A HISTORY OF LITERATURE IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Course title: A History of Literature in the English Language
Tutor: Atanas Manchorov, PhD
Mode of delivery:
Contact classes: The course of lectures provides a survey of literature in the English language, i.e. a selection of English and American authors of all periods, with a focus on the relationship between art (literature) and life.
Contact classes: seminars elucidating the lecture topics by discussing individual works and providing an in-depth analysis of literary, cultural, and historical problems.
Course place and status within the program
Majors: Applied Linguistics: English & Spanish students, English & Greek students, English & Turkish students
Semesters: 1
Total number of classes: Lectures (L) – 30 classes; Seminars (S) – 15 classes
Level: Core course at BA level
Competence expectations
The successful completion of the course requires excellent language skills, keen interest in literature, and a preliminary reading of essential texts to ensure active participation in seminars.
Aims and objectives of the course
Successful undergraduate course-takers acquire systematic knowledge of literature in the English language by studying the major authors of British and American literary history.
Undergraduates should develop philological skills in reading works of previous and modern times, in discussing different issues, and in writing individual and group essays.
The course is aimed at helping students attain proficiency in literature and gain an understanding of some of the most influential works of all time.
As expected, students should also acquire competence in studying fiction by themselves and finding library and electronic sources.
Weekly organization of topics & reading assignments
I. Syllabus
1. 428-1066: The Old English (Anglo-Saxon) Period
2. 1066-1485: The Middle English Period
3. 1500-1660: The Renaissance 1
1485-1558: The Early Tudor Age
1558-1603: The Elizabethan Age
4. 1500-1660: The Renaissance 2
1603-1625: The Jacobean Age
1607-1776: The Colonial Period (US)
5. 1500-1660: The Renaissance 3
1625-1649: The Caroline Age
1649-1660: The Commonwealth Period
6. 1660-1785: The Neoclassical Period 1
1660-1689: Restoration Literature
7. 1660-1785: The Neoclassical Period 2
1700-1750: The Augustan Age
1745-1785: The Age of Sensibility (or Age of Johnson)
1765-1790: The Revolutionary Age (US)
8. 1785-1830: The Romantic Period
1775-1828: The Early National Period (US)
9. 1831-1901: The Victorian Period 1
1828-1865: The Romantic Period (US)
10. 1831-1901: The Victorian Period 2
1848-1860: The Pre-Rapahelites
1880-1901: Aestheticism and Decadence
1865-1900: The Realistic Period (US)
11. The 20th Century 1
1901-1914: The Edwardian Period
1900-1914: The Naturalistic Period (US)
12. The 20th Century 2
1910-1936: The Georgian Period
1914-1939: American Modernist Period (US)
1920s: Jazz Age, Harlem Renaissance
1920s-1930s: The “Lost Generation”
13. The 20th Century 3
1914-1945: The Modern Period
1939-present: The Contemporary Period 1 (US)
1950s: Beat Writers
14. The 20th Century 4
1945-present: The Postmodern Period
1939-present: The Contemporary Period 2 (US)
1960s-1970s: Counterculture
15. Multi-Ethnic Literature: Native American, African-American, Asian-American Writers
II. Plan of Seminars
1. The Old English Period. Beowulf (<http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~beowulf/main.html>).
2. The Middle English Period. Malory’s Le Morte Darthur (<http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/Mal1Mor.html>).
3. The Renaissance. Shakespeare – Hamlet (<http://shakespeare.mit.edu/hamlet/index.html>), Macbeth (<http://shakespeare.mit.edu/macbeth/index.html>).
4. The Romantic Period. Mary Shelley’s Frankestein (<http://www.gutenberg.org/files/84/84-h/84-h.htm>).
5. The Victorian Period. William Thakeray’s Vanity Fair (<http://www.literaturepage.com/read/vanity-fair.html>).
6. American Modernist Period. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (<http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/f/fitzgerald/f_scott/gatsby/>); Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises.
7. Ethnic Minorities Literature. Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (<http://videolectures.net/yaleengl291s08_hungerford_lec13/>).
III. Reading List
1. 428-1066: The Old English (Anglo-Saxon) Period
• Heroic Poetry – Beowulf (<http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~beowulf/main.html>).
• The Elegies – The Wanderer, The Seafarer (<http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=show&page=Literature>).
• The School of Caedmon – Caedmon’s Hymn (<http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/caedmon-s-hymn/>).
• School of Cynewulf – The Fates of the Apostles (<http://www.yorku.ca/inpar/Fates_Apostles_Kennedy.pdf>).
2. 1066-1485: The Middle English Period
• Langland – Piers Plowman (<http://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/ppllan>).
• The Gawain Poet – Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (<http://alliteration.net/Pearl.htm>).
• Chaucer – The Canterbury Tales (<http://www.ronaldecker.com/ct.htm>).
• Medieval Drama –Everyman (<http://www.luminarium.org/renascence-editions/everyman.html>).
• Sir Thomas Malory – Le Morte Darthur (<http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/Mal1Mor.html>).
3. 1500-1660: The Renaissance 1
• Marlowe – Doctor Faustus (<http://www.gutenberg.org/files/779/779-h/779-h.htm>).
• Shakespeare’s Comedies – A Midsummer Night’s Dream (<http://shakespeare.mit.edu/midsummer/index.html>).
4. 1500-1660: The Renaissance 2
• Shakespeare’s Tragedies – Macbeth (<http://shakespeare.mit.edu/macbeth/index.html>).
