"And after a very little pause, the King stretching forth his hands, the executioner at one blow severed his head from his body."
--Nathaniel Crouch, The Wars in England, Scotland and Ireland.

In 1649, following a decade of civil war, the divinely anointed King Charles I was executed in the name of Parliament and the English nation; the monarchy was abolished. These events perhaps most spectacularly mark the seventeenth century as emergently "modern." We'll ask what this "modernity" meant and how the writers we are reading viewed the changes they saw around them. What was being severed in England along with the king, and what was being put (and by or for whom) in its place? The readings for the course are arranged roughly chronologically, but we'll also be concerned with a set of related issues that run through the period: changes in social and gender relations, religious reformation and conflict, the place of new science and new worlds, both colonial and urban. We'll ask not only how these issues are represented in our readings, but how also they affect the very means of representation in the varying form of the works.

Course requirements: a presentation, reading responses, three papers and a take-home final

Schedule of readings (subject to change)
 

W Jan. 23	Course introduction

SOME WAYS OF READING

M Jan.28	Cleanth Brooks, "The Language of Paradox" (P); Donne, "The Canonization" (106-107)
W Jan 30	Lee Patterson, "Literary History" (P); Donne, "Elegy VII" ; Makin, "An Essay to Revive the Ancient Education of Gentlewomen" (425-433)

COURT POETRY

M Feb. 4	Campion, x from A Book of Airs (71) and vii from The Fourth Book of Airs (72-73); Donne, "The Good-morrow" (103-104), "Farewell to Love" (111), "Confined Love" (107), "The Apparition" (103)
W Feb. 6	Donne, "The Sunne Rising" (106), "The Indifferent" 104-105), "The Anniversary" (105), "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" (112), "The Ecstacy" (109-110)
M Feb. 11	"Donne, Loves Alchymie" (104),"The Flea" (103), "Elegy VI" (114), "Elegy 19: Going To Bed" (117-118)
W Feb. 13	Jonson, "To the Reader" (146), "On Something that Walks Somewhere" (147), "To William Camden" (147), "On Lucy, Countess of Bedford" (148), "To Sir Thomas Roe" (149), "Inviting a Friend to Supper" (149-150), "To Penshurst" (150-152)
M Feb. 18	Jonson, "Song: To Celia" (152), "Clerimont's Song" (162-63), "A Celebration of Charis in Ten Lyric Pieces" (P)

NEW WORLDS

W Feb. 20	Three voyages: Jonson "On the Famous Voyage" (P); from John Smith, Proceedings of the English Colony (P); Drayton, " To the Virginian Voyage" (63-64)	Paper 1 assigned (5 pp)
M Feb. 25	Bacon, New Atlantis, NA, 36-68
W Feb. 27	Bacon, New Atlantis, NA, 69-83; Bacon, "Of Simulation and Dissimulation" (in Broadview Anthology, 26-27)	Paper 1 exchange
M March 4	Bacon, Great Instauration, NA, 5-32

REFORMATION AND REACTION

W March 6	Weber, from The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (P); Lawrence Clarkson, "The Lost Sheep Found" (713-719); Margaret Fell, "Women's Speaking Justified" (705-710); Edward, "Gangraena" (407-408); Watkyns, "The Anabaptist" (701) "The New Illiterate Lay-Teachers (702-703); Francis Quarles, "Eclogue VIII" (347-353); Milton, "On the New Forcers of Conscience" (523)	Paper 1 due
Spring Break
M March 18	Donne "Holy Sonnets," #s 1-11 (122-125)
W March 20	Donne, poems on pp. 125-28, from Devotions: Upon Emergent Occasions, "XVII. Meditation" (130-31)
M March 25	Herbert poems on pp. 363-66, "The Windows" (367), "Denial" (367), "Virtue" (369), "The Pearl" (369), "Jordan (II)" (371), poems pp. 376-377, "Love (III)" (379), "L'Envoy" (379); Marvell, "The Coronet" (832)
W March 27	Crashaw, "A Hymn to the Name and Honour of the Admirable Saint Teresa (660-663)"; Lanyer, Salve Deus Rex Judeorum (84-93)	Paper 2 assigned (5 pp)
M April 1	Corbett, "A Proper New Ballad" (223-24); Herrick, "The Argument of His Book" (309-310), "When He Would Have His Verses Read" (310), "Corinna's Going A-Maying" (311-313), "The Hock Cart" (314-315), "His Return to London" (320), "To Meadows" (316), "His Prayer to Ben Jonson" (319), "The Bad Season Makes the Poet Sad" (320)
W April 3	Herrick, "Upon the Loss of His Mistresses" (310), "Cherry-Ripe" (310), "Delight in Disorder" (311), "To Dianeme" (311), "To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time" (314), "Fresh Crean and Cheese" (318), "Upon Julia's Clothes" (321); Carew, "A Rapture" (382-384); Suckling, "Song" (597) "The Constant Lover" (599-600), "Sonnets I-III" (600-601)	Paper 2 exchange

