-based email providers at the bottom of our Home Page.
Make sure that the Subject line of the email messages conforms to the model at the bottom of our Home Page.
Read our text, pp. 1-12, "The Medieval Period", up to the end of 7 "England Before the Norman Conquest." Do this assigment.

Assignments on Old English Poetry and Beowulf

For Tuesday, January 28. Do this assignment on "The Wanderer" and "The Seafarer," pp. 52-55. Take your time -- this involves some reading!
- Listen to the opening of Beowulf and other passages from the poem, plus other Old English poems, and selections from Geoffrey Chaucer, read in the original by experts! (thanks to Norton publishers).
For Thursday, January 30 . Note: by today, make sure you have read 1/2 of Beowulf, pp. 65 - 85, to the end of § 23.
- Please print out and read either 'The Battle of Finnsburh" or "The Battle of Brunanburh". (The OE text is on the left or above the modern text). These passages give you a good idea of what other OE and early Germanic heroic poems were like.
- Now, read a few stanzas of Y Gododdin. This is the earliest British poem and is in the Celtic language of Brythonic (now called "Old Welsh"). It was not written in Wales but in what is now Yorkshire, England, or Southern Scotland, probably shortlhy after 598 A.D. This gives you a good idea of what heroic Celtic poetry was like.
For Tuesday, February 4. By this assignment you should have finished reading Beowulf. We'll finish discussing it in the first half of Thursday's class.

Assignments on Middle English Literature

Middle English Lyrics

For Thursday, February 6

Please read this page: "Now that we have completed the first two weeks of the class..."

Assignments on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Read Constantine Cavafy's wonderful poem "Ithaca" (1911). There are many translations. I like this one. But there's also this one, and this one,

See these images of the "Wheel of Forture".

For Tuesday, February 11

Thursday, February 13 - Montclair State University closed because of snow storm. All classes cancelled.

The assignment for Thursday, February 13 is now due Tuesday, February 18.
If you have already sent it with the date of the 18th, that's fine. You do not have to email it again.
If you haven't sent it yet, please use the new class / due / date of February 18.

For Tuesday, February 18. This assignment involves listening to a 45-minute long lecture by a famous medievalist. It is a REALLY GOOD lecture, and you will learn a lot by listening to it.
If you don't have the free RealPlayer (most computers come with it already installed) you can download it FREE from here or see the "Streaming Audio Instructions" box in the table on our course's Home Page.
For Thursday, February 20. Make sure you have read all of SGGK carefully. We'll discuss Boethian echoes and Christian allegory. No written assignment, but please bring the materials you already have.
- Boethian echoes: I have already given you this in class, but take another look here. Please print out and bring to class (unless you have it already or have a laptop, tablet, etc.)
- Christian allegory: A big topic! Let's start with some motifs that are common in chivalric romances, like this one on horses and hunts. Please print out and bring to class (unless you have it already or have a laptop, tablet, etc.)

Geoffrey Chaucer

For Tuesday, February 25: on the General Prolog to The Canterbury Tales. NOTE: No written assignment for today because the one for Thursday is somewhat longer than usual. So, just read the General Prolog carefully and bring your text to class with you.

Montclair State University Medieval and Early Modern Studies Seminar!

Wednesday, February 26, 4:00 - 5:30 p.m., CS 014 (Conrad Schmitt Hall)

Professor Nigel Smith (Princeton University) will talk on "The European Marvell"

(that's Andrew Marvell, one of the greatest English poets of the 17th century)

See full details on the beautiful graphic poster here!

Please attend! It's not "required" -- but you really should go to this talk, for your own edification.

For Thursday, February 27 on The Wyf of Bath's Tale.
For Tuesday, March 4 on The Pardoner's Prolog and Tale. Read this page on the Tale ( from the Harvard "Canterbury Tales" site.). NOTE: If you want extra credit, or an extra challenge, read Robert Miller's fine article from Speculum, also mentioned on the Harvard page. No written assignment, but read carefully!

March 10 - 16 Spring Recess No Classes

Everyman

For Tuesday, March 18. No additional readings today; just the text of the morality play itself.
Also: Mid-Term Examination in class! Just 20 minutes. Be sure to attend class -- no makeups!

Assignments on Renaissance Literature -- the Sixteenth Century

Wyatt, Surrey, English and Petrarchan Sonnets

For Thursday, March 20. Here are the Wikipedia pages on Sir Thomas Wyatt; on Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey; on the sonnet: note Petrarchan, Shakespearean, and Spenserian - we will read examples of all these types.

Spenser, Epithalamion

For Tuesday, March 25
1. Read Spenser's marvellous poem Epithalamion. Read the whole poem, carefully.
2. Read these two reviews of the book by A. Kent Hieatt, Short Time's Endless Monument (1960).
3. Then, do this assignment.
  NOTE: You may want to read through Catullus' Carmina ("Songs"), No. 61, the main classical Latin model for Spenser's Epithalamion. Here is a site with Latin and English together, on three successive screens. Notes on the Latin text, in English, at Tufts University's Perseus project.

