ENGS 140: Survey of British Literature to 1700

First of all, it looks like you'll have Lafayette 100 for your review session on Thursday night at 7PM. It's not required, and I won't be there (which can be a good thing), but it could be a very helpful study session for the final on Friday.

As regards that exam: in class I announced that you can think of Part III fully as a take-home essay. Write it at home, print it out, and you can bring it to the exam on Friday. That means that you will do only Parts I and II in the classroom. If you don't have time to write your answer to Part III at home, you can still have the option of coming to the exam with a page of notes and writing the essay into a Blue Book. Your choice.

I've been thinking about Part III more specifically as well, and it might be valuable for me to say that I think that the most successful answers will be those that make creative and rather unpredictable connections between the three authors on your panel. Try not to cast too wide a net; don't, for instance, have the topic for discussion be as broad as say, heroism. Try to narrow it down, and seek connections between texts and authors that are interesting, maybe even surprising. Don't just recycle things we've talked about in class; bring your own sense of this material to bear on the assignment. (The rest of the exam need not be so creative--it will be fine in the rest of the exam if you draw heavily--though also thoughtfully and coherently--on class discussion.)

Below is the format for the final exam next Friday as well as the main essay question in full. I've also put it in a pdf format if you'd like to download it as a separate document. Here's the link: Final Exam

Final Examination
English 140 – Section A
December 7, 2007 – 3:30 PM
Professor Lisa Schnell

There are three parts to the exam; you must do all parts of the exam. Complete all of Part I and the first part of Part II on the exam sheet in the spaces indicated. Blue Books are provided for the second part of Part II and for all of Part III.

Follow the instructions carefully for each section but please also take care not to duplicate discussions anywhere on the exam or to duplicate the argument of your term paper (though of course you may choose to talk about works or authors that you have previously discussed). Keep in mind that the course was a survey, and that I am looking for coverage as well as thoughtfulness on this exam—try your best to cover as much material as possible.

You have a full three hours for the exam, though I expect it will take no more than two hours to complete.

Part I
Complete each of the following three sections (A-C).

A. Put the following events in chronological order.
B. Next to each literary form or genre, please provide a title (from the works we studied in this class) that exemplifies that form or genre.
C. Name the author of the following works.

Part II – Identifications and Beyond
There are two parts to this section of the exam; you must answer each part. The first part involves identifying passages; the second part requires short answers in which you will write on two of the passages you’ve identified.

A. Identify 8 of 10 passages with author and title.
B. Choose two of the passages you identified: one must be from the early seventeenth century; the other must be from a Restoration text (Note: Milton can be from either period, but not from both!) Write two to three coherent paragraphs on each passage that address the ways in which the passage (identified by number in your Blue Book) engages in issues specific to its period. Take care to focus your discussion on the passage itself. Be careful, also, not to duplicate the discussion of your term paper. Complete this section of the exam in a Blue Book.

Part III – Authors in Conversation
Imagine that you are organizing a panel discussion for this course. You have a huge budget; in fact, the resources are such that you can actually afford to bring three of the writers back from the grave, three writers from three of the four literary/historical periods of the course (Medieval, sixteenth century, early seventeenth century, and the Restoration). It is entirely up to you to choose the topic and writers for the panel. It is also your responsibility to write the press release for this event. That press release will consist of at least four substantive paragraphs: The first paragraph will name and introduce the topic of the panel in some detail. The three subsequent paragraphs will each introduce a writer and discuss that writer’s specific connection to the topic of the panel (through their life or their work, or a combination of the two) and perhaps their connection to the other two writers. Feel free to add more paragraphs to the press release if you feel so moved. Take care not to duplicate your discussions from Part II.

Note: For this last part of the exam you are allowed to bring in one page (8 ½ x 11) of notes (one side only). You are not allowed to access that page of notes until all of Parts I and II are completed and turned in.

Monday, November 26
On Monday we'll talk about the Restoration and how the Earl of Rochester (shocking--though brilliant--as he is) is an appropriate representative of that period. So read the intros in Volume C of the Norton (new volume!) and the poems by Rochester and we'll talk in general about the Restoration. I'd also like you to consider the fact that, although Paradise Lost appeared in Volume B of the Norton, it was published in 1667 and in, therefore, a Restoration poem. Is that an appropriate designation for Milton's poem? How is it a Restoration poem (I mean in terms of its characteristics, not just in terms of its date)?

Wednesday, November 28
We'll talk first about Aphra Behn--who she was and what she did? What makes her different from the other woman writers we've studied in this course?

In what ways is "The Disappointment" a reply to Rochester's poetry?

