Literary Ecumenism
Protestant Renaissance Writers and Their Catholic Precursors

TEXTBOOKS:

• Edmund Spenser, Edmund Spenser’s Poetry (Norton, 3rd ed., 1993), ISBN 0393962997,
• Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (Oxford, new ed., 1998), ISBN 0192836773,
• Francesco Petrarca, Petrarch: The Canzoniere (Indiana, 1999), ISBN 0253213177,
• Joachim Du Bellay, The Regrets (Northwestern, 2004), ISBN 0810119935,
• Sir Philip Sidney, The Major Works (Oxford, 2002), ISBN 0192840800,
• Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales (Norton, 2nd ed., 2005), ISBN 0393925870,
• William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Signet, 1998), ISBN 0451526961,
• Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur (Modern Library, 1999), ISBN 0375753222,
• Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, Volume 1: Inferno (Penguin, rev. ed., 2002), ISBN 0142437220, and
• John Milton, The Complete Poems (Penguin, 1999), ISBN 0140433635.

COURSE DESCRIPTION.  The 16th and 17th centuries were a time of significant religious and literary change in Europe.  In this course, we will examine how a number of Protestant poets of the 16th and 17th centuries (i.e., Sidney, Spenser, Shakespeare, and Milton) used, abused, adapted, and adopted their Catholic precursors (i.e., Dante, Chaucer, Petrarch, Du Bellay, Ronsard, and Ariosto).  What role does religion play in the writings of these poets?  Does religious identity shape literary principles and practices?  Does Catholic poetry differ from Protestant poetry?  Does religious identity shape how Catholic poets are perceived by their Protestant successors?

GOALS.  In terms of my goals for this course, I want you

1. to read, analyze, and synthesize literary texts and traditions from a critical, theoretical, multinational, and interdisciplinary perspective,
2. to engage in the practice of comparative literary analysis by writing about literary texts and traditions from within a comparative framework and drawing conclusions about the significance of literary and cultural intersections and divergences/differences,
3. to pursue a sustained investigation of the idea of literature itself by examining what literature is and how it is culturally, politically, philosophically and/or sociologically defined and influenced (e.g., by looking at the role that religion plays in literary production and consumption), and by exploring, from a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary perspective, how and why literary texts are categorized (in terms of traditions, periods, genres and movements),
4. to increase your sensitivity to the concrete historicity of texts and to the development of literary traditions, cultural values, modes of thought, and uses of language over time (e.g., by gaining an understanding of the religious and literary issues in the 16th and 17th centuries),
5. to add to your familiarity with a significant body of texts within – and on the margins of – a variety of literary traditions, and
6. to increase your understanding of the power of words by reading critically, interpreting responsibly, writing and speaking with clarity and grace, reasoning intelligently, and arguing thoughtfully and persuasively for a range of audiences and purposes.

REQUIREMENTS.  This course has the following graded assignments:

1. 10 two-page response papers (worth 2% of your final grade each or 20% total),
2. a mid-term exam (20% of your final grade),
3. PAPER 1 (10%),
4. PAPER 2 (25%), and
5. a comprehensive final exam (25%).

ATTENDANCE.  Regular attendance is a virtual necessity for successful completion of this class.  Class discussion constitutes important, useful preparation for your graded work.  If you miss a class, you will essentially lose out on that day’s contribution to your preparation, since it is never really possible to reproduce or recapture the dynamics and flow of information for a missed class meeting (even if you get notes from someone).  If, however, you positively must miss a class, I expect you to find out what you missed and to come fully prepared – without excuses – to the next class meeting.  And please, don’t ask, “Did I miss anything?”  Check out Tom Wayman’s poem about that question.