Spenser, The Faerie Queene

[NOTE: Go here for a brief summary of the whole Faerie Queene. It's very helpful! ]

For Thursday, March 27: Make sure you have read the material listed for today on our schedule page: "Introductory pages on Edmund Spenser and his epic The Faerie Queene, pp. 555-558 (old edition: pp. 573-576) and the "Bower of Bliss", and the "Garden of Adonis"
For Thursday, March 27 on the "Bower of Bliss", the "Garden of Adonis", and the "Mutabilitie Cantos" of Spenser's magnificent epic The Faerie Queene.
For Tuesday, April 1 This is our "catch-up" day! Bring "The Mutabilitie Cantos" and read the introductory material on Spense and on The Faerie Queene (2nd edition pp. 555-8; 1st ed. pp. 573-6). We shall finish up Spenser.

Marlowe, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

For Thursday, April 3:
- Read Acts I and II only. No writing assignment for today.
  Please read these brief pages for background on the Faust legend and on Marlowe's famous play. "You'll be glad you did!"
- Read the introductory material on Marlowe, pp. 743-744 (old edition pp. 736-737), and on Dr. Faustus, pp. 757-758 (old edition pp. 750-751.)

NOTE: Some people believe that not Shakespeare but Christopher Marlowe actually wrote Shakespeare's plays! This is a really interesting question, which you can, if you wish, begin to explore on this page. Fascinating stuff! This is not "required" for the course -- but who would be so dull of mind as to miss it? Surely not you?? (I didn't think so!)

For Tuesday, April 8: Finish reading Marlowe, Doctor Faustus. No writing assignment for today.
- Time permitting, e will also begin our review of British History. Please carefully read the Wikipedia page on The Tudor Dynasty. Print it out and bring it to class with you. This will give you some idea of the very tense political situation that existed during the time Wyatt, Surrey, Spenser, Marlowe, and Shakespeare were writing.
- Pay special attention to "The Age of Intrigues and Plots: Elizabeth I."
- To really get an idea of the kind of social and political unrest that characterized this whole period, from the 1530s to the end of Elizabeth I's reign (and really long after that too), read a few of these pages on some of the significant rebellions and wars:
  - The Pilgrimage of Grace (1536)
  - Kett's Rebellion (1549)
  - The Prayer Book Rebellion (1549)
  - There were many, many other rebellions, including working-class rebellions in the cities. We will read about some of them for next class.

NOTE on Explicitly Bawdy Language

Explicit sexual and bawdy, or ribald, language and its use in literature was common until about the second half of the 18th century. Since the Romantic and especially the Victorian periods ribald language has been considered "obscene." Earlier works of literature were either censored altogether or "expurgated" (= censored), with ribald passages removed. The most famous example of this is the "Bowdlerization" of Shakespeare's works by Thomas Bowdler, beginning in 1818.

Not everybody supported the "purification" of literature through censorship of the bawdy. In 1871 Mark Twain wrote "1601", the full title of which is " Date, 1601. Conversation, As It Was by the Social Fireside in the Time of the Tudors." You can read the Wikipedia article about "1601"; the publication history followed by the text; and a facsimile of an early edition.

It's important to understand that modern and contemporary squeamishness about the discussion of sex, sexuality, bodily functions, and the like is a mark of Romantic and post-Romantic style and sensibility, and not an "eternal" marker of "good taste" or quality in literature, art, and culture generally.

Shakespeare, The Sonnets

For Thursday, April 10. Do the HW on the Sonnets. We'll discuss them and then take up King Lear, which we also have for the following class.

Shakespeare, King Lear

For Tuesday, April 15
For Thursday, April 17

John Donne, Robert Herrick, Andrew Marvell

For Tuesday, April 22: No writing assignment. Read through all this great poetry (see Schedule for what to read). I'll read over a bit more. Be prepared to read some of it aloud in class.

John Milton

For Thursday, April 24. This is the assignment on the shorter poems.
- Take a look at this annotated online edition of "Lycidas", at the Dartmouth College "Milton Reading Room." It shows how heavily allusive -- full of allusions to Classical authors and to the Bible -- Milton's poem is. This is a dimension of the poem that his audience would have fully appreciated, since they would have been well read in the Classics and the Bible. Today almost all of us have to learn about it from scholars, as here. We miss this dimension of Milton's incredible accomplishment, in which almost every line is an allusion to some other work.
For Tuesday, April 29 This is the assignment on "Paradise Lost", Book I.

Thursday, May 1: This is our last day of class (see the MSU Academic Calendar). We'll discuss end-of-semester matters. Please attend! There'll be some important things to talk about, and to do.

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