• Shakespeare’s Histories – Henry V (<http://shakespeare.mit.edu/henryv/index.html>).
• (US) 17-18th Century: The Colonial Period. Jonathan Edwards – Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (<http://www.jonathan-edwards.org/>).
5. The Renaissance 3:
• The Caroline Age. The Commonwealth Period. Milton – Paradise Lost.
6. The Neoclassical Period 1:
• The Restoration. Wycherley – The Country Wife (<http://faculty.winthrop.edu/vorderbruegg/winthropweb/current/scripts/CountryWife–acting%20version–revised.pdf>).
7. The Neoclassical Period 2: The Augustan Age; The Age of Sensibility. (US) The Revolutionary Age.
• Augustan Literature. Swift – Gulliver’s Travels (<http://www.online-literature.com/swift/gulliver/>). Pope – Rape of the Lock (<http://poetry.eserver.org/rape-of-the-lock.html>).
• The Age of Johnson. Goldsmith – The Vicar of Wakefield (<http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2667/2667-h/2667-h.htm>).
• The Revolutionary Age. Thomas Paine – Common Sense (<http://www.ushistory.org/paine/commonsense/>).
8. The Romantic Period. (US) The Early National Period.
• British Romantic Movement. Wordsworth and Coleridge – Lyrical Ballads (<http://www.gutenberg.org/files/9622/9622-h/9622-h.htm>). Shelley – Frankenstein (<http://www.literature.org/authors/shelley-mary/frankenstein/>).
• Early National Period. Cooper – The Last of the Mohicans (<http://www.gutenberg.org/files/940/940-h/940-h.htm>).
9. The Victorian Period 1. (US) The Romantic Period.
• Victorian Novelists. Thakeray – Vanity Fair (<http://www.literaturepage.com/read/vanity-fair.html>). Emily Brontë – Wuthering Heights (<http://www.online-literature.com/bronte/wuthering/>). Dickens – Great Expectations (<http://www.literature.org/authors/dickens-charles/great-expectations/>).
• Poe – The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (<http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma98/silverman/poe/fulltext.html>). Melville – Moby Dick (<http://www.online-literature.com/melville/mobydick/>).
10. 1831-1901: The Victorian Period 2
1848-1860: The Pre-Rapahelites. Rossetti – The House of Life (<http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3692/pg3692.html>).
1880-1901: Aestheticism and Decadence. Wilde – The Picture of Dorian Gray (<http://www.planetpdf.com/planetpdf/pdfs/free_ebooks/The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray_NT.pdf>).
1865-1900: The Realistic Period (US). Twain – Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (<http://www.gutenberg.org/files/76/76-h/76-h.htm#c1>).
11. The 20th Century 1
1901-1914: The Edwardian Period. Conrad – Lord Jim (<http://www.gutenberg.org/files/5658/5658-h/5658-h.htm>).
1900-1914: The Naturalistic Period (US). London – Martin Eden (<http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1056/1056-h/1056-h.htm>).
12. The 20th Century 2
1910-1936: The Georgian Period (poetry). D. H. Lawrence – Snap-Dragon (<http://theotherpages.org/poems/gp1_10.html>).
1914-1939: American Modernist Period (US).
1920s: Jazz Age. Fitzgerald – The Great Gatsby (<http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/f/fitzgerald/f_scott/gatsby/>). Harlem Renaissance. Langston Hughes – Not Without Laughter.
1920s-1930s: The “Lost Generation.” Hemingway – The Sun Also Rises.
13. The 20th Century 3
1914-1945: The Modern Period. James Joyce – Ulysses (<http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4300/4300-h/4300-h.htm>).
1939-present: The Contemporary Period 1 (US). Kurt Vonnegut – Slaughterhouse-Five (<http://literature2.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/slaughterhouse-five.pdf>).
1950s: Beat Writers. Jack Kerouac – On the Road.
14. The 20th Century 4
1945-present: The Postmodern Period. John Barth’s The Sot-Weed Factor (Part I: The Momentous Wager <http://archive.org/stream/sotweedfactor006326mbp#page/n7/mode/2up>).
1939-present: The Contemporary Period 2 (US).
1960s-1970s: Counterculture. Allen Ginsberg – Howl (<http://www.wussu.com/poems/agh.htm>).
15. Multi-Ethnic Literature
Native American. N. Scott Momaday – The House of Dawn.
African-American. Toni Morrison – The Bluest Eye.
Asian-American. Bulosan – America is in the Heart.
Course requirements
Attendance:
Students are expected and required to attend all seminar classes of this course. It is particularly important for them to be in class to benefit from all that fellow students and instructor have to offer during discussions. No more than three unexcused are permitted. Medieval and Renaissance English Literature is a two-semester course so students must take an exam as soon as they have finished each of the two modules.
Participation:
Well-informed participation in discussions and supportive collaboration with other students is among the essential criteria for the successful completion of this course.
Mode of assessment
Structure of Exams:
Students must take two mid exams as the average grade of them is the final grade. Those who have failed must re-take the exam which encompasses the whole course syllabus.
Grading Policy and Guidelines:
10% Oral Presentation Assignments
20% Class Participation/Oral communication in class
70% Exams, Final exam.
