200A F19 Savarese | English Language and Literature

ENGL 200A

Instructor Information

Instructor: John Savarese

Office: HH 143

Office Phone: 519-888-4567 ext. 33019

Office Hours: Tues. 1-2, Wed 10-11, and by appointment

Email: john.savarese@uwaterloo.ca

Course Description

In this class we will read selected works of British literature from its beginnings to 1800, which will take us from the oldest surviving English epic through the mass-market novels of the eighteenth century. The breadth of the course means that we will be moving fairly quickly and tracking a) the development of an “Anglophone tradition” and b) the sheer variety of literary forms that emerge in English, often in ways that exceed the very idea of a simple or coherent tradition or canon. Some guiding questions will be: Why speak of “British” literature in national terms in the first place? How and why did that sense of a British tradition come about, and what interests did it serve? What can such broad reading help us see about the way literature (and ways of reading it) changed over time? What did it mean to write or to read in the age of Chaucer, as opposed to the age of the daily newspaper?

Required Text

Please procure one of the following versions of the Broadview Anthology of British Literature, both of which contain all readings for the term. If you buy a digital e-book version, please make sure you can access it reliably in class.

Option 1 (preferred): The main course text is the Broadview Anthology of British Literature, “One Volume Compact Edition,” ISBN 9781554812547 ($80 print, or $50 digital). This large volume contains everything we need for 200A, as well as everything I will teach in 200B this Winter. So, if you plan to take both courses, you can get two course’s books for the price of one.
Option 2 (a decent alternative): if you will definitely not be taking 200B this Winter, want a smaller book, you can buy the Broadview Anthology of British Literature, “Concise Volume A,” ISBN 9781554813124 ($75 print or $50 digital). This has only the readings for 200A. Of course, it is not really a cheaper option, but if it’s the one you can find used, and you’re not taking 200B in Winter, go right ahead.

Course Requirements and Assessment Assessment	Date of Evaluation	Weighting
Participation	Logs due 10/23 and 12/13	20%
Exercise 1: “Scribal” exercise	9/10 and 9/18 (see below)	5%
Exercise 2: 1-page response paper	9/30	5%
Exercise 3: Sonnet imitation	10/7	5%
Midterm (take-home)	10/23	20%
Paper 1: 2-page “close reading”	11/4	10%
Paper 2: 5-page analytical paper	12/2	15%
Final Project: Reading Journal	Ongoing/weekly; due by 12/13	20%
Total		100%

Participation

These marks recognize your attendance, active listening, and participation in the day’s verbal and written activities, including reading quizzes, collaborative work, warm-up discussions, etc. Each week, you should log the ways you participated on the Participation Log (template available on LEARN), to turn in at two points during the term: along with your midterm and your final project. 1 point per class. (Since we have 22 in-person meetings, this means you can miss 2 classes for emergencies without having to worry.)

Minor Exercise 1: Scribal Glossing

Round 1: Create a glossed page; copy 15-20 lines of Beowulf and provide marginal glosses, annotations, illustrations. Round 2: exchange with a classmate and make a 2nd set of glosses on their page.

Minor Exercise 2: 1-page response paper

Choose a Medieval text that interests you, and identify what is interesting about it (a thematic issue, a feature of the narration or style, etc).

Minor Exercise 3: Sonnet imitation exercise

Experiment with a sonnet’s formal properties by writing one. Stick to the conventions as strictly or loosely as you see fit; write a brief (approx. 100 word) reflection on the process.

Midterm Exam

Take-home essay-style exam to demonstrate your breadth of knowledge and facility with the texts assigned so far

Paper 1: 2-page “close reading”

Short paper focused on the “detail-work” of literary analysis: identify, describe, and explain as much as you can about a text’s formal features, without necessarily worrying about making an argument or interpretation.

Paper 2: 5-page analytical paper

Put the pieces together: make an argumentative claim about a Restoration or eighteenth-century text and back it up with detail-oriented readings of textual evidence.

Final Project: Reading Log

The culminating project of the term will be a reading log (or “reading journal”) that you keep on a weekly basis, and then work a bit more on at the end of term to package into a single document. Combined with your Participation Log, this means that at the end of term you will have a detailed record of your ideas and engagement with the readings throughout the term, and of the work you did in class each week.

Reading Log components include:

Each week, write 150-200 words describing (for example) your reactions to the readings, what you notice about them, particular moments or formal features that you think are worth paying attention to; why they are worth paying attention to. This should produce approx. 1800-2000 words (4 pages).
At term’s end, write an additional 250 words about the course material as a whole, what sorts of “takeaways” you will be taking away from the course, and what your points of reference now are for “British Literature” as a whole.

