HC 102H, Honors College World Literature

What's love got to do with it? Literature from the High Middle Ages to the Enlightenment

Bishop, Winter 2002 | 308 Chapman | (541) 346-0733 | lmbishop@oregon.uoregon.edu
Office hours:

Click HERE for response paper assignments

"Discourse: a domain or field of linguistic strategies operating within particular areas of social practice to effect knowledge and pleasure, being produced by and reproducing or reworking power relations between classes, genders and cultures." --Paul Brown, "'This Thing of Darkness I Acknowledge Mine": The Tempest and the Discourse of Colonialism," in Graff and Phelan's Bedford Casebook edition of The Tempest (see below)

Class listserv | Requirements | Texts | Grading | Reading schedule | Reading guide | Paper format instructions | Sign-up list for article summaries | Response papers guide | Summary description

Like HC 101H, HC 102H includes writing analysis (composition) with the study of literature. To that end, please be advised that John Gage's The Shape of Reason provides telling analysis of constructing a thesis and organizing your paper.

The following texts have been ordered at Mother Kali's, 720 East 13th Street (just this side of the Dairy Queen). Please buy the edition selected because we'll be using the critical essays many of them include. Please note: in this paragraph, AUTHOR name links are to remote sites; TITLE links are to Bishop-authored pages. Dante, La Vita Nuova (Notre Dame); Chaucer, The Wife of Bath (St. Martin's/Bedford Casebook); Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier (Penguin); Shakespeare, The Tempest (St. Martin's/Bedford Casebook); Madame de Lafayette, The Princess of Cleves (Norton Critical Edition); Swift, Gulliver's Travels (St. Martin's/Bedford Casebook). The Swift and Chaucer editions include very handy glossaries of literary terms (at the end of each book).

Class listserv: We have an electronic discussion list, <histlit@lists.uoregon.edu>, to which you can subscribe yourself IF you haven't already received a "welcome message." To subscribe, send a message to majordomo@lists.uoregon.edu with the following message:

subscribe histlit
end

and don't forget the "end". Any message sent to HISTLIT goes to every subscriber. Please note--if you hit "r" to "reply" to a message on HISTLIT, your answer will be sent to each subscriber. If you have an issue you wish to discuss privately, please use the individual's e-mail address. Other issues of "netiquette":

• list messages are public property, insofar as the list's medium is owned by the University of Oregon. At the same time, usufruct (the use of what an individual has written) belongs to the writer. Your subscription to the list implies that you intend your words for others on the list, but others cannot use your words OUTSIDE of the list. Other listmember should NOT distribute a message outside of the list membership without permission from the original writer(s).
• please use the list for class-related purposes only;
• ad hominem attacks will not be tolerated, while honest disagreement is part of the intellectual life;
• building on another's message is more salutary than finding fault;
• remember that irony does not translate well on electronic media.

Want to read a couple of my postings to HISTLIT, 1998-99? Here.

(Back to top of page)

Requirements

• Response papers. You'll write three short response papers this term, between 250 and 500 words each. These papers, and the formal papers, will be thematically- as well as textually-oriented. These are formal papers in the sense that spelling, grammar, and thinking count--all papers must be neat, typed, revised, finished, and proofread. At the same time, these are papers in which to try out ideas, to experiment and challenge yourself intellectually. I will read these papers, comment on them, and grade them pass/no pass. A passing paper requires a strong thesis, cogent evidence, and NO grammatical errors. No-pass response papers may be rewritten but MUST be handed back to me within a week. Three passing papers will count as a 4.0, two as a 2.0, one paper as a 1.0.
• Article responses. During the term, you will read, summarize, and comment on two critical articles from two of our four texts that include such articles: The Wife of Bath, The Tempest, The Princess of Cleves, and Gulliver's Travels. The first sentence of your summary will be the thesis of the article. Your summary should be at least 5 or 6 sentences long (about a paragraph); longer is acceptable. Following the summary, you'll respond to the article: how did it enrich your experience of reading the text? How did it shift your ideas about literary criticism or literature? What further questions do you now have of the text? You may discuss your article with others writing on the same article or other articles--in fact, I encourage you to do so. At the same time, the summary must be your own work. These responses, like the other responses, will be graded Pass/No Pass, and you have one week in which to rewrite No Pass summaries. See the schedule for summary due dates.
• Graded formal papers. Two 1250-1500 word essays, each of which will treat a course theme and may use observations originally explored in response (and article summary) papers. Paper 1, due Thursday, January 31, will treat the fit between poetic form, character, and meaning (using La Vita Nuova and/or The Wife of Bath). Paper 2, due Thursday, March 14, will treat love and the court using The Courtier and/or The Tempest, or the exploration of love using The Princess of Cleves and/or Gulliver's Travels. Note paper due dates: papers must be turned in on the date specified.
• Final exam. Cumulative, essay, take-home exam due no later than Thursday, March 21, at 10:00 a.m. (Back to top of page)

Grading

The response papers constitute 15% of your grade; the two formal papers, 30% each; the article summaries 10%; and the final exam will constitute 15% of your grade. Please note the University's "grade point value" system effective 9/90, as I will be using this system (unless otherwise noted):

A+ = 4.3	B+ = 3.3	C+ = 2.3	D+ = 1.3
A = 4.0	B = 3.0	C = 2.0	D = 1.0
A- = 3.7	B- = 2.7	C- = 1.7	D- = 0.7

Note that a grade of "C" is, according to academic regulations, "satisfactory," while a "B" is "good." That means that a "B" is better than average, better than satisfactory, better than adequate. The average grade, then, is a "C"; a grade of "B" requires effort and accomplishment.

