TEXTBOOKS:
David Damrosch, et al., eds. The Longman Anthology of British Literature (vol. 1)
Nevill Goghill, trans. and ed. The Canterbury Tales (Penguin)
 

COURSE DESCRIPTION.  In this course, we will analyze selected works of major English writers prior to 1660 with special emphasis on the writers' milieu.  We will try to understand these authors on their own terms, familiarizing ourselves with the culture and traditions of past generations who spoke and wrote our language.  But we will also ask ourselves what the works we are reading say to us today.  Authors before 1660 were often concerned with the very same issues that confront and trouble us in the late twentieth century, despite the considerable differences between our age and theirs.  Achieving a historically grounded perspective on issues of gender, marriage, professionalism, politics, and colonialism may well help us to deal with those issues more calmly and more thoughtfully in our own time.  NOTE THAT THIS COURSE DOES NOT CARRY ANY GENERAL EDUCATION CREDIT OR MEET ANY GENERAL EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS.
 

GOALS.  As my goals in this course, I want you

1. to enjoy the freshness, vitality, and strangeness of early English literature,
2. to acquire a broad knowledge of English literature before 1660 (including familiarity with major authors, trends, periods, and works),
3. to become aware of the problems of studying old and traditional literature (especially problems in terms of the literary canon and historicity),
4. to become more comfortable reading early English literature (despite its historical and cultural distance from us),
5. to learn something of the forms and norms of the academic discipline of English.

REQUIREMENTS.  This course consists of four graded assignments:

1. a mid-term exam,
2. two short papers (4-5 typewritten pages), and
3. a final exam (with one comprehensive essay question).

ATTENDANCE.  Regular attendance is a virtual necessity for successful completion of the exams and papers in this class. Class exercises and discussion constitute important, useful preparation for the course's graded assignments. 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 will expect you to find out what you missed and to come fully prepared -- without excuses -- to the next class meeting.  If you miss a class meeting, moreover, any extra-credit assignment for that day may not be made up or turned in late for credit
 

OFFICE HOURS.  My office is Bliss 216. My office hours this semester will be 2:00-3:20 p.m. TF. If you cannot come to see me at those times, please feel free as needed to call my office (771-2106) or talk to me before or after class to arrange an appointment to see me at another time. You may also contact me by e-mail (gsteinbe@tcnj.edu), or you may leave a message for me in my box at the English department offices in Bliss 124.
 

ELECTRONIC RESOURCES.  An e-mail discussion list has been created for this course. To subscribe, send the message, "subscribe LIT-L your name" from your personal e-mail account to listproc@list.TCNJ.EDU.  Be sure to send the subscription message from your own personal e-mail address (e.g., "yourname3@tcnj.edu" or "username@aol.com") -- not from one of the generic e-mail accounts on campus (such as "nobody@tcnj.edu" or "student@tcnj.edu"). After you have subscribed to the list, you may circulate messages to all members of the list just by sending what you want to circulate to LIT-L@list.TCNJ.EDU (although, again, you must be sure to send the message from your own personal e-mail address).  I encourage you to use the e-mail discussion list to share your thoughts and questions with your classmates in order to foster on-line discussion before -- and after -- class.  The more you discuss the literature that we are studying, the better prepared you will be for the graded assignments in the course.
 

COURSE SCHEDULE.  (This schedule is subject to revision at the discretion of the professor.)

Date	Assignment
W Sept 8	Introductions The Wanderer, The Dream of the Rood, and Five Old English Riddles (in The Longman Anthology)
W Sept 15	Beowulf (in The Longman Anthology) RESPONSE PAPER (5 extra-credit points) Chaucer: Prologue (in The Canterbury Tales) and The General Prologue (in The Longman Anthology)
W Sept 22	MIDDLE ENGLISH READING (5 extra-credit points) Chaucer: Knight's Tale and Words between the Host and the Miller (in The Canterbury Tales)
W Sept 29	Chaucer: Miller's Tale and Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale (in The Canterbury Tales) E-MAIL OPPORTUNITY (not more than 2 extra-credit points)
W Oct 6	Chaucer: Clerk's Prologue, Tale, and Envoy, Merchant's Prologue, Tale, and Epilogue, Words of the Franklin to the Squire and of the Host to the Franklin, Franklin's Prologue and Tale (in The Canterbury Tales) RESPONSE PAPER (5 extra-credit points)
W Oct 13	The Second Play of the Shepherds (in The Longman Anthology) Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Parts I-II (in The Longman Anthology) E-MAIL OPPORTUNITY (2 extra-credit points)
M Oct 18	NO CLASS PAPER 1 DUE in my mailbox in Bliss 124 by 4:30 p.m.
W Oct 20	Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Parts III-IV (in The Longman Anthology) Margery Kempe (all selections in The Longman Anthology) E-MAIL OPPORTUNITY (not more than 2 extra-credit points)
W Oct 27	MID-TERM EXAM Wyatt (all selections in The Longman Anthology)
W Nov 3	Sidney: Astrophil and Stella (all selections in The Longman Anthology) Spenser: Amoretti (all selections in The Longman Anthology) Shakespeare: Sonnets (all selections in The Longman Anthology) RESPONSE PAPER ( 5 extra-credit points)
W Nov 10	Marlowe: Dr. Faustus (in The Longman Anthology) Spenser: Faerie Queene, Book I, Cantos 1-6 (in The Longman Anthology)
W Nov 17	Spenser: Faerie Queene, Book I, Cantos 7-12 (in The Longman Anthology) RESPONSE PAPER (5 extra-credit points) Donne (all selections in The Longman Anthology)
W Nov 24	Ben Jonson (everything but Volpone in The Longman Anthology) Milton: Paradise Lost, Books 1-2 (in The Longman Anthology) MILTONIC READING AND INTERPRETATION (5 extra-credit points)
W Dec 1	Milton: Paradise Lost, Books 3-8 (all selections in The Longman Anthology) E-MAIL OPPORTUNITY (2 extra-credit points)
F Dec 3	NO CLASS PAPER 2 DUE in my mailbox in Bliss 124 by 4:30 p.m.
W Dec 8	Milton: Paradise Lost, Books 9-12 (all selections in The Longman Anthology) E-MAIL OPPORTUNITY (2 extra-credit points)