ENGL 2310 - Course Overview

Writers typically include the Beowulf poet, Gawain poet, Chaucer, Spenser, Sidney, Marlowe, Donne, Jonson, Shakespeare, and Milton.

Instructor: Jonathan D. Evans, Ph.D., Associate Professor, The University of Georgia.

Text: Abrams, ed., The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Major Authors, 7th ed., Norton, 2001.

Recommended Materials: A good full-sized desk dictionary A handbook of literary terms (The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics or A Handbook to Literature by Thrall, Hibbard, and Holman are recommended.)

Course Overview

Introduction

ENGL 2310 covers literature of the Medieval and Renaissance periods (from Beowulf to Paradise Lost), concentrating on major works of literature from the two periods both for the unique qualities of the works themselves and for the relationship of those works to the cultures of their ages. The goals of the course are to give students increased knowledge and understanding of the literature of these periods and of the ways it reveals how people thought and felt about themselves and their world during those times. This knowledge and understanding should help students understand our own times better, since we are to a very large extent the intellectual beneficiaries of these earlier ages.

Collectively, the Medieval and Renaissance periods constitute the most essential elements of the foundation of twentieth-century Western culture. The Medieval period, the high point of European Christian culture, developed a rich and varied literature based on Christian learning, ideas, and principles. Contrary to what many think about the period, it was not in any true sense backward or a "dark age," and much of ancient Classical culture (though not all the Latin, and practically none of the actual Greek texts were known directly) was known and respected. The Renaissance was largely a continuation of the culture of the Medieval period, but new forces, ways of thinking, and ideas about human nature and the universe were beginning to take shape. At the time, the depth and significance of these new ways of thinking were not largely understood; people of the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries would have felt much closer in terms of their general world views to people of the Medieval period than they would have to people of the Modern period. But that such changes were beginning is clear, and from hindsight it is clear that they constituted the beginnings of our modern ways of thinking.

Because this is a correspondence course, most of what you learn you will learn on your own. The key to mastering the material is simple: REREAD. The amount of material to be read is substantial, but manageable. In order to do well in the course, you must read it thoroughly, and this means not only one time thoroughly, but several times. A good procedure is the following: read the assigned material once through, highlighting and making notes as you go, before you look at the lesson questions. Then go through the questions carefully, and reread the material with them in mind. As you start to write your answers to the questions, keep looking back at the material. Ideally then, you should read it again before you do your final revisions of the answers you have written.

Each lesson represents at least one week’s work, assuming you can spend several hours each day on it. Depending on your individual situation and the time you can devote to reading and thinking, it’s quite likely that each lesson represents closer to two weeks’ work. The answers to all the questions in the lessons must be thorough, focused, concise, and well-written. Answer exactly what the question asks. Use details from the literary texts in supporting the general points of your answers. Each lesson consists of three types of questions: short definitions (ten per lesson); four medium-length questions; and either two short essays or one longer essay. The short definitions should be precise and concise: maybe a single word will do, or maybe a sentence or two, but not more than that. The medium-length questions should be answered in a paragraph or two. Short essays should take about two or three pages, maybe five hundred words or so. The longer essays should run about one thousand words. These suggestions as to length are approximate; more important than a specific number of words or pages is a thorough, thoughtful, accurate, and concise coverage of the topic. In all your answers, but most importantly in the essays, your grade will be determined not only by the accuracy and significance of the information you provide but by the quality of your writing. I will expect at least the quality of writing required to pass ENGL 1102. Your essays must be focused, coherent, well-organized and developed, and written with good grammar, diction, punctuation, spelling, and style.

A literary survey such as this is a particularly hard subject to take in the correspondence course mode. But if you will read all the material—the introductory material in the text, the literary works themselves, and the lesson questions—open-mindedly, curiously, and thoughtfully, you will be able to appreciate the power and beauty of some of the finest works of literature that have ever been written.

Final Examination

The general format of the final exam will be similar to that of the lessons: short, medium, and essay-length questions. The first of the short answers focuses specifically on chronology: e.g., dates of works, general time periods, important historical events, etc. The final exam essays will be on broader, more comprehensive topics than those of the individual lessons; these essays will probably require something in the area of fifteen hundred words. Many of the questions will be similar to questions you have answered in the lessons, or they will be restructured versions of those questions.

I will grade your final exam according to the standards of accuracy, conciseness, clarity, and good writing that applied to the lessons. Since you do not have your text or other written material available for the final exam as you did for the lessons, I will not expect specific citations from the works or as much precise factual detail as I did for the lessons. I will expect to see clear evidence of your careful attention to the material you have read for the course and reviewed for the final. I will expect standards of writing appropriate to an in-class theme. Especially for the essay, take time to plan and organize your approach to the topic, and at the end take time to proofread and correct errors. See also the reminders about the final examination following Lesson 9.

You must pass the final to pass the course, regardless of grades earned on lessons. You are responsible for knowing and abiding by Independent Study policies and procedures. See your Student Handbook for detailed information.

Grading

For each lesson, the first five questions (the identifications and the four medium-length questions) count for 60 percent of the grade. The essay or essays count for 40 percent of the grade (i.e., if it’s a lesson with one longer essay, that counts 40 percent; if it’s one with two essays, each counts 20 percent). On the final exam, the chronology questions count a total of 5 percent; the identifications 15 percent; the medium length questions 45 percent; and the essay 35 percent.

The grade for the course will be calculated as follows: the average grade of the lessons (the nine grades added up and divided by nine) will count 50 percent; the final exam grade will count 50 percent.