I'd also like you to have read the first part of her novella, Oroonoko, by Wednesday. Here are some questions to get us started with that book:

1. Take a look at the NAEL Topic Online Slavery and the Slave Trade. Read the intro and also spend a little time reading some of the primary material in the "Texts and Contexts" section. How would you compare the representation of slavery in the novel with the material you read on the website?

2. Think about the various "heroes" we have encountered in the reading this semester, from Beowulf to Satan. In what sense is Oroonoko, the character, heroic? How does he compare with some of those other heroes?

3. How does the story portray the love between Oroonoko and Imoinda? Why can't their love survive in Surinam?

Friday, November 30
1. Evaluate the grim violence that lies just beneath the surface of civility in Oroonoko. What do you make of it?

2. Consider the narrator's self-representation. How do you explain the contradictions between the adoring biographer, the humble female pen, and the colonist who conveniently disappears when Oroonoko needs her?

3. How does Behn represent political power (either in Coramantien or in Surinam)? What is the basis of authority? What is an abuse of authority?

I'm so sorry I didn't get reading questions up this weekend. No excuses--I just completely forgot in the busy-ness of the weekend. Here are some ideas for the week:

For Monday: Paradise Lost, Book III & Book VI
Change of scene: from Hell we now ascend to Heaven; the first half of Book III is taken up with a "colloquy" between God and the Son (always called the Son by Milton, not Jesus or even Christ). As well as getting a little more background on what happened in Heaven, we get a pretty serious dose of theology (don't let that scare you--it's really interesting, mainly because it's God who's actually doing the talking!). We would call this part of the book the poem's "theodicy," a word meaning--the OED actually quotes Milton in their definition--a "theory intended to 'justify the ways of God to man'." (And even though the OED means "justify" in the sense of prove or show to be just, we know that it's not that simple.) This is where things get very tricky in the poem, and any questions I might ask here will undoubtedly sound leading. So I just want you to think about the issues and struggle through them yourselves.

As well, think about the way Book III begine (the with the Invocation to Light) and ends, with Satan's journey through the cosmos. Think of these in terms of epic conventions--think about the ways in which Milton is revising those conventions for his own ends.

For Book VI, the war in Heaven, it's interesting, again, to think in terms of epic conventions. In what way is Milton playing with the idea of war here? Think about the nature of the battle, of the weaponry, of injury and mortality.

For Wednesday: Book IX
In Book IX we have the Fall. It's a huge book in terms of what happens and we won't even touch a corner of it in 50 minutes. But pay close attention to Satan's soliloquy (look up that word if you dont know what it means) at the the beginning of the book, to the very important conversation between Adam and Eve regarding their temporary separation, and of course to the temptation of Eve by Satan.

For Friday: Book X
In Book X we see the aftermath of the Fall, and it's not pretty. Think about how the nature of conversation has changed between Adam and Eve. What does their conversation accomplish in this book (on what note does the book end)?

Monday, November 3
1. With Katherine Philips we get a female homosociality that is perhaps most similar, in the work we've read so far, to the relationship we encountered between Portia and Nerissa in Merchant of Venice. Given what you know about society and culture in the seventeenth century, what do you make of those relationships in Philips? How do you account for them?

2. In the extra Philips poem I handed out for you to read when we were doing Donne, "Friendship in Emblem," is a conceit you should now be familiar with? How does it work in this instance?

Wednesday, November 7
In all three of the poems by Andrew Marvell you're reading for today the natural world figures quite highly. In "To His Coy Mistress" (perhaps the most popular of Marvell's poems) the speaker refers to his feelings for his mistress as "vegetable love." More prominent, though, are the gardens of the other two poems: the little girl of "The Picture of Little T.C." is described in a garden, and we need only look as far as the title of the other poem to find a garden. If you look through the titles of other Marvell poems you will find a similar preoccupation: "Damon the Mower," "The Mower Against Gardens," etc. What do you make of this? What is the nature of Marvell's preoccupation? How do women (and girls) figure in this preoccupation?

Friday, November 9

Today marks the beginning of the four class periods we will devote to selections from John Milton's Paradise Lost, considered by many (myself included) to be the greatest literary achievement in the English language. Make sure you read the bio of Milton and the introduction to the poem in the Norton. Then read Books 1 and 2 of the epic: pp. 1831-71 in the Norton. Here are a few questions to get us started:
1. What kind of verse does Milton use for the epic? What poetic meter does he use for the poem?
2. What is a muse? Who are the Muses (look it up)? Who is Milton's muse?
3. What are some of the conventions of epic (do a little online research for this one--check out http://spider.georgetowncollege.edu/english/allen/epicconv.htm)? In what ways do the first two books (and especially the first lines) of the poem conform (or not) to those conventions?
4. What is the main verb of the first sentence of the poem (not the first line, the first grammatical sentence)? What do you make of its placement?
5. Look up the word "justify" in the OED (http://oed.com from a UVM computer). What do you find there? How does it complicate your sense of Milton's desire to "justify the ways of God to man"?
6. From there we'll broaden out our focus to talk chiefly about the portrayal of Satan in the rest of Book 1 and in Book 2. So I want you to think about Satan as a character--what are some of his most powerful lines in this Book? What do you make of him? Do you like him? If so, why? If not, why not?

