English 10A-1 - Fall, 2013

Literatures in English I: to 1700

Class Information

Instructor: Aldebol, Kristen
CRN: 32323
Time: MWF 2:10-3:00
Location: 163 Olson

Description

The aim of this course is prepare you for advanced study in English literature. Our focus will be literature written in English before 1700, a period of fascinating historical, political, social, and linguistic transformation. We will read texts from a range of authors and genres that reflect, address, and helped produce these changes. Topics we will consider include: the development of both the English language and literary genres; emerging national identity and England’s relationship to the new world; the status of the monarchy during periods of political growth and unrest; and women’s participation in the literary world. Of paramount importance will be students’ development of skills in reading, discussing, and writing about the literature. Specifically, we will work on three kinds of skills: (1) seeing a big picture by spanning time and surveying the globe to track the emergence, development, and dissemination of the English language and its literatures; (2) focusing carefully on key literary texts and some strategies for interpreting them, or “close reading,” of poetry, prose, and drama; and (3) positioning your interpretation of a literary text in relation to other scholarship on it.

This section will tackle these goals through tracking how readers (including us) relate to these texts; through in-class discussion; and through application of multiple theoretical approaches to the primary texts we study. Class will consist of lectures, class discussion, quizzes, and group work; work outside of the classroom will consist of two longer papers, graded paragraphs, and reading in preparation for class.

Grading

Quizzes 15%
Midterm Exam 15%
Close reading paper 20%
Research Paper 30%
Final Exam 20%

Texts

The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume I, 9th edition, Single text edition: ISBN 0393912477
Or the split edition of A, B, C:, ISBN 0393913007