Grade Score Range
A / Excellent (6)– best possible grade 90+ (90-100)
B / Very Good (5)– second highest 80-89
C / Good (4)– average performance 70-79
D / Sufficient (3)–lowest passing grade 60-69
F / Poor (2)– failing grade 0-59
Bibliography
Core readings:
The general bibliography for the course includes:
I. Anthologies
Baym, Nina et al., eds. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 6th ed. 5 vols. New York: Norton, 2003.
Gates, Henry Louis, and Nelly Y. McKay, gen. eds. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. New York: Norton, 1996.
Greenblatt, S. et al., ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Middle Ages Through the Restoration and the Eighteenth Century. Vol. 1. New York: Norton, 1986.
Greenblatt, S. et al., ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. The Romantic Period Through the Twentieth Century. Vol. 2. 8th ed. New York: Norton, 2006.
Lauter, Paul, and Richard Yarborough, gen. eds. The Heath Anthology of American Literature. 2nd ed., rev. 2 vols. Lexington, MA: Heath, 1994.
McQuade, Donald et al., eds. The Harper American Literature. 2nd ed. New York: Harper, 1994.
Wilkie, Brian, and James Hurt, eds. Literature of the Western World. 2 vols. New York: Macmillan, 1988.
II. Surveys of English Literature
Corns, Th. N., ed. The Cambridge Companion to English Poetry. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1993.
Daiches, David. A Critical History of English Literature. 2 vols. London: Ronald P, 1969.
Fowler, Alastair. A History of English Literature. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1987.
Magill, Frank N., ed. Magill’s Survey of American Literature. 8 vols. New York: Cavendish, 1991-94.
Spiller, rev. Robert E., et al, eds. Literary History of the United States. 4th ed. 2 vols. New York: Macmillan, 1974.
III. Companions, Handbooks, and Dictionaries
Cuddon, J. A., ed. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. London: Penguin, 1991.
Daiches, David, ed. The Penguin Companion to English Literature. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971.
Hart, James David. The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 6th ed. New York: Oxford UP, 1995.
Holman, C. Hugh, and William Harmon, eds. A Handbook to Literature. New York: Macmillan, 1986.
Inge, M. Thomas, ed. Handbook of American Popular Literature. New York: Greenwood P, 1988.
Myers, Robin, comp. and ed. A Dictionary of Literature in the English Language. Oxford: Pergamon, 1970.
IV. Bibliographies
Blanck, Jacob, ed. Bibliography of American Literature. 9 vols. New Haven: Yale UP, 1955-91.
Manly, John Matthews, and Edith Rickert. Contemporary American Literature: Bibliographies and Study Outlines. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co, 1922.
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MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE ENGLISH LITERATURE
Course title: Medieval and Renaissance English Literature
Tutor: Atanas Manchorov, PhD
Mode of delivery:
Contact classes: A course of lectures providing theoretical knowledge of the genre diversity and specificity of literary trends in English literature.
Contact classes: seminars elucidating the lecture topics by discussing individual works and providing an in-depth analysis of main literary problems
Course place and status within the program
Major(s): English Philology
Semesters: 2
Total number of classes: Lectures (L) – 60 classes; Seminars (S) – 60 classes
Level and status: Core course for English Philology students at BA level
Competence expectations
The successful completion of the course requires excellent language skills, keen interest in literature, and a preliminary reading of essential texts to ensure active participation in seminars.
Aims and objectives of the course
Successful undergraduate course-takers acquire systematic knowledge by studying the history, literature and culture of a very extensive period of British civilization (7th – 17th c.).
Undergraduates should develop philological skills in reading medieval and renaissance texts, discussing different issues, and writing individual and group essays.
The course is aimed at helping students attain proficiency in literature and gain an understanding of many significant authors. As expected, students should acquire competence in a wide range of skills, e.g. studying fiction and finding library and electronic sources. The course provides an appropriate preparation for a possible MA degree in literature and/or literary theory through individual assignments.
Weekly organization of topics & reading assignments
MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE ENGLISH LITERATURE
I. Syllabus
Module 1: The Middle Ages
The Anglo-Saxon Period (428-1100)
Week 1: Introduction. The Anglo-Saxons.
Week 2: Anglo-Saxon Heroic Poetry: Beowulf. Anglo-Saxon Elegies: The Ruin, The Wanderer, The Seafarer, The Wife’s Lament, The Husband’s Message. Gnomic Poetry. Spells. Riddles.
Week 3: Early Christian Poetry. The Schools of Caedmon and Cynewulf (660-850).
Week 4: King Alfred and the Literature of Wessex (890-1100). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The Venerable Bede – Ecclesiastical History.
The Anglo-Norman Period (1180-1350)
Week 5: The Norman Conquest. The Gothic Renaissance. Literature of the Transition (1180-1250).
Week 6: Layamon. The Arthurian Legend.
Week 7: Western Lyrics of the Thirteenth Century.
Week 8: Romances, Tales and Chronicles (1250-1350).
The Middle English Period (1350-1500)
Week 9: The Fourteenth Century. The Alliterative Revival (1350-1400). Langland. The Gawain Poet.
Week 10: Geoffrey Chaucer. The Periods. Troilus and Criseyde. The Canterbury Tales.
Week 11: The Waning of Courtly Poetry (1380-1500). John Gower. John Lydgate. The Chaucerians.
Week 12: Late Romances (1350-1500). The Traditional Ballad.
Week 13: Medieval Drama 1: Mysteries, Miracles.
