English 305-01: British Literature I: 450-1785

Dr. Kozikowski (2-3:30 MW // F7)

christine.kozikowski@cob.edu.bs
Office Hours: M/W 12-2

Office: C3

This course will introduce you to the first half of English literary history (from Anglo-Saxon
literature to the Enlightenment). We will read significant texts from each period, analyze their
content, and discuss their potential meanings, both in the context of their historical culture and our
own period. We will also identify and interpret significant thematic emphases of individual works
and authors, distinguish the characteristics of each period and writer, and look for both significant
continuities and crucial innovations within and between writers and periods. As a way of examining
the complicated relationship between literature and culture, I will frame each period according to its
historical context and anchor each literary unit in a specific set of social practices characteristic of
that period. By looking at how different literary forms and genres (poetry and prose, comedy and
tragedy, romance and neoclassicism) interacted with changing social realities, well explore the
various uses of literature, how it was used both to explain a changing world and to resist those
changes by building refuges from them.
Required Texts
Greenblatt, Stephen and M. H. Abrams, eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 9th Ed.
New York: Norton, 2006.
Abrams, M. H. A Glossary of Literary Terms. 9th ed. Boston: Wadsworth, 2009.
Course Requirements
Students will come prepared and ready for each discussion by completing the homework
assignments prior to the beginning of class.
Students MUST bring the books with the texts we are covering to class.
Assignments are to be completed prior to the beginning of class on the day that they are due.
Attendance & In-Class Behavior
You are expected to be in class on time. You are late if the lesson has begun when you enter,
and if you are more than 15 minutes late, I will refuse to admit you.
Excessive tardinessmore than five minutes and on more than one occasionwill
detrimentally impact your grade as well. Two tardies will be counted as an absence.
If you are not in class during class (ie, leaving for long periods), you will not be considered
present.
Turn off cell phones and electronic devices before class.
o Anytime I see a student using his or her phone in class, he or she will have 1%
deducted from their final grade.
Do not leave the room during a lesson unless there is an emergency. Do not ask friends to
visit you during class time. Put away any portable music devices.
Assignments & Grading
All assignments are due at the beginning of class. Anything handed in after class has started will be
considered late and be penalized one half letter grade per day.
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Technology failures are no excuse back up everything often! Do not email me any work! If you
know you will be absent, make arrangements to turn your assignment in ahead of time.
Three Major Papers (60%) These will be 4-6 pages long and include critical analysis. I will
grade you on complexity, originality, organization, clarity, and evidence.
Quizzes, tests, assignments (25%)
o Daily reading quizzes (10%)
o Tests (10%)
o Assignments (5%)
Seminar Presentation (20%) Each student will choose a text(s)/author and lead discussion
Formatting
All assignments are to be completed in MLA format. In other words, Times New Roman, 12 pt font,
1 margins, double-spaced, with appropriate heading (your name, my name, course section, and
date). Multiple page documents MUST be stapled (and I do not carry a stapler) and numbered with
your last name. If you are unsure, consult an MLA handbook (or the St. Martins Guide) no one
should get this wrong more than once.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the use of anothers language and/or ideas without acknowledging the source, or using
an essay for more than one course. The College considers plagiarism a serious form of academic
dishonesty. Plagiarism in this course results in one or more of the following consequences: failure
of the assignment, failure of the course, and disciplinary action by The College.
Those who pay careful attention to what they write and how they write do not need to worry. Do not
allow pressure and distractions to force you into anxious situations where you are tempted to rush
through assignments without citing accurately, and NEVER consider stealing work from the
Internet or other places. It is better to discuss an emergency or unusual situation with me than to
make a terrible mistake that will result in failing the course and damaging your academic reputation.
Schedule
Please note that the day the assignment appears on the syllabus is the day I expect you to come to
class having completed it. You should read the headnote in addition to the primary text.
**Items on the schedule may change with appropriate notice.
8/24
8/26

8/31
9/2
9/7

Introduction
The Middle Ages to ca. 1485 (p. 3-28)
Bede - Cdmons Hymn & From An Ecclesiastical History (p. 29-32)
The Dream of the Rood (p. 32-36)
The Wanderer (p. 117-120)
The Wifes Lament (p. 120-122)
Beowulf (headnote & lines 1-1798)
Beowulf (lines 1799 end)
Irish/Welsh Literature (p.122-3)
Cuchulainns Boyhood Deeds (p. 123-128)
Mabinogion (handout)
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9/9
9/14
9/16
9/21
9/23
9/28

