British Literature - Winter 1999

This course has been offered over the years as both English Literature 100A, more recently as Pre- and Early Modern Literature 166, and most recently as LTBR 104.

The title describes the course accurately: it is primarily a study of works that have been traditionally associated with the idea of a canon of English Literature from Chaucer (late 14c.) to Cowper (d. 1800), but it also concerns the act of reading what has come to be known as the "canon." As such it provides a broad foundation for the study of earlier English literature. But it can also prove invaluable to students of later British and American literature and of Creative Writing by guiding them through many of the works that post-1800 writers and readers knew and know well.

The textbook is the Norton Anthology of English Literature, Sixth Edition,Volume One, because its broad adoption throughout US colleges in its various forms since the early Sixties has given it a status in which it can be seen as contributing to defining what is and is not considered canonical (it has been revised significantly since it first appeared). I supplement the Norton with other material that I shall put on reserve in the library, material written primarily by women in the period but not as yet included in the Norton, works which challenge the idea of "canon"; two years ago that material was in a reader, but the cost was unreasonable, and I shall continue to experiment with this alternative this year.

The course is a survey course and has all the virtues and vices of a survey. Students read a lot of material relatively rapidly. Lectures focus on particular writers, works, and genres; despite the survey mode there is a lot of attention to individual texts. Students will read Chaucer (from The Canterbury Tales), Elizabethan sonneteers (Wyatt, Surrey, Sidney, Spenser, Shakespeare) and pastoral and epic verse (Spenser), some of the the 17c. lyric poets (Wroth, Lanier, Donne, Jonson, Herbert, Marvell, Behn), Milton, 17c. prose writers (Bacon, Bunyan), Dryden, 18c. poets (Finch, Pope, Montagu, Goldsmith, Cowper, Burns), 18c. essayists (Addison, Johnson); and many others. Lectures address not just the interpretation of the texts but also the changes in forms and tastes in poetry and prose, the historical contexts of the works' production, and the physical nature of their publication; sections will provide the opportunity for intense study of particular works in smaller groups. At the end of the course the student should have a good foundation for further study in the period.

Students should have taken the lower division requirements of the major before enrolling; freshpersons are not admitted. LTBR 104A is an excellent course for students in their sophomore or junior years; it is particulary good as a first upper division course in the major. It is an especially valuable course for students contemplating graduate school in any English language literature, for students contemplating becoming high school teachers, and for students expecting to go on EAP to UK/I to study literature.

Two five-page papers, a midterm, and a final.

Professor: Jody Greene
Time: MWF 12:30-1:40 (no additional section meeting)
Location: Kresge 348

Enrollment limited to 30 students.

This course satisfies the Pre- and Early Modern Requirement and the Poetry requirement of the Literature Major.

This course offers a detailed study of the works of three authors-John Dryden, Alexander Pope, and Jonathan Swift-who helped shape literary culture in Britain after the Restoration. In addition to the major works of the these figures, we will read plays and poetry by Aphra Behn, John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Daniel Defoe, and John Gay.

The course begins with a consideration of Libertine literature in the Restoration. The central texts for this portion of the course will be Behn's The Rover and Dryden's Marriage A La Mode, which we will read alongside poetry by Rochester, Behn, and others. Rochester's obscene but nonetheless politically astute "Satire on Charles II" will lead us into the debate on the proper uses and modes of satire, begun by Rochester and Dryden and carried on throughout the remainder of this "Augustan" period.

Dryden's "Macflecknoe" will demand our attention here, as will "The Medal" and "Absalom and Achitophel." Excerpts from Dryden's criticism provide a bridge to the major critical and satirical works of Alexander Pope. We will read Pope's "Essay on Criticism" and "Essay on Man," "The Rape of the Lock," the verse "Epistles," and the "First Satire on the Second Book of Horace." We will conclude our study of Pope with a consideration of "The Dunciad" as an index of Pope's "development" as a satirist. Reponses to Pope by Anne Finch, Countess of Winchelsea and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, as well as by some of the "Dunces" ridiculed in that poem, will be examined.

Daniel Defoe and John Gay both wrote satiric works-respectively, "The Shortest Way with the Dissenters" and The Beggar's Opera-that brought them into conflict with the Law. We will examine why these texts proved so troublesome-albeit in very different ways-to those in power, and speculate about why these authors, unlike some of their contemporaries, were open to punishment for their irreverent works.

Swift's so-called "misogynist" poetry, his "Tale of a Tub," and his outrageous "Modest Proposal" and "Short View of the State of Ireland" push satirical writing to its limits. His "Battel of the Books" offers a similarly disturbing vision of literary criticism run amok. We conclude our study of Swift with a reading of Gulliver's Travels, the most widely read of all Augustan texts, in order to see if our new understanding of the Augustan satirical and critical project can shed new light on this difficult work.

The reading for this course is as rewarding as it is demanding. Students should be prepared to read at least 100 pages a week of poetry and prose-sometimes more-and to prepare brief, informal written responses to the material approximately once a week. Requirements for the course, in addition to reading and reader responses, include regular attendance at class meetings; one oral report; a short (5 page) paper due in the middle of the term; a prospectus and bibliography for the final paper, due approximately 3 weeks before the end of term; and a 10-12 page paper due at the conclusion of the course.

Required Texts (available at the Literary Guillotine):

Aphra Behn, The Rover

John Dryden, Marriage A La Mode

_____. Selected Poetry and Prose of John Dryden

John Gay, The Beggar's Opera

Alexander Pope, Poetry and Prose of Alexander Pope

Jonathan Swift, The Writings of Jonathan Swift (Norton Critical Edition)

_____. Gulliver's Travels (Norton Critical Edition)

Revised 7/27/04.