ENGLISH 231

Poetry by the Book, 1557-1645
(Topics in Renaissance Poetry)

Professor Sean Keilen
Email: skeilen@dept.english.upenn.edu
phone: 215 898 5864
Office: Bennett Hall 221
Office hours: Thursday 10-12 A.M.

Professor Daniel Traister
Email: traister@pobox.upenn.edu
Phone: 215 898 7088 (voicemail: 7089)
Office: 6th floor, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library
Office hours: call or email in advance

• An Anthology of Elizabethan Prose Fiction, ed. Paul Salzman (Oxford 1998)
• John Donne, Complete Poems, ed. A. J. Smith (Penguin 1971)
• Ben Jonson, Complete Poems, ed. George Parfitt (Penguin 1996)
• John Milton, Complete Shorter Poems, ed. John Carey (Longman 1997)
• William Shakespeare, Complete Sonnets and Poems, ed. Colin Burrow (Oxford 2002)
• Edmund Spenser, Shorter Poems, ed. Richard A. McCabe (Penguin 1999)

NOTE: Readings not found in the texts above will be distributed either via Blackboard or by photocopies handed out in class.

WEEK 1
• 5 September -- Th
  Introduction

  WEEK 2

• 10 September -- T
  Tottel's Miscellany (1557)
  poems attributed to Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey
  Arthur Marotti, "Print and the Lyric" [selections]

• 12 September -- Th
  Tottel's Miscellany (1557)
  poems attributed to Sir Thomas Wyatt

  WEEK 3

• 17 September -- T
  Tottel, Surrey, Wyatt, continued
  Michel Foucault, "What is an Author?"
  Roger Chartier, "Foucault's Chiasmus"
  Margreta de Grazia, "What is a Work? What is a Document?"

• 19 September -- Th
  
  FIRST PAPER DUE -- TOPICS
  George Gascoigne, The Adventures of Master F.J. (1573), pp. 1-40

  WEEK 4

• 24 September -- T
  Gascoigne, The Adventures of Master F.J. (1573), pp. 41-83

• 26 September --Th
  Gascoigne, "Woodmanship"
  Mark Bland, "The Appearance of the Text in Early Modern England"

  WEEK 5

• 1 October -- T
  ancient pastoral: Theocritus I; Virgil, Eclogue V
  Paul Alpers, "Representative Shepherds"
  Erwin Panofsky, "Et in Arcadia ego . . . "

• 3 October -- Th
  Edmund Spenser, Shepheardes Calendar (1579), front matter
  "January," "February"
  Richard Helgerson, "A New Poet Presents Himself"

  WEEK 6

• 8 October -- T
  Spenser, Shepheardes Calendar (1579), "April," "May, "June"
  Ruth Luborsky, "The Illustrations to The Shepheardes Calendar"

• 10 October -- Th
  Spenser, Shepheardes Calendar (1579), "August, "October, "December," end matter
  Sir Philip Sidney, "Ye goat-herd gods"
  Alpers, "Pastoral and the Domain of the Lyric"
  MONDAY, 14 OCTOBER
  NOTE: THIS IS NOT A DAY SCHEDULED FOR A CLASS MEETING!
  SECOND PAPER DUE -- TOPICS (remember to deliver the paper to Traister, 6th floor, Van Pelt Library)

  WEEK 7

• 15 October -- T
  Christopher Marlowe, Hero and Leander (written 1593, published 1598)

• 17 October -- Th
  William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis (1593)
  Colin Burrow, "Introduction," pp. 1-39
  
  NOTE: Here is Stephen Orgel's review of Burrow's edition of Shakespeare's poetry

  WEEK 8

• 22 October -- T
  Shakespeare, Sonnets (1609), 1-126
  Burrow, "Introduction," pp. 91-110

• 24 October -- Th
  Shakespeare, Sonnets (1609), 1-126
  Burrow, "Introduction," pp. 111-137

  WEEK 9

• 29 October -- T
  Shakespeare, Sonnets (1609), 127-154

• 31 October -- Th
  Ben Jonson, The Forest (1616)

  WEEK 10

• 5 November -- T
  Jonson, The Forest (1616)
  G. R. Hibbard, "The Country House Poem of the Seventeenth Century"

• 7 November -- Th
  John Donne, Poems (1633)
  
  NOTE: Here is an online facsimile of the University of Pennsylvania copy of the 1633 edition
  and here is Izaak Walton's "Life of Donne"
  selections [TBA]
  Izaak Walton, Life of Dr. John Donne

  WEEK 11

• 12 November -- T
  Donne, Poems (1633), selections [TBA]

• 14 November -- Th
  
  NO CLASS MEETING TODAY

  WEEK 12

• 19 November -- T
  Donne, Poems (1633), selections [TBA]

• 21 November -- Th
  John Milton, Poems (1645)
  "L'Allegro," "Il Penseroso"
  THIRD PAPER DUE -- TOPIC

  WEEK 13

• 26 November -- T
  Milton, Poems (1645)
  Lycidas

• 28 November -- Th
  
  NO CLASS MEETING TODAY
  THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY

  WEEK 14

• 3 December -- T
  Milton, Poems (1645)
  Comus
  Milton, Apology for Smectymnuus

• 5 December -- Th
  Milton, Poems (1645)
  Comus

  WEEK 15

• 10 December -- FINAL PAPER DUE
  
  
  ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION:

  The success of this course depends entirely on your willingness to be engaged by the material and by each other. You need to keep up with the reading and to read carefully, but you also need to be adventurous about the interpretations that you offer. Take risks, draw connections, ask questions, and do not despair in the face of complexity. Above all, talk to one another during our class meetings. We will facilitate discussion and suggest some broader historical and cultural contexts for the material that we are reading, but the direction and momentum of our conversations is for you to determine.

  We regard class participation as a very serious matter, and it will count for one-fifth of your final grade; that is to say, you will receive a letter grade for the contributions that you make to our discussions. You must arrive promptly for each class, and we do not permit unexcused absences. Habitual lateness and/or more than one unexcused absence during the semester will result in the deduction of one-third of a letter grade from your final grade. Two or more unexcused absences before the end of the drop period will cause you to be dropped from the class. Five unexcused absences during the semester will result in a failing grade for the course.

  FORMAL ASSIGNMENTS:

  The formal work for the seminar consists of four written assignments: three short papers (1250 words) on topics that we devise (you'll be able to choose among several each time) and a longer paper (2500-3000 words) on a topic that you devise in consultation with us. All written assignments must be submitted at the beginning of class on the relevant due date (or by noon if due on a day class does not meet). No extensions will be granted without an appropriate excuse from the College Office or Student Health Center. Unexcused late work will receive a failing grade.

  ACADEMIC INTEGRITY:

  It is your responsibility to be familiar with the relevant sections of the University's Code of Academic Integrity. Inevitably, your work will be collaborative in the sense that it will draw on and respond to the work of scholars and students. But your work must also be original in the sense that its central ideas, questions, or ways of considering problems are your own. Acknowledge your intellectual debts. Any student who commits academic dishonesty will receive a failing grade for the course.

  EVALUATION:

  Your final grade will be determined according to the following proportions:

  • 15% -- First paper
  • 15% -- Second paper
  • 15% --Third paper
  • 35% -- Final paper
  • 20% -- Class participation

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  You can send Traister e-mail concerning this page at traister@pobox.upenn.edu.

  

  Return to Daniel Traister's Home Page.

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