Week 14: Medieval Drama 2: Moralities, Interludes.
Week 15: Fifteenth Century Prose. Sir Thomas Malory.
Module 2: The Renaissance
The Early Tudor Age (1500-1557)
Week 1: The Age of Humanism. Chief English Humanists: Sir Thomas More, J. Colet, Thomas Linacre, W. Grocyn.
Week 2: Tudor Drama. Early Comedy and Tragedy. Academic Drama. Th. Norton and Th. Sackville – Gorboduc. Gammer Gurton’s Needle. N. Udall – Ralph Roister Doister. J. Heywood, J. Skelton, Sir D. Lindsay, J. Bale, H. Medwall, J. Rastell.
Week 3: Poetry: Sir Th. Wyatt, Surrey (Henry Howard).
The Elizabethan Age (1558-1603)
Week 4: The High Renaissance (1579-1598). Edmund Spenser.
Week 5: Sir Philip Sidney and the Sonneteers.
Week 6: The University Wits. Major Representatives: Lyly, Kyd, Marlowe.
Week 7: Elizabethan Prose. J. Lyly. Sir Philip Sidney. Th. Deloney. Collections of Prose. B. Rich. Translations. Minor Prose Writers: R. Greene, Th. Lodge, Th. Nashe.
Week 8: Shakespeare 1: Comedies.
Week 9: Shakespeare 2: Histories.
The Jacobean Age (1603-1625)
Week 10: Shakespeare 3: Tragedies.
Week 11:The Period of Revolt (1598-1612). Dramatists of the Revolt. The Leaders: Ben Jonson, George Chapman, John Marston.
Week 12: Elizabethan and Jacobean Lyric Poetry. Shakespeare, B. Jonson, M. Drayton, J. Hall, S. Daniel, Th. Campion, Sir H. Wotton.
The Caroline Age (1625-1649)
Week 13: The Rise of Baroque (1612-1660). Caroline Drama: Ph. Massinger, J. Ford, J. Shirley. Minor Dramatists. The Closing of the Theatres.
Week 14: The Metaphysical Poets (J. Donne, A. Marvell, A. Cowley, G. Herbert, R. Crashaw, H. Vaughan). Caroline Lyric Poetry – Cavaliers and Puritans. R. Herrick, Th. Carew, Sir John Suckling, R. Lovelace. The Couplet Writers (Ed. Waller, Sir J. Denham).
The Interregnum (1649-1660)
Week 15: John Milton. The Periods. Paradise Lost.
II. Plan of Seminars:
Module 1: Medieval Literature
1. Introduction. Definition of (Medieval) Literature. Fiction and nonfiction. Basic components: plot, characters, theme, style (point of view etc.).
2. Anglo-Saxon Poetry. Beowulf.
3. Anglo-Saxon Lyric Poetry. The Elegies: Waldhere, Widsith, The Wanderer, The Seafarer.
4. Early Christian Poetry. Caedmon’s Hymn, Genesis. The Fates of the Apostles.
5. King Alfred and the Literature of Wessex (890-1100). Bede – An Ecclesiastical History of the English People.
6. Literature of the Transition (1180-1250). The Owl and the Nightingale.
7. The Arthurian Legend. Layamon’s Brut.
8. Metrical romances (1180-1350). Havelok the Dane.
9. The Alliterative Revival (1350-1400). W. Langland – Piers Plowman.
10. The Alliterative Revival (1350-1400). Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
11. The Alliterative Revival (1350-1400). Chaucer – The Canterbury Tales.
12. The Waning of courtly poetry (1380-1500). John Gower – Confessio Amantis. John Lydgate – Fall of Princes.
13. The Traditional Ballad. The Cherry Tree Carol, The Two Magicians, Sir Patrick Spense, The Douglas Tragedy, The Birth of Robin Hood.
14. Medieval drama 1 & 2: The Wakefield Second Shepherds’ Play; Everyman.
15. 15th-Century Prose. Sir Thomas Malory – Le Morte Darthur.
Module 2: Renaissance Literature
1. Introduction to Renaissance Literature and Culture.
2. Tudor Poetry. Wyatt. Surrey.
3. Elizabethan Narrative Poetry. Spenser – The Faerie Queene.
4. Elizabethan Lyric Poetry. Sidney – Astrophel and Stella.
5. Elizabethan Drama 1. Marlowe – Doctor Faustus.
6. Elizabethan Prose. Lyly – Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit. Sidney – The Old Arcadia.
7. Elizabethan Drama 2. Shakespeare’s Tragedies: Macbeth.
8. Elizabethan Drama 3. Shakespeare’s Comedies: A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
9. Elizabethan Drama 4. Shakespeare’s Chronicle Pays: Henry V.
10. Jacobean Drama 1. The Leaders. Ben Jonson – Volpone; or, the Fox.
11. Jacobean Drama 2. The Followers. Dekker – The Shoemakers’ Holiday. Heywood – A Woman Killed with Kindness.
12. Elizabethan Lyric Poetry 2. Shakespeare’s Sonnets.
13. Caroline Drama: Comedy and Tragedy. Massinger – A New Way to Pay Old Debts. Ford – The Broken Heart. Shirley – The Cardinal.
14. Metaphysical Poetry. Donne – Songs and Sonnets. Marvell – The Definition of Love.
15. Epic Poetry. Milton – Paradise Lost.
III. Reading List
Module 1: The Middle Ages
1. Mincoff, Marco. A History of English Literature (Part 1). 3rd ed. Sofia: Naouka I Izkoustvo, 1976 (“Old English Literature 650-1100: The Anglo-Saxons and the Heathen Tradition,” 7-24).
