Tudor Renaissance (Spring 2005)

English 4301-2062, 5301-2075

TUDOR RENAISSANCE

Spring 2005

Tuesdays 6-9 p.m.

Irby 310

Dr. R.-J. Frontain

Office: Irby 407

Office Hours: M 3.30-6 p.m., W 12-2.15 p.m., T 3-6 p.m.,

TEXTS

Sir Thomas More, Utopia (second ed.), ed. Robert M. Adams (Norton)

John Skelton, Selected Poems , ed. Gerald Hammond (Routledge)

Sir Philip Sidney’s An Apology for Poetry and Astrophil and Stella: Texts and Contexts, ed. Peter C. Herman (College Publishing)

William Shakespeare, Sonnets, ed. Stephen Booth (Yale UP)

* [Christopher Marlowe, Complete Poems, ed. Mark Thornton Burnett (Everyman)]

* Thomas Nashe, The Unfortunate Traveller and Other Works, ed. J. B. Steane (Penguin)

Edmund Spenser’s Poetry (third ed.), ed. Hugh Maclean and Anne Lake Prescott (Norton)

Sir Philip Sidney, The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia, ed. Maurice Evans (Penguin)

SCHEDULE OF MEETINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS

T 18 Jan. Introduction to Course: Renaissance Humanism

T 25 Jan. More, Utopia

T 1 Feb. Skelton, Selected Poems (pay particular attention to “Bouge of Court,” “Philip Sparrow,” “Tunning of Elinour Rumming,” and “Speak, Parrot”)

T 8 Feb. Sonnet Tradition: Wyatt and Surrey (handouts); Sidney, Astrophil and Stella

T 15 Feb. EXAMINATION #1

Spenser, “Epithalamion” and Amoretti

T 22 Feb. Shakespeare, Sonnets 1, 15, 18, 20, 29, 30, 55, 60, 62, 64, 65, 73, 94, 116, 129, 130, 138, 143, 144, and 146

T 1 Mar. Shakespeare, Sonnets (cont’d): Student Presentations

T 8 Mar. PAPER #1 DUE IN CLASS

Ovidian Tradition: Marlowe’s translations of Ovid’s Amores; Marlowe, “Hero and Leander”; Nashe, “The Choice of Valentines”; and Donne, “Elegy: Going to Bed” (handout)

SPRING RECESS: over recess begin reading Sidney, Arcadia

T 22 Mar. Pastoral Tradition: Spenser, Shepheardes Calender; Marlowe, “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love”

Elizabethan Popular Literature: Nashe, Pierce Penniless his Supplication to the Devil

T 26 Apr. Nashe, Summer’s Last Will and Testament, Lenten Stuff, and Christ’s Tears over Jerusalem

1. Attendance. When a class meets but once a week, a single absence or tardy has serious consequences. Schedule work obligations and domestic commitments accordingly. Class begins promptly at 6 p.m., so students should be seated and ready to begin at that time. No one may leave early. Students are permitted one absence for the semester and must be present the entire 180 minutes not to be counted absent.

2. Papers. The first paper (undergraduates 4-5 typewritten pages, graduate students 5-7 pages) will be a reading of a Shakespeare sonnet not covered in class, in the context of a major theme or operation of Tudor Renaissance literature. The second paper (undergraduates 4-5 typewritten pages, graduate students 7-10 pages) will be a reading of any aspect of Books 4-5 of Sidney’s Arcadia in the context of a major theme or operation of Tudor Renaissance literature. Papers should follow MLA documentation format.

3. 5000-level credit. Graduate students will meet additionally with the instructor to work seminar-style on Sidney’s Apology for or Defense of Poetry, as well as the contextual materials titled “The Quarrel over Poetry” in Sidney. A meeting time will be determined in consultation on the first day of class.

4. Final grade. The final grade will be computed as follows: Examination #1 (15%), Examination #2 (15%), Final Examination (20%), Paper #1 (20%), and Paper #2 (30%). Any penalty due to excessive absence or tardiness will then be assessed.