OFFICE HOURS.  My office is Bliss 216, and my office hours are 2-4 p.m. on TF 3:30-4:00 p.m. and 5:30-6:30 p.m. on MR.  If you cannot see me during these office hours, feel free as needed to call my office (771-2106) or to talk to me before or after class to arrange an appointment at another time.  You may also contact me by email (gsteinbe@tcnj.edu), or you may leave a message for me in my box at the English department offices in Bliss 124.  Email is generally the fastest way to contact me in an emergency.

EMAIL.  I may, on occasion, want to e-mail everyone in class.  I generally only have access to your TCNJ e-mail addresses, however.  As a result, if you regularly use an e-mail address other than your TCNJ address, I recommend that you have mail from your TCNJ address forwarded to the address you use more regularly.  That way, if I e-mail your TCNJ address, my message will be forwarded to your other address automatically.  To forward mail from your TCNJ address, go to http://managemail.tcnj.edu/  and click “Mail Forwarding Manager.”  Follow the directions there to set up the mail forwarding.

If you would like to send an e-mail message to one or more of your classmates, you can do so through SOCS.  To access SOCS, go to http://socs.tcnj.edu and, after you have logged in with your TCNJ e-mail username and password, choose this class from the list of your courses this semester.  Then, when our course page comes up, click the “Email” button.  From there, you can select individual e-mail addresses or the entire class and send a message to the address(es) you’ve selected.

Accommodations.  The College of New Jersey prohibits discrimination against any student on the basis of physical or mental disability or perceived disability.  The College will also provide reasonable and appropriate accommodations to enable students with disabilities to participate in the life of the campus community.  Individuals with disabilities are responsible for reporting and supplying documentation verifying their disability, and requests for accommodations must be initiated through the Office of Differing Abilities Services (Eickhoff Hall 159).  If you require special assistance, I will make every reasonable effort to accommodate your needs and to create an environment where your special abilities will be respected.

LANGUAGES ACROSS THE CURRICULUM.  A one-credit Languages Across the Curriculum independent study may be added to this course for those students who have intermediate level proficiency in another language and who wish to complement the work in this course by utilizing their language skills. Please visit the LAC website at http://internationalstudies.intrasun.tcnj.edu or contact dcompte@tcnj.edu for more information. Students must meet with Dr. Compte to enroll in the LAC independent study by September 7.

RESPONSE PAPERS.  In the course of the term, you are required to write 10 short, informal papers (about 2 pages each) on the readings for class.  You may choose for which days you want to respond, as long as you have completed 10 response papers by the end of the term.  For each response paper, choose one of the following topics and analyze the reading assignment for the day with respect to the topic you’ve chosen:

1. Title, Government, and Life.  How is organized religion portrayed?  How are Church figures (such as bishops, friars, monks, priests, nuns, ministers, and divines) portrayed?  Is organized religion portrayed directly and openly or indirectly and symbolically?  Where does religious authority lie (with the pope, the Gospels, the state)?  How is religious corruption handled (ignored, denied, rationalized, criticized, vilified)?  Are different forms of Christianity represented?  How?  Is religious identity a major topic or theme in the work?  How does the portrayal of religion in the text compare to that in previous readings?
2. Jurisdiction.  How is the relationship between church and state handled?  How does the text view the authority and responsibilities of the state?  What role does the state have in the moral sphere?  What role does religion have in the political realm?  Is the text critical of religious interference in state matters (or vice versa)?  What is the text’s attitude toward the power and authority of the state? of religion?  How does the portrayal of political authority compare to that in previous readings?