9/30

10/5

10/7
10/12
10/14
10/19

10/21
10/26

Marie de France, Milun Lanval (p. 142-167)

Bisclaveret & Eliduc (Handouts)
No class; reading questions due
The Owl and the Nightingale (Handout)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Headnote & lines 1-490)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (lines 490-end)
Chaucer, The Wife of Baths Prologue & Tale (Headnote & p. 282-310)
Ancrene Wisse (p. 137-140)
Julian of Norwich, Showings (412-424)
Margery Kempe, Book of Margery Kempe (424-438)
The York Play of the Crucifixion (439-447)
Paper 1 (Answer one of the following questions):
Considering the Old and Middle English works we have read so far, write a 4-page
paper that compares the roles of women in medieval literature. Support your claims
with quotations and/or textual evidence from three texts. You do not need outside
sources.
OR
Considering the medieval texts weve read so far, write a 4-page paper that analyzes
the way that texts combine both secular and ecclesiastical elements. Support your
claims with quotations and/or textual evidence from three texts.
The Sixteenth Century 1485-1603 (531-563)
Thomas Wyatt the Elder I Find No Peace & Rima 134(650-51); My Galley &
Rima (651-52); My Lute, Awake! (655-56); Blame Not My Lute (656-57)
Howard, The Soote Season & Rima 310 (661-14); Love that Doth Reign (663);
Alas! So All Things Now Do Hold & Rima 164 (664); So Cruel Prison (665-66)
Marlowe, The Shepherd to His Love (1022)
Raleigh, Nymphs Reply to the Shepherd (917), The Lie (919)
Thomas, Lord Vaux, The Aged Lover Renounces Love (1005)
The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (p. 1127-63)
Discovery Day No class
Test #1
The Early Seventeenth Century, 1603-1660) (1341-69)
Donne The Flea, (1373); The Good-Morrow (1373); The Sun Rising (1376);
The Canonization (1377), The Bait (1384),, The Ecstasy (1386)
Lanyer, Salve Deus Rex (1430-46)
Jonson (1324-26); To My Book (1539); To John Donne (1541); To Lucy,
Countess of Bedford, with Mr. Donnes Satires (1543); A Sonnet, to the Noble Lady,
the Lady May Wroth (1550)
Gender Relations, 1648-60
No class; reading questions due
Herbert, The Altar (1707); Easter Wings (1709); The Collar (1720-21); Death &
Love (3) (1725)
Herrick, Corinnas Going A-Maying (1760-62), To Virgins, to Make Much of
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10/28
11/2

11/4

11/9
11/11
11/16
11/18
11/23

11/25

Time (1762)
Philips, A Married State (1784);
Marvell, To His Coy Mistress (1796)
Paper 2 Due
Consider poems that begin the Renaissance; how do they employ imagery or
symbolism to illustrate their meaning? Support your claims with quotations and/or
textual evidence from at least two texts.
OR
Write a paper comparing/contrasting how two different seventeenth-century poets use
metaphysical conceit in their texts. Support your ideas with quotations and/or textual
evidence.
Milton, Paradise Lost (1945-86)
The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century, 1660-1785 (2177-2207)
Dryden (2083-84), Mac Flecknoe (2236-42-17)
Swift (2633-39) A Modest Proposal
Swift, The Ladys Dressing Room (2590-93)
Montagu, The Reasons That Induced Dr. Swift to Write a Poem Called the Ladys
Dressing Room (2593-95)
Astell, From A Preface, in Answer to Some Objections (3018-22)
Congreve, The Way of the World, Prologue, Act I-III
Congreve, The Way of the World, Act IV-V, Epilogue
Aphra Behn (2313-58), Oroonoko (2183-2226)
Johnson, A Brief to Free a Slave (3032)
Olaudah Equiano, Interesting Narrative (3033-43)
Thompson, From The Seasons (3044-46)
Gray, Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
(3050-51)
Smart, From Jubliate Agno (3059-60)
Cowper, The Castaway, (3077-78)
Test #2
Paper 3 Due
Considering the Restoration texts that weve read, write a 4-6 page essay that discusses
the literary shifts from the beginning to the end of the period. Quote from at least three
sources to support your points.
OR
Based on your readings of Montagu, Swift, Dryden, and Congreve, define and discuss
the elements of Restoration satire. Quote from at least three authors in order to justify
your definition.