2. Beowulf (<http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~beowulf/main.html>). The Elegies – The Ruin, The Wanderer, The Seafarer, The Wife’s Lament, The Husband’s Message.
3. School of Caedmon – Caedmon’s Hymn, Genesis, Exodus.School of Cynewulf – The Fates of the Apostles, Juliana, Elene, Christ II (The Ascension).
4. The Venerable Bede – Ecclesiastical History (<http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/bede-book1.asp>). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (<http://omacl.org/Anglo/>).
5. The Owl and the Nightingale (<http://www.southampton.ac.uk/~wpwt/trans/owl/owltrans>).
6. Layamon’s Brut (<http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14305>).
7. ME Lyrics – The Cuckoo Song, I Sing of a Maiden, The Agincourt Carol, The Corpus Christi Carol, Of a Rose Singe We (<http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/mltexts.htm>).
8. Havelok the Dane (<http://www.sfsu.edu/~medieval/romances/havelok_rev.html>).
9. Langland – Piers Plowman (<http://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/ppllan>).The Gawain Poet – Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (<http://alliteration.net/Pearl.htm >).
10. Chaucer – The Canterbury Tales (<http://www.ronaldecker.com/ct.htm>).
11. Gower – Confessio Amantis (<http://www.richardbrodie.com/Prologue.html>). Lydgate – Fall of Princess (Book I: <http://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=chadwyck_ep/uvaGenText/tei/chep_1.0297.xml;chunk.id=d3;toc.depth=1;toc.id=d3;brand=default>).
12. The Traditional Ballad. The Cherry Tree Carol, The Two Magicians, The Wife of Usher’s Well, Lord Randall, Sir Patric Spense, The Douglas Tragedy, The Birth of Robin Hood (<http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/index.htm>).
13. The Wakefield Second Shepherds’ Play (<http://lrc.surcollege.net/courses/World%20Literature%20Lectures/The%20Second%20Shepherd%20Play%20EText.pdf>).
14. Everyman (<http://www.luminarium.org/renascence-editions/everyman.html>).
15. Sir Thomas Malory – Le Morte Darthur (<http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/Mal1Mor.html>).
Module 2: The Renaissance
1. Sir Th. More – Utopia (<http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2130/2130-h/2130-h.htm>).
2. Th. Norton and Th. Sackville – Gorboduc (<http://www.luminarium.org/renascence-editions/gorboduc.html>). Gammer Gurton’s Needle (<https://web.gsc.edu/fs/bstrickland/Gammer%20Gurton’s%20Needle.pdf>). N. Udall – Ralph Roister Doister (<http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21350/21350-h/21350-h.htm>).
3. Sir Th. Wyatt – They Flee From Me; Blame Not My Lute, My Lute Awake (<http://www.readme.it/libri/3/3000013.shtml>); Earl of Surrey – Alas, So All Things Now Do Hold Their Peace (<http://www.readme.it/libri/3/3000013.shtml>).
4. Ed. Spenser – The Faerie Queene (<http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15272/15272-h/15272-h.htm>); anthologized selections from: The Shepherds Calendar (<https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/jspui/bitstream/1794/833/1/shepheardes.pdf>), Amoretti (<http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/spenser1>).
5. Sir Ph. Sidney – Astrophel and Stella (<http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/sidney01.html>).
6. J. Lyly – Endymion (<http://www.archive.org/stream/endymionmaninmoo00lylyuoft/endymionmaninmoo00lylyuoft_djvu.txt>).Th. Kyd – The Spanish Tragedy (<http://class.georgiasouthern.edu/litphi/faculty/griffin/kyd-thespanishtragedy.pdf>).Ph. Marlowe – Dr. Faustus (<http://www.gutenberg.org/files/779/779-h/779-h.htm>).
7. J. Lyly – Euphues (<http://www.archive.org/stream/cu31924013122084/cu31924013122084_djvu.txt>). Sidney – The Old Arcadia (<http://www.luminarium.org/renascence-editions/arcadia1.html>). Nashe – The Unfortunate Traveller (<http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21338/21338-h/21338-h.htm>).
8. Shakespeare 1: Comedies – A Midsummer Night’s Dream (<http://shakespeare.mit.edu/midsummer/index.html>).
9. Shakespeare 2: Histories – Henry V (<http://shakespeare.mit.edu/henryv/index.html >).
10. Shakespeare 3: Tragedies – Macbeth (<http://shakespeare.mit.edu/macbeth/index.html>).
11. Jonson – Volpone (<http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4039/4039-h/4039-h.htm>). Chapman – Bussy D’Ambois (<http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20890/20890-h/20890-h.htm>). Marston – The Malcontent (<http://www.letrs.indiana.edu/cgi-bin/eprosed/eprosed-idx?coll=eprosed;idno=P1.0170>).
12. Shakespeare – The Sonnets (<http://poetry.eserver.org/sonnets/>).
13. Massinger – A New Way to Pay Old Debts (<http://www.bartleby.com/47/5/>). Ford – The Broken Heart (<http://www.luminarium.org/editions/broken.htm>).
