Semester Two Schedule

17^th Century Literature Schedule: Semester Two 

Tuesdays 5:30-8:30 weekly

Before class on January 10^th, please read Samuel Daniel, The Civil War, Book   I.

Please also read the sections in Smith (pp. 105-64) and Kishlansky (pp. 134-58).

       

Jan. 10:   Lecture: Civil War and Poetry

Class Discussion: Samuel Daniel, Book I of The Civil War, available as a pdf online.
Daniel's text is available via Blackboard (Booth Online) or here as a Google Docs file.

To be completed in class: Read chapter one of Marx and Engel's "18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte" and write a 1-2 page response to Daniel.

Jan. 17:   Class Discussion: Katherine Phillips, pp.655-668; John Dryden, pp.637-652; and Marvell, pp. 556-9 in the Norton Anthology of British Poetry 1603-1660.  

Civil War & Ecocriticsm: Is Dryden's poem anthropocentric or ecocentric? 

To what extent can any of these poems on civil war be read as ecocentric?

In class review of the following article:  William Kerrigan, “Transformations of Friendship in the Work of Katherine Philips”, pp. 955-970 in the Norton. 

Jan. 24:  Lecture: Margaret Cavendish: Gender and Genre
Class Discussion: Cavendish poems pp. 615-626 in the Norton Anthology of British Poetry AND The Convent of Pleasure in the Broadview Cavendish reader (pp. 97-135).

Jan. 31: Class Discussion: The London Jilt
Today we will talk about the genre of early modern prose fiction and more specifically, The London Jilt. There will be a student presentation on the text.

Lecture: John Bunyan & The Pilgrim’s Progress
Today I will talk about John Bunyan and the nonconformists of 17^th Century England. I will talk about Bunyan’s literary career and the literary place of his Pilgrim’s Progress.

Feb. 7:   Class Discussion: The Pilgrim’s Progress, Book I.
Firstly we will share your graphic episodes from PP with the class. Then we will discuss the text more generally and the idea of spiritual autobiography in class. 

In the second part of the seminar I will ask you to write 1-2 pages on your interpretation of the topic of spiritual autobiography in The Pilgrim’s Progress.
Please read about the topic in advance of class: Spiritual Autobiographies in John Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners.  Available Project Gutenberg, or at the library.

And for some lighter reading, a parody of Bunyan by Nathaniel Hawthorne  in "The Celestial Railroad"

Feb. 14: Class Discussion:  Aphra Behn: Oronooko and Other Writings
Each student will prepare seminar materials to share with your classmates on one of the Behn prose pieces in the anthology – you should familiarize yourselves with at least two of the texts so you can engage in class discussion. You should all read Oronooko.

 The Fair Jilt; Memoirs of the Court of the King of Bantam; The History of the Nun; The Adventure of the Black Lady

READING WEEK – Catch up on your reading / complete your essay
*NB: You may wish to read ahead because there are three utopian fictions to read in two weeks.

Feb. 28: Essay 1 is due today before class.
Lecture: Early Modern Utopias after Thomas More
Today I will talk about the genre of utopian fiction with reference to Thomas More's Utopia (included in your text). I will provide some biographical information for Henry Neville and Francis Bacon and discuss innovations of the 17th century that may help you to interpret the texts better.

Class Discussion: Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis & Cavendish’s The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing World  (1666) (pp.151-252).

There will be a student presentation on Bacon's text followed by a group discussion. We will focus on genre, race, gender and new world discoveries. 

March 6: Class Discussion: Henry Neville, The Isle of Pines. There will be a student presentation on the prose fiction I asked you to read and we will address questions of genre, gender, and race in our group discussion of the text.  We will also compare Bacon's utopian fiction with the one by Neville discussed last week.         

March 13: Lecture:17th century Philosophy - an Introduction. In this lecture I will introduce you to concepts Cartesian method and scientific  inquiry. I will also discuss Hobbesian thought on religion and politics.

Class Discussion: Thomas Hobbes, pp. 41-68; 79-82; 111-157 from “Of Man”. We will discuss the reading and review Hobbes’ thinking on religion in the sections I asked you to read. Please pay special attention to chapters XIII-XVI (pp. 123-157). Seminar questions for the Leviathan can be found here.
Discussion topic: Hobbes & God
In class response: Thomas Tenison, pp. 618-20

March 20: Class Discussion: Hobbes, pp.157-231, “Of Commonwealth” &  pp. 315-20, "Of a Christian Commonwealth"

In class response: Edward Hyde, pp. 626-642

March 27: Class Discussion: John Locke, pp. 17-125, "A Second Treatise of Government"
Discussion topic: Natural Rights? Interpreting Locke through Hobbes

April 3:   Class Discussion: Locke, pp.125-167, "A Letter Concerning Toleration"
Discussion topic: Politics and Power

In class response: Richard Hooker, Ecclesiastical Polity & David Wootton, Locke against Persecution.