3. Doctrine.  In what ways does religious doctrine seem to influence the world view or thinking of the text?  Does the text have a particularly Catholic or Protestant way of conceiving of sin, repentance, grace, works, faith, and justification?  How do human beings prosper in the world of the text?  How does the text portray human nature?  What role do the characters play in their own moral and spiritual successes?  What is the role of God in the characters’ lives?  Where does evil come from?  Does the text have a particularly Catholic or Protestant way of thinking about marriage, sacraments, saints, or worship?  What are the implications of the thinking of the text in terms of doctrinal matters (such as sin, repentance, grace, works, faith, justification, marriage, sacraments, saints, or worship)?  Does the text address such matters directly?  How do human beings prosper in the world of the text?  How does the text portray human nature?  What role do the characters play in their own moral or spiritual successes?  What is the role of God in the characters’ lives?  How is the physical world portrayed (as glorious, fleeting, degenerate, vile)?  Where does evil come from?  For texts by Catholics:  What about this text on the doctrinal level might appeal to a later Protestant writer?  What would definitely not appeal?  For texts by Protestants:  Does this text reshape its Catholic models to align them with a more Protestant outlook in doctrinal matters?  Does the text choose to emphasize elements of its Catholic models that are more “Protestant” in outlook or implication?  Does it alter or do away with the more “Catholic” elements of its models?  Does it choose Catholic models that themselves seem more “Protestant” in outlook or implication?

Response papers will be graded Pass/Fail.  I ask you to type them (so that they are easier for me to read), but they need not be a perfect, polished product.  Rather, response papers should be just what their name says – a response.  Think about the question(s) that I ask you to consider; then, write a response.  Don’t worry about answering every question I ask in the assignment.  In fact, focus on the one question that seems most interesting to you, and be as specific as you can, getting down as much as you can, as quickly as you can.  Treat response papers more like a journal entry than like a formal paper.  I don’t want a five-paragraph theme.  Rather, I want an exploration – as detailed and specific as possible – of the reading assignment for the day.  Normally, as long as you submit a response paper of suitable length, detail, and thoughtfulness (and as long as you submit it in class on the assigned day), you will receive all the credit that the response paper is worth.

You may submit more than 10 response papers in the course of the semester (to make up for any response papers that do not receive a grade of “Pass”), but no matter how many extra response papers you submit, you will not receive credit for more than 10.  You may not submit more than one response paper on a single day, nor may you submit a response paper for a day that you are absent from class.

PAPER 1.  Choose one sonnet from a Catholic writer and another from a Protestant, both of which we have read for class but at least one of which we did not discuss in class together.  The sonnets you choose should be ones that we did not discuss in class but that you feel is are representative of their respective its authors in some important way.  In a paper of 4-5 pages, argue a clear, specific, and interesting thesis about what we learn from looking at the two sonnets in relation to one another, focusing particularly on the impact (or lack thereof) of religious difference on the two authors.  As you think about which sonnets to choose and what to write, I strongly recommend that you use your response papers as a starting place.  Note:  You need not use outside sources for this paper (that is, sources in addition to the literary texts); in fact, I would encourage you not to use outside sources (because I'd rather hear what you think than what some published scholar thinks).

Your paper will be evaluated according to the following criteria (in order of relative importance):

1. Does the paper have a clear, specific thesis?  Does the thesis offer an interesting perspective or “hook” that is provocative without being gimmicky or offensive?
2. Does the paper’s comparison of the two texts progress logically?  Does the paper have a clear and consistent overall organization that relates all the ideas of the paper together in support of the thesis with appropriate transitions to aid the reader (rather than simply a list of random similarities and differences without relation to one another or to the thesis)?  Does the paper have appropriate transitions to aid the reader in following the paper’s logic (rather than weak transitions, such as “The first...,” “Another...,” and “...also...”)?
3. Does the paper provide relevant, concrete evidence and logically persuasive reasons for every assertion?
4. Does the paper show sensitivity to the concrete historicity of the texts under consideration (rather than treat them as timeless museum pieces or reflect on them anachronistically)?
5. Does the paper exhibit confidence and insight when analyzing texts not discussed in class?
6. Does the introduction to the paper offer an interesting, helpful preview of the content, logic, and organization of the paper?
7. Is factual information in the paper accurate?
8. Is the writing in the paper clear, effective, correct (according to the norms of standard American English), and appropriate to an academic setting?