REFLECTIONS ON A REVOLUTION

M April 8	Marvell, "To His Coy Mistress" (834-836), "The Definition of Love" (833-834), "The Garden" (855-856), "The Gallery" (832), "Bermudas" (863), "Mower" poems on pp. 858-60
W April 10	Marvell "The Nymph Complaining" (838-840), "An Horatian Ode" (835-837)	Paper 2 due
M April 15	Denham, "Cooper's Hill,"; Hobbes, from Leviathan, chapter XVII (pp. 243-46) Winstanley, pp.632-638
W April 17	Samson Agonistes, prefatory material and lines 1-471 (pp. 524-533)
M April 22	Stone, Family, Sex and Marriage in England, 1500-1800 (P); Milton, Samson Agonistes, lines 472-1061 (pp. 533-542)

A RESTORATION?

W April 24	Milton, Samson Agonistes, 1061-1758 (pp. 542-533)	Paper 3 assigned (5 pp)
M April 29	Behn, Oroonoko, or The Royal Slave O, 1-57
W May 1	Behn, Oroonoko, or The Royal Slave O, 57-73	Paper 3 exchange
M May 6	Wrap-up
W May 8	No class	Paper 3 due

Other important dates:
 

Jan 29:	Last day to drop a course with no tuition liability
Feb 5, 8pm:	Last day to add a course
Feb. 13	Last day to drop a course (full semester courses only)

Course policies:
Readings:
The readings for each class are due on the date listed above. Approach each assignment actively by always reading with a pen or pencil in hand. Note words, phrases or sentences that interest you, that seem significant in the context of the work, or that you have questions about. Jot down in the margins any questions or ideas you have about a particular point or the work as a whole. This practice will help you come prepared to discuss the readings in class and get the most out of class discussion; it will also help you become a more skillful reader of literary texts in general.

Participation
and Attendance:
There will be some historical background presented as lecture, but the class will mainly be conducted as a seminar. As much as possible we will open up the class to discussion, to observations about the ideas presented in a text, about its style, its uses of language, its puzzling qualities--whatever grabs our attention. I am interested in your ideas. Contribution to class discussion will not be formally calculated into grades, but I will take participation into account for grades that are borderline. If you aren't in class, you can't participate in discussion, nor will active class participation wholly excuse excessive absences.

Reading Responses:
The reading responses are meant to help you read carefully, to prepare for class discussion and to aid you in finding starting points for your essays. A reading response should either ask a question about or observe some aspect of the day's reading that is not answerable by a fact. For example, a question about what happens in a poem's narrative would not be appropriate while an observation about the use of a certain image or the reasons behind a puzzling sequence of events in the narrative would be. You may also wish to speculate about how your question or observation would matter for other moments in the text, or why it seems an important matter to consider. A reading response of a half page to a page will be required for each day's reading, and collected at the end of class (the responses need not be typed). I will frequently begin class by asking some of you to read out your responses. I will read all your responses and grade them on a credit/no credit basis. They will get credit if they are turned in at the end of class and meet the criteria above. Grading will be based on the number of no credits: 0-3=A; 4-5=B; 6-7=C; 8-9=D; 10 or more=F. I will also use reading responses to keep track of who was in class for a particular day, so if you were in class but did not do a response (say it's not so!) let me know you were there.
 