14.John Donne – Songs and Sonnets (The Flea, The Anniversary, the 2nd Anniversary, A Nocturnal upon St. Lucy’s Day <http://www.luminarium.org/editions/songsandsonnets.htm>). Donne’sElegies (XVIII, XIX <http://www.luminarium.org/editions/elegies.htm>). Andrew Marvell – To His Coy Mistresss, The Definition of Love, An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell’s Return from Ireland, The Garden (<http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/marvell/marvbib.htm>).
15. John Milton – Paradise Lost (<http://robotics.dei.unipd.it/~koral/KDE/kpdf_site/Paradise_Lost.pdf>).
Course requirements
Attendance:
Students are expected and required to attend all seminar classes of this course. It is particularly important for them to be in class to benefit from all that fellow students and instructor have to offer during discussions. No more than three unexcused are permitted. Medieval and Renaissance English Literature is a two-semester course so students must take an exam as soon as they have finished each of the two modules.
Participation:
Well-informed participation in discussions and supportive collaboration with other students is among the essential criteria for the successful completion of this course.
Mode of assessment
Structure of Exams:
Students must take two mid exams as the average grade of them is the final grade. Those who have failed must re-take the exam which encompasses the whole course syllabus.
Grading Policy and Guidelines:
10% Oral Presentation Assignments
20% Class Participation/Oral communication in class
70% Exams, Final exam.
Grade Score Range
A / Excellent (6) – best possible grade 90+ (90-100)
B / Very Good (5) – second highest 80-89
C / Good (4) – average performance 70-79
D / Sufficient (3) – lowest passing grade 60-69
F / Poor (2) – failing grade 0-59
Bibliography
Core readings:
Abrams, M. H., and Stephen Greenblat, eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Middle Ages through the Restoration and the Eighteenth Century. Vol. 1. New York: Norton, 1986.
Cuddon, J. A., ed. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. London: Penguin, 1991.
Ford, Boris, ed. The New Pelican Guide to English Literature. Vols. 1-4. London: Penguin, 1982.
Ford, Boris, ed. The Pelican Guide to English Literature. Vols. 1-4. London: Penguin, 1977.
Mincoff, Marco. A History of English Literature. 3rd ed. Pt. 1. Sofia: Naouka I Izkoustvo, 1976.
Howard-Hill, T. H. Bibliography of British Literary Bibliographies. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. London: Oxford UP, 1988.
The general bibliography for the course includes:
I. Anthologies
Costello, Jacqueline, and Amy Tucker, eds. Forms of Literature: A Writer’s Collection. New York: Random, 1989.
Grancharov, Hristo, and Bogdan Atanasov, eds. English Medieval Literature: A Reader. Veliko Turnovo: Cyril and Methodius U, 1976.
Hollander, John, and Frank Kermode, eds. The Literature of Renaissance England. New York: Oxford UP, 1973.
Shurbanov, Alexander, and Boika Sokolova, eds. Readings in English Literature: The Middle Ages and the Renaissance Age. Sofia: Sofia UP, 1986.
Wilkie, Brian, and James Hurt, eds. Literature of the Western World. Vol. 1. New York: Macmillan, 1988.
II. Surveys of English Literature
Buck, Claire, ed. Women’s Literature. London: Bloomsbury, 1994.
Chambers, E. K., ed. English Literature at the Close of the Middle Ages. Oxford: Clarendon P, 1957.
Quennell, Peter, and H. Johnson, eds. A History of English Literature. London: Oxley, 1973.
Ricks, Christopher, ed. A History of Literature in the English Language. 3 vols. London: Sphere, 1970.
Scott-Kilvert, Ian, ed. British Writers. 2 vols. New York: Scribner’s, 1979.
III. Companions, Handbooks, and Dictionaries
Beadle, Richard, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1996.
Braunmuller, R. A., and Michael Hattaway, eds. The Cambridge Companion to English Renaissance Drama. Canbridge: Cambridge UP, 1990.
Corns, Th. N., ed. The Cambridge Companion to English Poetry. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1993.
Drabble, Margaret, ed. The Oxford Companion of English Literature. 6th ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2000.
Harvey, Sir Paul, ed. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Oxford: Clarendon P, 1981.
Ousby, Ian, ed. The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1993.
Stringer, Jenny, ed. The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Literature in English. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1996.
Wynne-Davis, Marione, ed. The Bloomsbury Guide to English Literature. London: Bloomsbury, 1989.
IV. Bibliographies
Watson, George, ed. The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. Vol. 1, 600-1660. London: Cambridge UP, 1974.
Kirkpatrick, D. L., ed. Reference Guide to English Literature. Detroit: St. James P, 1991.
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MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE ENGLISH LITERATURE
Course title: Medieval and Renaissance English Literature
Tutor: Atanas Manchorov, PhD
Mode of delivery:
Contact classes: A course of lectures providing theoretical knowledge of the genre diversity and specificity of literary trends in English literature.
Contact classes: seminars elucidating the lecture topics by discussing individual works and providing an in-depth analysis of main literary problems
Course place and status within the program
Majors:
Bulgarian & English students
Russian & English students
English & German students
Semesters: 2
Total number of classes: Lectures (L) – 30 classes; Seminars (S) – 30 classes
Level and status: Core course at BA level
Competence expectations
The successful completion of the course requires excellent language skills, keen interest in literature, and a preliminary reading of essential texts to ensure active participation in seminars.
Aims and objectives of the course
Successful undergraduate course-takers acquire systematic knowledge by studying the history, literature and culture of a very extensive period of British civilization (7th – 17th c.).