(Back to top of page)

Daily reading schedule Please read the assigned pages before class

January 8 Introduction : Scansion, meaning, poetry, history	January 10 La Vita Nuova: the year 1292, allegory, numbers, and love. Be sure to read the introduction and through page 81. La Comtessa de Dia poem; Guido Cavalcanti poem
January 15 La Vita Nuova Poetry as experience, experience as poetry: be sure to have read the entire text	January 17 La Vita Nuova Transcendent and immanent love, experiential and ideal Sonnet response paper due
January 22 The Wife of Bath Read the biographical and historical introduction, pp. 3-17, manuscript and linguistic introduction, pp. 28-41, and the PROLOGUE, pp. 42-73	January 24 The Wife of Bath Read her TALE, pp. 73-85, Character response paper due
January 29 The Wife of Bath Read the "critical history" (pp. 89-111) Article summary due	January 31 Book of the Courtier, Intro (pp 31-36), pp.49-104 (Book 1) *First formal paper due: form and meaning
February 5 Book of the Courtier pp. 107-112, 129,134-6, 148-152, 157-8, 199-203 (Book 2) A call for the modern	February 7 Book of the Courtier Book 3 and the woman courtier
February 12 Book of the Courtier pp. 302-9, 317-20, 324-43 (Book 4) Bembo and love Courtly society response paper due	February 14 The Tempest Acts 1 and 2: Families and power
February 19 The Tempest Acts 3 and 4: Article summary due	February 21 The Tempest Act 5: Colonialism response paper due
February 26Princess of Cleves Love and marriage	February 28 Princess of Cleves Article summary due
March 5 Gulliver's Travels Book 3 Sciences and the self	March 7 Gulliver's Travels Book 4 Novel love response paper due
March 12 Gulliver's Travels Article summary due	March 14 Gulliver's Travels *Second formal paper due: Shifted Love?

(Back to top of page)

Reading guide

The following questions are meant to complement your reading of the text. They are the central questions we'll be discussing in class. At the same time, be aware that not every question will be answered, and many questions cross over from one text to the next.

La Vita Nuova and the sonnet: What are the "rules" of love as Dante outlines them? Do they remain the same, or change? Take one of Dante's sonnets and paraphrase it. What is the sonnet's theme? How does the poem give its effect? How does it fit with the narrative surrounding it? Use your poem as a way to discuss Dante's purpose in writing La Vita Nuova. What is the center of Dante's text? What is the place of poetry in (auto)biography?

The Wife of Bath and antifeminism: Think about the many layers this text contains: a male poet masquerading as a male pilgrim masquerading as a woman answering strident misogynistic texts--and that's just the Prologue. Think about the connections between the Wife's narrative and her disquisitions. Why would Chaucer complicate this portrait in this way?

The Courtier and constructing a self: The sparkling conversations recounted by Castiglione portray the refined, courtly, erudite, and convivial atmosphere of the Italian Renaissance. What do Castiglione's conversationalists list as the attributes of the courtier? Why would these attributes be important to them? What is the relationship between surface and interior in The Courtier? How does Bembo's sermon on love (Book 4, pp 324-43) fit the medieval courtly milieu?(Back to Reading Schedule)

The Tempest and the court adrift: The Tempest has sparked numbers of critics to read its colonial intentions negatively; others have argued that Shakespeare transcends politics. Why would a play be the place where such passions are engaged?

The Princess de Cleves and novel love: What effect does Lafayette's placing her novel a century earlier than her contemporary situation have in your assessment of the novel's veracity? Its realism? Its power?

Gulliver's Travels and the human condition: How do you account for Gulliver's attitude towards (and Swift's satire of) science expressed in Book 3, describing the island of Laputa? How do you explain Gulliver's insanity in Book 4?

(Back to Reading schedule)

While it would be ideal for you to read this text in its entirety, you are responsible only for the passages indicated in the reading schedule. Total reading of Courtier, about 180 pages.

The Courtier
read the intro, too!

Book 1	pages 49-104
Book 2	pages 107-112, 129, 134-6, 148-152, 157-8, 199-203
Book 3	whole thing
Book 4	pages 302-9, 317-20, 324-43

Back to top of page | Back to Bishop Home Page |
This page created by Louise M. Bishop | Last updated 5 January 2002