UNIT 1: OLD AND MIDDLE ENGLISH (Weeks 1-4)
	Readings to prepare:	Work due:
1. W 9/4	“Caedmon’s Hymn” (listen in class)
2. M 9/9	Beowulf, through line 990
3. W 9/10	Beowulf, through line 1650; contexts: “Later Anglo-Saxon Britain;” “Invasion and Unification;” “History of the Language and of Print and Manuscript Culture”	Scribal exercise, phase 1
4. M 9/16	Chaucer, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue (p. 300-13); contexts: “Cultural Expression in the Fourteenth Century”
5. W 9/18	Chaucer, The Wife of Bath’s Tale (p. 314-19; reread Prologue as necessary)	Scribal exercise, phase 2
6. M 9/23	from The Book of Margery Kempe: Proem, Preface, and chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 11; “Contexts: Religious and Spiritual Life”
7. W 9/25	Section intro: “The Renaissance and the Early Seventeenth Century;” Review session on medieval literature
UNIT 2: THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD
8. M 9/30	Wyatt, “Whoso list to hunt” (HANDOUT); Surrey, “Love, that Doth Reign” and “Alas! So All Things Now Do Hold Their Peace;” Appendix: “Reading Poetry”	Response paper
9. W 10/2	Shakespeare, Sonnet (focus: sonnets 1, 18, 105, 116, 129, 130)
10. M 10/7	Marlowe, Dr Faustus Acts 1-2	Sonnet exercise
11. W 10/9	Marlowe, Dr Faustus Acts 3-5
10/14 and 10/16	*No classes: Thanksgiving Reading Week*
12. M 10/21	Discussion of sonnet exercises; Midterm review
13. W 10/23	No class – midterm due by 11:59 tonight	Midterm exam + participation log 1
14. M 10/28	Donne, “The Sun Rising;” “The Canonization;” “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” Herbert, “The Altar;” “Easter Wings”
15. W 10/30	Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 1
16. M 11/4	Paradise Lost, Book 9; Context: “The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century”	Paper 1: Close Reading
UNIT 3: THE RESTORATION AND THE 18^th CENTURY (Weeks 9-12)
	Readings to prepare:	Work due:
17. W 11/6	Behn, Oronooko, first half
18. M 11/11	Behn, Oronooko, second half
19. W 11/13	Pope, The Rape of the Lock
20. M 11/18	Haywood, Fantomina
21. W 11/20	Gray, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”
22. M 11/25	The Interesting Narrative of Oloudah Equiano, ch. 1, 2, 5; Context: “Reactions to Olaudah Equiano’s work”
23. W 11/27	Coleridge, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
24. M 12/2	Final discussion / review session	5-page paper due
Fri. 12/13	[exam week – no classes]	Deadline to upload reading log + participation log 2

Important Policy Information:

Late Work

As a general policy, I will accept late work if you request an extension in advance and I grant it. I also make a priority of working with students who experience unforeseen problems and will often offer make-up opportunities. Please come talk to me if you find you are struggling.

Attendance Policy

See “Participation” under assessments for how attending class (or not) can impact your grade.

Note for Students with Disabilities

The AccessAbility Services office, located on the first floor of the Needles Hall extension (NH 1401), collaborates with all academic departments to arrange appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities without compromising the academic integrity of the curriculum. If you require academic accommodations to lessen the impact of your disability, please register with the AS office at the beginning of each academic term.

Please be aware that “disability” here is a broad category and includes things students sometimes don’t realize can be accommodated, from the cold and flu (with a VIF) to a range of mental health experiences. If you’re having trouble, know that you can definitely come and talk to me.

Academic Integrity

In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the University of Waterloo are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility. See the Office of Academic Integrity webpage for more information.

Discipline

A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity, to avoid committing academic offences, and to take responsibility for his/her actions. Check the Office of Academic Integrity for more information. A student who is unsure whether an action constitutes an offence, or who needs help in learning how to avoid offences (e.g., plagiarism, cheating) or about “rules” for group work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course professor, academic advisor, or the Undergraduate Associate Dean. When misconduct has been found to have occurred, disciplinary penalties will be imposed under Policy 71 – Student Discipline. For information on categories of offenses and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy 71 - Student Discipline. For typical penalties check Guidelines for the Assessment of Penalties.

Grievance

A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of his/her university life has been unfair or unreasonable may have grounds for initiating a grievance. Read Policy 70 - Student Petitions and Grievances, Section 4. When in doubt, please be certain to contact the department’s administrative assistant who will provide further assistance.

Appeals

A decision made or penalty imposed under Policy 70 - Student Petitions and Grievances (other than a petition) or Policy 71 - Student Discipline may be appealed if there is a ground. A student who believes he/she has a ground for an appeal should refer to Policy 72 - Student Appeals.