Undergraduates should develop philological skills in reading medieval and renaissance texts, discussing different issues, and writing individual and group essays.
The course is aimed at helping students attain proficiency in literature and gain an understanding of many significant authors. As expected, students should acquire competence in a wide range of skills, e.g. studying fiction and finding library and electronic sources. The course provides an appropriate preparation for a possible MA degree in literature and/or literary theory through individual assignments.
Weekly organization of topics & reading assignments
MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE ENGLISH LITERATURE
I. Syllabus
Module 1: The Middle Ages
Week 1: Anglo-Saxon Heroic Poetry: Beowulf. Anglo-Saxon Elegies: The Ruin, The Wanderer, The Seafarer, The Wife’s Lament, The Husband’s Message. Gnomic Poetry. Spells. Riddles.
Week 2: Early Christian Poetry. The Schools of Caedmon and Cynewulf (660-850).
Week 3: The Fourteenth Century. The Alliterative Revival (1350-1400). Langland. The Gawain Poet.
Week 4: Geoffrey Chaucer. The Periods. The Canterbury Tales.
Week 5: Late Romances (1350-1500). The Traditional Ballad.
Week 6: Medieval Drama: Mysteries, Moralities, Interludes.
Week 7: Fifteenth Century Prose. Sir Thomas Malory.
Module 2: The Renaissance
Week 1: Poetry: Sir Th. Wyatt, Surrey (Henry Howard).
Week 2: The High Renaissance (1579-1598). Edmund Spenser.
Week 3: The University Wits. Major Representatives: John Lyly, Thomas Kyd, Christopher Marlowe.
Week 4: Shakespeare 1: Introduction. Comedies.
Week 5: Shakespeare 2: Tragedies. Histories.
Week 6:The Period of Revolt (1598-1612). Dramatists of the Revolt. The Leaders: Ben Jonson, George Chapman, John Marston.
Week 7: Elizabethan and Jacobean Lyric Poetry. Shakespeare. John Donne.
Week 8: John Milton. The Periods. Paradise Lost.
II. Plan of Seminars
Module 1: Medieval Literature
Week 1: Anglo-Saxon Poetry. Beowulf.
Week 2: Early Christian Poetry. Caedmon’s Hymn, Genesis. The Fates of the Apostles.
Week 3: The Alliterative Revival (1350-1400). W. Langland – Piers Plowman.
Week 4: The Alliterative Revival (1350-1400). Chaucer – The Canterbury Tales.
Week 5: The Traditional Ballad. The Cherry Tree Carol, The Two Magicians, Sir Patrick Spense, The Douglas Tragedy, The Birth of Robin Hood.
Week 6: Medieval drama. The Wakefield Second Shepherds’ Play. Everyman.
Week 7: 15th-Century Prose. Sir Thomas Malory – Le Morte Darthur.
Module 2: Renaissance Literature
Week 1: Tudor Poetry. Wyatt. Surrey.
Week 2: Elizabethan Narrative Poetry. Spenser – The Faerie Queene.
Week 3: Elizabethan Drama. Marlowe – Doctor Faustus.
Week 4: Elizabethan Drama. Shakespeare 1: A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Week 5: Elizabethan Drama. Shakespeare 2: Macbeth. Henry V.
Week 6: Jacobean Drama. The Leaders. Ben Jonson – Volpone.
Week 7: Elizabethan Lyric Poetry. Shakespeare’s Sonnets.
Week 8: Epic Poetry. Milton – Paradise Lost.
III. Reading List
Module 1: The Middle Ages
1. Beowulf (<http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~beowulf/main.html>). The Elegies – The Ruin, The Wanderer, The Seafarer, The Wife’s Lament, The Husband’s Message.
2. School of Caedmon – Caedmon’s Hymn, Genesis, Exodus; School of Cynewulf – The Fates of the Apostles, Juliana, Elene, Christ II (The Ascension).
3. Langland – Piers Plowman (<http://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/ppllan>).The Gawain Poet – Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (<http://alliteration.net/Pearl.htm >).
4. Chaucer – The Canterbury Tales (<http://www.ronaldecker.com/ct.htm>).
5. Ballads – The Cherry Tree Carol, The Two Magicians, The Wife of Usher’s Well, Lord Randall, Sir Patric Spense, The Douglas Tragedy, The Birth of Robin Hood (<http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/index.htm>).
6. The Wakefield Second Shepherds’ Play (<http://lrc.surcollege.net/courses/World%20Literature%20Lectures/The%20Second%20Shepherd%20Play%20EText.pdf>). Everyman (<http://www.luminarium.org/renascence-editions/everyman.html>).
7. Sir Thomas Malory – Le Morte Darthur (<http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/Mal1Mor.html>).
Module 2: The Renaissance
1. Sir Th. Wyatt – They Flee From Me; Blame Not My Lute, My Lute Awake (<http://www.readme.it/libri/3/3000013.shtml>); Earl of Surrey – Alas, So All Things Now Do Hold Their Peace (<http://www.readme.it/libri/3/3000013.shtml>).
2. Ed. Spenser – The Faerie Queene (<http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15272/15272-h/15272-h.htm>); anthologized selections from: The Shepherds Calendar (<https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/jspui/bitstream/1794/833/1/shepheardes.pdf>), Amoretti (<http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/spenser1>).