Final Essay is due on April 13^th by 4 pm. Please submit electronically.

Semester One: Weekly Schedule

NB: All lecture slides will be available via the Booth Online site for this course.

1 7^th Century Literature Schedule: Semester One

Tuesdays 5:30-8:30 weekly

In our first meeting I will provide you with an introduction to the course and how we will proceed during the first semester. You will benefit from knowing about the most prevalent aspects of the period and the secondary reading assignments are designed to help you prepare for engaging with 17th century literature and culture.

The suggested secondary reading will help you to understand the primary readings. Selections from Smith and Kishlansky are the only authors of secondary texts you are required to read. Both of these are on short-loan in the library.

  

Before class on September 13^th please read about James’ religious settlement (Smith, pp. 29-50) and the social and political background of the period (Kishlansky pp. 6-64). I would like you to come to class prepared to discuss these texts.

Throughout the course you may be asked to write an in class paper for five minutes about the set reading(s). To prepare for these I strongly encourage you to **always** read the texts and take notes.

Sept. 13:   Plenary Lecture on 17th century literature and culture

 Time for discussion of set readings (Kishlansky and Smith)

                 Lecture: John Donne, Ben Jonson & Stuart Poets

Sept. 20:  Class Discussion:  You should try to read the  entire selection of Donne's religious poems from the Norton collection. We will spend a good portion of our discussion time on Satire 3 and the Holy Sonnets. Also read the Ben Jonson poems on pages 83-96 and Thomas Carew’s poems on pages 295-317 in the Norton. Please pick one poem from each author that particularly interested you.

        

Lecture: Women and Poetry in the 17^th Century

        

Sept. 27:  Class Discussion: The poems by Mary Wroth, Aemilia Lanyer and

Anne Bradstreet in the Norton.

Secondary Reading: Please pick one of these articles from the Norton to read and be prepared to discuss in class: 1) Ann Baynes Coiro, “Writing in Service: Sexual Politics and Class Position in the Poetry of Aemilia Lanyer and Ben Jonson and 2) Eavan Boland, “Finding Anne Bradstreet”. 

                 
              Lecture: Milton, Politics and Poetry
              
               *Analysis of one of the set readings due.

Oct. 4:    Class Discussion: Milton’s poems, including the sonnet sequence, in the Norton pp. 379-403.

               

Lecture: Ben Jonson: Poetry & the Stuart Masque

 

Oct. 11:   Class Discussion: The Black Masque and Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue by Ben Jonson 
                Performance of Milton's A Masque Performed at Luldlow Castle
                *Analysis of one of the set readings due.

               

Oct. 18:  Lecture: Stuart Politics and the Stage World

              Class Discussion: Volpone, by Ben Jonson
              *Please also read Jonas A. Barish's essay, "The Double Plot in Volpone" (pp. 399-411) in the Criticism section of your Norton edition of Jonson's plays. 

               

Oct. 25:  Class Discussion:  The Alchemist, by Ben Jonson

                
              Lecture: John Webster & Comedy
*rewrite one of Milton's sonnets or one of the songs from Jonson's masques into a modern dialect of your choice.
 *            

Nov. 1:    Class Discussion: A Cure for A Cuckold

               Lecture: Stuart Tragedy

Nov. 8:    Class Discussion: The White Devil and The Dutchess of Malfi
  *Respond to one of the (Webster) discussion questions in light of these two plays. Prepare a short seminar paper to share with the class.
               

Nov. 15:  Lecture: Thomas Middleton and the Genre of Political Satire

       Class Discussion:  A Game at Chess

Nov. 22:  Class Discussion: Women beware Women and The Changeling.
                *'Dream Cast': Write an annotated dream cast of characters for your film version of one of the plays we have read this semester.

      

Nov. 29:  Lecture: Women and Writing in the 17th century

               Class Discussion:  Elizabeth Cary, The Tragedy of Miriam.

Dec. 6:    Lecture: Civil War

Class Discussion: section in Smith (pp. 105-64) and Kishlansky (pp. 134-86). You should write a summary of the texts to share with the class.
*Essay 1 due.  Please submit this assignment via the essay dropbox on the course site. The dropbox will close at 11:30pm.