English 300
Literary Studies
2:
Spring 2002
Charles Knight, Wheatley 6030
Office Hours MWF 2:30-3:30; M 5:30-6:30
Tel. 287-6723
E-Mail: charles.knight@umb.edu
English 300 introduces students who have already taken English 200 to ways in which literature can be studied historically. This section of English 300 is organized by the broad theme of literature and power. The first section, on power and monarchy, looks at the ways in which Shakespeare’s Richard II explores ideas of monarchy, reflects major political concerns of the Elizabethan period, and served as a model for the ill-fated rebellion of the Earl of Essex. The second section considers the relationships between power and memory, social class and poetry in Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.” The third section, on Elizabeth Gaskill’s novel Mary Barton, sees power from the position of the powerless—workers and women—in nineteenth-century industrial England. The final section explores the power of literature itself by reading Italo Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler as a novel about the production and interpretation of literature. The primary literary works of the course thus include various genres, and they will be read in conjunction with various background materials that help define and focus the historical issues involved. The course is about the relationship between literature and its contexts. Students will write five-to-seven page papers on the historical issues engaged by each of the four major works read.
January 30. Read: Stephen Greenblatt, “The Circulation of Social Energy,” in Shakespearean Negotiations: The Circulation of Social Energy in Renaissance England (Berkeley: University of California, 1988) 1-20 [Packet, available at the Wheatley Copy Center, bin # 011sp02].
Shakespeare’s Context:
February 1. Elizabeth and Monarchy. Queen Elizabeth Chronology.
February 4. Elizabeth and Mary. Read: Wallace MacCaffrey, “The End of Mary
Stuart,” in Elizabeth I (London: Edward Arnold), 1993) 343-54.
Shakespeare’s Play
February 6. Shakespeare, Richard II (Signet), Act I
February 8. Richard II, Act II
February 11. Richard II, Act III
February 13. Richard II, Act IV
February 15. Richard II, Act V. Rules for writing paper topics.
February 18. Holiday.
Shakespeare’s Sources
February 20. Guillaume de Machaut, “Complainte” (photocopy). Richard II Chronology.
February 22. “The Sources of Richard II”; “Selections from Raphael Holinshed, Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland” in Richard II (Signet) 151-90).
February 25. Jean Froissart, “The Downfall of Richard II,” from Chronicles, trs. Geoffrey Brereton (Penguin, 1978) 421-71 [Packet].
February 27. Samuel Daniel, The Civil War, Book II [photocopy].
Shakespeare’s Effect
March 1. Elizabeth and Essex. Read J. E. Neale, “Essex: Nemesis,” in Queen Elizabeth I (London: Jonathan Cape, 1934) 351-75. Suggestions for paper topics due.
March 4. Discussion of Paper Topics.
Gray Web Site; Gray Bibliography
March 6. Thomas Gray, “An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church Yard (London: Dodsley, 1751) [photocopy]. Guide for Writing Papers distributed.
March 8. “Stanza’s wrote in a Country Church-Yard” (The Eton Manuscript) [photocopy]
March 11. The Production of Gray’s “Elegy.” Read: Roger Lonsdale, ed. “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” 103-17 in The Poems of Gray, Collins, and Goldsmith (London: Longman, 1969; New York: Norton, 1972), [packet].
March 13. Reading the Notes: “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” Lonsdale, 117-41 [Packet]. Suggestions for paper topics due.
March 15. Discussion of paper topics on Gray’s “Elegy.” Paper 1 due.
March 25. Frederich Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England (Oxford), “Introduction” (15-31); Manchester (57-86)
March 27. “Single Branches of Industry” (144-96)
March 29. “Labour Movements” (220-47); “The Attitude of the Bourgeoisie Towards the Proletariat (281-302).
April 1. Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton (Broadview) chs. 1-5 (27-93). Paper 2 due.
April 3. Mary Barton chs. 6-10 (94-174)
April 5. Mary Barton chs. 11-16 (175-251)
April 8. Mary Barton chs. 17-22 (252-322)
April 10. Mary Barton chs. 23-31 (323-391)
April 12. Mary Barton chs. 32-38 (395-483). Suggestions for paper topics due.
April 15. Holiday.
April 17. Discussion of paper topics on Mary Barton.
April 19. E. D. Hirsch, Jr., “In Defense of the Author,” from Validity in Interpretation (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1967) 1-23 [Packet].
April 22. Italo Calvino, If on a winter’s night a traveler (Harvest) 3-41
April 24. Calvino 42-90
April 26. Michel Foucault, “The Death of the Author,” in Textual Strategies: Perspectives in Post-Structural Criticism trs. Josué V. Harari (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1979) 141-60 [packet].
April 29. Calvino 91-139. Paper 3 due.
May 1. Calvino 140-209
May 3. Stanley Fish, “Is There a Text in This Class?” in Is There a Text in This Class: The Authority of Interpretive Communities (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1980) 305-21 [packet].
May 6. Calvino 210-60. Suggestions for paper topics due.
May 8-10. Discussion
of paper topics on If on a winter’s night a
traveler.
May 13. Conclusions.
May 20. Paper 4 due.