3. J. Lyly – Endymion (<http://www.archive.org/stream/endymionmaninmoo00lylyuoft/endymionmaninmoo00lylyuoft_djvu.txt>).Th. Kyd – The Spanish Tragedy (<http://class.georgiasouthern.edu/litphi/faculty/griffin/kyd-thespanishtragedy.pdf>).Ph. Marlowe – Dr. Faustus (<http://www.gutenberg.org/files/779/779-h/779-h.htm>).
4. Shakespeare 1: Comedies – A Midsummer Night’s Dream (<http://shakespeare.mit.edu/midsummer/index.html>).
5. Shakespeare 2: Tragedies – Macbeth (<http://shakespeare.mit.edu/macbeth/index.html>).
Histories – Henry V (<http://shakespeare.mit.edu/henryv/index.html >).
16. Jonson – Volpone (<http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4039/4039-h/4039-h.htm>). Chapman – Bussy D’Ambois (<http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20890/20890-h/20890-h.htm>). Marston – The Malcontent (<http://www.letrs.indiana.edu/cgi-bin/eprosed/eprosed-idx?coll=eprosed;idno=P1.0170>).
7. Shakespeare – The Sonnets (<http://poetry.eserver.org/sonnets/>).
8. John Milton – Paradise Lost (<http://robotics.dei.unipd.it/~koral/KDE/kpdf_site/Paradise_Lost.pdf>).
Course requirements
Attendance:
Students are expected and required to attend all seminar classes of this course. It is particularly important for them to be in class to benefit from all that fellow students and instructor have to offer during discussions. No more than three unexcused are permitted. Medieval and Renaissance English Literature is a two-semester course so students must take an exam as soon as they have finished each of the two modules.
Participation:
Well-informed participation in discussions and supportive collaboration with other students is among the essential criteria for the successful completion of this course.
Mode of assessment
Structure of Exams:
Students must take two mid exams as the average grade of them is the final grade. Those who have failed must re-take the exam which encompasses the whole course syllabus.
Grading Policy and Guidelines:
10% Oral Presentation Assignments
20% Class Participation/Oral communication in class
70% Exams, Final exam.
Grade Score Range
A / Excellent (6)– best possible grade 90+ (90-100)
B / Very Good (5)– second highest 80-89
C / Good (4)– average performance 70-79
D /Sufficient (3)–lowest passing grade 60-69
F / Poor (2)– failing grade 0-59
Bibliography
Core readings:
Abrams, M. H., and Stephen Greenblat, eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Middle Ages through the Restoration and the Eighteenth Century. Vol. 1. New York: Norton, 1986.
Cuddon, J. A., ed. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. London: Penguin, 1991.
Ford, Boris, ed. The New Pelican Guide to English Literature. Vols. 1-4. London: Penguin, 1982.
Ford, Boris, ed. The Pelican Guide to English Literature. Vols. 1-4. London: Penguin, 1977.
Howard-Hill, T. H. Bibliography of British Literary Bibliographies. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. London: Oxford UP, 1988.
Mincoff, Marco. A History of English Literature. 3rd ed. Pt. 1. Sofia: Naouka I Izkoustvo, 1976.
The general bibliography for the course includes:
I. Anthologies
Costello, Jacqueline, and Amy Tucker, eds. Forms of Literature: A Writer’s Collection. New York: Random, 1989.
Grancharov, Hristo, and Bogdan Atanasov, eds. English Medieval Literature: A Reader. Veliko Turnovo: Cyril and Methodius U, 1976.
Hollander, John, and Frank Kermode, eds. The Literature of Renaissance England. New York: Oxford UP, 1973.
Shurbanov, Alexander, and Boika Sokolova, eds. Readings in English Literature: The Middle Ages and the Renaissance Age. Sofia: Sofia UP, 1986.
Wilkie, Brian, and James Hurt, eds. Literature of the Western World. Vol. 1. New York: Macmillan, 1988.
II. Surveys of English Literature
Buck, Claire, ed. Women’s Literature. London: Bloomsbury, 1994.
Chambers, E. K., ed. English Literature at the Close of the Middle Ages. Oxford: Clarendon P, 1957.
Quennell, Peter, and H. Johnson, eds. A History of English Literature. London: Oxley, 1973.
Ricks, Christopher, ed. A History of Literature in the English Language. 3 vols. London: Sphere, 1970.
Scott-Kilvert, Ian, ed. British Writers. 2 vols. New York: Scribner’s, 1979.
III. Companions, Handbooks, and Dictionaries
Beadle, Richard, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1996.
Braunmuller, R. A., and Michael Hattaway, eds. The Cambridge Companion to English Renaissance Drama. Canbridge: Cambridge UP, 1990.
Corns, Th. N., ed. The Cambridge Companion to English Poetry. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1993.
Drabble, Margaret, ed. The Oxford Companion of English Literature. 6th ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2000.
Harvey, Sir Paul, ed. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Oxford: Clarendon P, 1981.
Ousby, Ian, ed. The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1993.
Stringer, Jenny, ed. The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Literature in English. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1996.
Wynne-Davis, Marione, ed. The Bloomsbury Guide to English Literature. London: Bloomsbury, 1989.
IV. Bibliographies
Watson, George, ed. The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. Vol. 1, 600-1660. London: Cambridge UP, 1974.
Kirkpatrick, D. L., ed. Reference Guide to English Literature. Detroit: St. James P, 1991.