Presentations:
An assumption of this course will be that in interpreting the texts we read we'll want to know something about who produced them and for what reasons. To this end, I'll ask you each to provide a presentation on one of the writers we're reading. These might focus particularly on the relationship of a relevant event in the writer's life to the readings for the day, or the author's social/political position, or on the particular situation in which the author wrote: how did the author conceive of himself as a writer? Why and for what audience was he writing? Don't try to answer all these questions though, or give a complete biography of the writer. Instead, focus on some aspect of the writer's life or situation that seems worth pursuing for the class. The presentation should be about five minutes long. Some sources that can provide you with quick biographical information: the Dictionary of National Biography, introductions to individual editions of a particular author's works, and surveys of seventeenth-century literature. You might also consult, but don't have to, individual biographies.

Paper Deadlines:
Each paper will be due twice: the first time in class at the paper workshop scheduled one week after each paper is assigned, and the second time one week following that. During the workshop you'll have a chance to trade papers with fellow students and raise questions or give each other suggestions for revision. You'll have the second week to revise your paper, based on this input and on your own rethinking and rewriting. The second week after the paper is assigned both the revised and original version of the paper will be handed in to me. I hope that this system will build revision, so necessary to good writing, into the structure of the course.

Late papers: You need to have your first paper done on time so that you can work on it in the paper workshop. I also expect that the final versions will be handed in on time. Late final versions will be graded down a half grade for each day late. On late first versions, see below under "paper standards."

Paper Standards (final and first versions):
Each paper should be typed with standard margins, spacing and type size. It should be carefully proofread and neatly presented. The paper topics will relate to issues we have discussed in class, and you are encouraged to bring to bear class discussion in your writing. You are also encouraged to expand on these discussions and credit will be given for new ideas. You may set your own topic, but you should talk it over with me first.

I'll grade the paper on basis of the revised version only, but I will expect the original version to be your best initial attempt at the topic. Original versions not done, not typed or obviously incomplete will result in a half letter grade reduction in the evaluation of the final paper. It would not be fair for other students to have to read work that is not your best; additionally, it is in your interest to write as good an original version as possible, so that your second version is even better. Remember that because everyone has two tries at the paper, I will accordingly have higher expectations for the final version.

Paper Helps:
During the scheduled workshops, you'll have a chance to give and get advice on your papers. Additionally, I encourage you to come see me at my office hours or to make an appointment to see me. When we meet, try to have a draft of the paper you are working on. This will give us something more concrete to talk about. There is also available a Writing Center at Robinson A114 that can provide you with further individual attention to your writing. I encourage you to take advantage of this excellent facility.

I would also suggest that you give yourself plenty of time to work. Writing a paper at one sitting is, for most people, unpleasant, and the results are not likely to be satisfactory. Start early!

Plagiarism:
Since this class emphasizes the development of your own close reading and interpretive skills, you are not encouraged to consult secondary sources. If you do choose to look at such work, however, you must cite, using a standard citation format, all the articles, books or other sources that your own writing draws on, either directly or indirectly. Such sources include (but are not limited to) introductions to editions of the texts we're reading and any kind study aid.

Also note that uncited sources will constitute plagiarism even if they ended up in your work without your conscious knowledge (e.g. you forgot you read the material; you confused your own notes with notes on a source), since part of the scholarly responsibility that comes with using secondary sources is keeping track of which words or ideas were yours and which came from a source. If you do not wish to take on this responsibility then you should not consult secondary sources.

I will take all suspected cases of plagiarism to the Honor Committee.

Final:
The final will be a take-home essay that will somewhat emphasize the reading that you have not had a chance to address in your papers, as well as require you to recall and relate ideas from the semester as a whole.

Grading:
The final grade will be derived as follows:
 

Presentation	7 %
Reading responses	12 %
First paper	16 %
Second paper	22%
Third paper	22 %
Final	21 %

Please come see me if you have any questions about grading, the syllabus or the class. I look forward to having the chance to meet you. Best wishes for a good semester!
 
 

A Specific, complex and/or striking thesis, thesis developed without digression through the course of the paper, consistently precise, sensitive and/or striking interpretations of the text, crafted prose, no major mechanical problems

B Specific thesis, thesis generally developed through the course of the paper, consistently good interpretation of text, competent prose, minor mechanical problems

C Has a thesis, but one that needs greater specificity or complexity, thesis developed with some digression or repetition, some good interpretation, some mechanical problems

D Very general thesis, thesis development digressive or repetitive, plot summary or thoughts/speculations not based on textual evidence, major mechanical problems

F No thesis or thesis development