PAPER 2.  TBA (To Be Assigned) Choose an episode or passage from Spenser’s Faerie Queene, Book I or Book III, that we did not discuss in class but that you think is particularly important to or representative of Spenser as a whole.  Then choose a passage or episode from either Malory or Ariosto with which you can compare your chosen passage from Spenser.  In a paper of 5-7 pages, argue a clear, specific, and interesting thesis about what we learn from looking at the two passages in relation to one another, focusing particularly on the impact (or lack thereof) of religious difference on the two authors.  As you think about which passages to choose and what to write, I strongly recommend that you use your response papers as a starting place.  Note:  You need not use outside sources for this paper (that is, sources in addition to the literary texts upon which you focus); in fact, I would encourage you not to use outside sources (because I'd rather hear what you think than what some published scholar thinks).  Your paper will be evaluated according to the same criteria as PAPER 1.

COURSE SCHEDULE.  This schedule is subject to change at the discretion of the professor.  Changes made after the beginning of the semester will be shown in red.  I encourage you to read as much from all the texts in class as you are able, even beyond what is assigned below, which represents the minimum that you should read.

Dates	Assignments
Preliminaries
R Aug 30	Introductions
M Sep 3	NO CLASS (Labor Day) – class will be held on Tuesday instead
T Sep 4	John Foxe (available in SOCS) – this will be the longest and toughest reading assignment this whole semester (but it’s important)
A Dramatic Interlude
R Sep 6	Chaucer, The Knight’s Tale
M Sep 10	Chaucer, The Miller’s Prologue and Tale Shakespeare, Midsummer Night’s Dream
Sonnets
R Sep 13	Petrarch’s Canzoniere, 1-122
M Sep 17	Petrarch’s Canzoniere, 122-244
R Sep 20	Petrarch’s Canzoniere, 244-366
M Sep 24	Ronsard’s Sonnets pour Hélene, Book One (available in SOCS)
R Sep 27	Ronsard’s Sonnets pour Hélene, Book Two (available in SOCS)
M Oct 1	Du Bellay’s Regrets
R Oct 4	Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella
M Oct 8	Spenser’s Amoretti
R Oct 11	MID-TERM EXAM
Romance
M Oct 15	Chaucer, The Wife of Bath’s Tale, The Prologue and Tale of Sir Thopas, and From The Prologue and Tale of Melibee
W Oct 17	PAPER 1 DUE in the “Dropbox” of SOCS
R Oct 18	Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur, Book VII
M Oct 22	NO CLASS (Mid-term Break)
R Oct 25	Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur, Books XIII and XVII
M Oct 29	Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, Cantos 1-6 (click here to see Ariosto's original Italian)
W Oct 31	PAPER 1 DUE in the “Dropbox” of SOCS
R Nov 1	Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, Cantos 9-12, 14
M Nov 5	NO CLASS (I’m gone for a conference), but keep up on the reading (and if you want to submit a response paper for this day, do so by emailing it to me as an attachment): Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, Cantos 21-24, 39
R Nov 8	Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, Cantos 43-46
M Nov 12	Spenser, Faerie Queene, Book I, Proem, Cantos i-ii, iv-v, vii
R Nov 15	Spenser, Faerie Queene, Book I, Cantos viii-xii
M Nov 19	Spenser, Faerie Queene, Book III, Cantos i-ii, iv-v, vii
R Nov 22	NO CLASS (Thanksgiving)
M Nov 26	Spenser, Faerie Queene, Book III, Cantos viii-xii
Epic
R Nov 29	Dante, Inferno, Cantos I-VI and XXXII-XXXIV
M Dec 3	Milton, Paradise Lost, Books I-III
R Dec 6	Milton, Paradise Lost, Book V (+ lines 1-55 of Book VI) and Books IX-X
FINALS WEEK	FINAL EXAM PAPER 2 DUE in the “Dropbox” of SOCS

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