Here is an image of the titlepage to Ben Jonson's 1616 Works:

For comparison's sake, here is an image of the titlepage to the 1599 edition of Romeo and Juliet

It occurs to me that, as much as I'd like to have the grading done before we break for Thanksgiving, the due date of November 9 for the term paper is coming just a little too quickly on the heels of midterms. So . . . how about we adjust the due date forward a week and have the paper due on Friday the 16th of November by 5PM (and absolutely no electronic copies--hard copies only).

If you'd like to see me to talk about your paper please check my office hours blog and email me back to sign up for a time:
http://lschnell.blog.uvm.edu

Another woman poet this week, and an important female diarist. Actually, if you do the accounting you'll find that of the twelve post-1603 writers that we will study in this course, five of them are women. It's a sign that while it was still not easy for women to be writing and publishing their work, many more of them were doing so anyway, and doing so extremely well. I remind you once again to be sure to read the valuable biographical introductions for this week's poets.

Monday, October 29 - Aemilia Lanyer
1. What is Lanyer's argument in "Eve's Apology in Defense of Women"? Paraphrase it in your own words.

2. What is a "country-house poem"? What are its salient characteristics?

2. Do a little homework and tell me, after perusing information about the Clifford family on the NAEL website (Two Households and Anne Clifford's Diary), how the Clifford situation relates to and resonates with Lanyer's "The Description of Cookham."

Wednesday, October 31 - Ben Jonson
1. Read a few of Jonson's epigrams (they begin on p. 1427). How would you characterize these brief poems? (It might help to compare them to Donne's or Herbert's poems--in what ways is Jonson different from Donne or Herbert?)

2. How does Jonson's "To Penshurst" compare with Lanyer's "The Description of Cookham"? Think perhaps especially of the way in which women figure in the two poems.

Friday, November 2
1. What is an "elegy"? Which of the poems you are to read for Friday are elegies? And here is that Donne/Herbert question back for an encore: what is the status of the self in Jonson? Think about this question particularly in relation to the elegies.

Just a reminder that Stanley Fish will be giving a talk on campus on Tuesday this week (October 23). It's called "Save The World On Your Own Time: What College and University Teachers Should and Shouldn't Do" and it's in the Davis Center's Silver Maple Ballroom at 4 PM. It's free and open to the public.

I'll be handing midterms back on Wednesday. Not that any of you will want to exercise this option, but the last day for withdrawing from a class is Friday, October 26 (this Friday). If you need to talk to me about your status in the course after you've gotten your midterm back, I'll be in my office on Thursday morning. I'll also be available after class on Friday.

Some of you have been asking about the term paper; specifically, can you write on the same text that you discussed on the midterm? The answer is yes, and no. Yes, you may write on a text that you discussed on the midterm; no, you may not duplicate the discussion of your midterm.

The term paper is due in a little over two weeks--on November 9. Topics are on the blog (look several posts down). Now is the time to start asking questions about the paper--don't leave it until the last minute.

This week we'll be spending time with the incomparable George Herbert. Don't be fooled by him: the poems seem to be simple devotional poems, but, just like Julian of Norwich, they are enormously and wonderfully complex--as you will see. We will also have a very special guest on Wednesday in Stanley Fish, who will come to class to talk about three particular Herbert poems: "The Forerunners," "The Holdfast," and "Aaron." The first two are in the Norton; "Aaron" I will give you on Monday in class. Here are few questions for you to consider:

Monday, October 22
1. Like Donne's "The Canonization" we might be tempted to read "Affliction (I)" autobiographically. Why?

2. Both "Redemption" and "Prayer (I)" are sonnets. What do you make of that? How does Herbert play with sonnet conventions?

Wednesday, October 24
Do the reading for Wednesday--"The Holdfast," "The Forerunners," and "Aaron." Professor Fish will lecture.

Friday, October 26
A big question, but really the question for Herbert (as it has been a prominent question for many of the poets we've recently been studying): what is the status of the self in Herbert's poetry? Think especially of the poems you're reading for today. What are the various factors that come in to the enormously complicated sense of self in Herbert? (Professor Fish's lecture will likely help you with this question--take good notes!)