HC 102H, Honors College World Literature

Changing the landscape of literature: the High Middle Ages to the Enlightenment

Bishop, Winter 2000 | 314 Chapman | (541) 346-0733 | lmbishop@oregon.uoregon.edu
Office hours:

Tuesday, 12:30 pm to 4:30 pm

Thursday, Noon to 1:30 pm

Friday, 1:00 to 2:00 pm

Class hours: Tues, Thurs. 9:30 am to 10:50 am

Click HERE for response paper assignments, click HERE for our Excite Club, click HERE for beginning notes on Troilus and Criseyde

Class listserv | Requirements | Texts | Grading | Reading schedule | Reading guide | Film schedule | Paper format instructions | List of articles for summaries | Response papers guide | Excite Club |

Final exam

Like HC 101H, this class will work to read the literary imagination of the past with sensitivity to history (the past), society (class), individuation (the self), and to evaluate the centrality of narrative to culture. We will assess the invention of love, consider how changes in Early Modern governance, religion, and publication affect the composition, production, and even the definition of literary works, and think about the legacy of Troy, the definition of self , and the changing place of faith. We'll conclude with an analysis of the colonial enterprise and the advent of scientific and economic inquiry, assessing the Enlightenment's message of hope.

Like HC 101H, HC 102H includes writing analysis (composition) with the study of literature. To that end, please be advised of the university's Web-based composition resources. Note the instantaneous availability of the "Handbook for Writers" which links to "Basic Prose Style and Mechanics."

The following texts have been ordered at the University Bookstore (all in Penguin editions except as noted): Dante, La Vita Nuova; Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde (Click here for comments on Criseyde's character); Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier; Thomas More, Utopia; Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida (Oxford),Teresa of Avila's autobiography (the link takes you to a 1964 edition); Swift, Gulliver's Travels; and Voltaire, Candide (Bedford/St. Martin's). You may be able to find these particular editions at Smith Family Books on 13th St.

Class listserv: We have an electronic discussion list shared with Dukehart's HC 108 history class, <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.

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Requirements

• Response papers. You'll write four short response papers this term; 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; 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. Four passing papers will count as a 4.0, three as a 3.0, two as a 2.0, one papers as a 1.0.
• Article summary. During the term, you will read one critical article from a list I provide. Your job is the find the article, xerox it, read it, and summarize it. The first sentence of your summary will be the thesis of the article. Your summary should be about 5 or 6 sentences long (about a paragraph); longer is acceptable. You'll hand in both the article and the summary, typed (you may annotate the article as much as you like). 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. You may choose which article you wish to summarize, but you must hand in your summary by the last class day on which we treat the article's text.
• Graded formal papers. Three four- or five-page papers, each of which will treat a course theme and may use observations originally explored in response papers. Paper 1, due Tuesday, February 1, will treat the fit between poetic form, character, and meaning (using La Vita Nuova and/or Troilus and Criseyde). Paper 2, due Tuesday, February 22, will treat the concept of honor, using The Courtier, Utopia, and/or Troilus and Cressida). Paper 3, on the concepts of science and self, will use Teresa of Avila, Gulliver's Travels, and/or Candide and is due Thursday, March 9. Note paper due dates: papers must be turned in on the date specified.
  
• Final exam. Cumulative, essay, take-home exam due no later than Tuesday, March 14, at 10:00 a.m. (Back to top of page)

Grading

The response papers constitute 15% of your grade; the first two formal paper, 20% each; the last formal paper 25%; the article summary 5%; 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.

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Daily reading schedule

Please read the assigned pages before class	January 6 Introduction Scansion, meaning, poetry, history
January 11 La Vita Nuova Read the entire text; find its dramatic center	January 13 La Vita Nuova Poetry and poets
January 18 Troilus and Criseyde Books 1 and 2: Love and Pandarus Sonnet response paper due	January 20 Troilus and Criseyde Book 3, stanzas 1 to 196, 250-253: consolations
January 25 Troilus and Criseyde Book 4, 165-76, 180-204, 229-43; all of Book 5: Criseyde's choice Character response paper due	January 27 Book of the Courtier, Intro (pp 31-36), pp.49-104 (Book 1), 107-112, 129,134-6, 148-152, 157-8, 199-203 (Book 2)
February 1 Book of the Courtier Book 3; pp. 302-9, 317-20, 324-43 (Book 4) *First formal paper: form and meaning	February 3 Utopia Book 2, up to "Religions"
February 8 Utopia Rest of Book 2, Book 1 Courtly society response paper due	February 10 Troilus and Cressida Acts 1 and 2: The Great Chain of Being
February 15 Troilus and Cressida Acts 3 and 4: Feminine agency Honor response paper due	February 17 Troilus and Cressida Act 5: Honorable endings
February 22 Teresa of Avila Chapters 20-29*Second formal paper: honor	NO CLASS MEETING
February 29 Gulliver's Travels Book 1 Writing and individuality response paper due	March 2 Gulliver's Travels Book 4
March 7 Candide Read the text (30 chapters long) and as much of the Introduction as possible	March 9 Candide The value of the self *Third formal paper: science and self

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Film schedule (in conjunction with the history classes):

Wednesday, January 12, 7 pm: The Seventh Seal
Wednesday, January 26, 7 pm: A Man for All Seasons
Wednesday, February 9, 7 pm: Sor Juana
Wednesday, February 16, 7 pm: Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida
Wednesday, February 23, 7 pm: Ridicule

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: Pay particular attention to Chapters 17, 18, 28, 31, and 33. What are the "rules" of love as Dante outlines them? Do they remain the same, or change? Take one of Dante's sonnet 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 biography?

Troilus and Criseyde and courtly love: The bare bones of the story involve Criseyde, daughter of Calkas (a Trojan prophet who, on hearing Apollo's prophecy that the Greeks will win, stays at the Greek camp while is daughter remains in Troy) and Troilus, son of Priam and brother of Hector. Criseyde's uncle Pandarus helps bring Troilus and Criseyde together. She leaves for the Greek camp in a prisoner exchange arranged at her father's request, promising to return; eventually Troilus sees on Diomede's borrowed armor the brooch he gave Criseyde at their separation. She has fallen for her escort, Diomede. Analyze the "complaints of love" and compare them with Dante's. What is the role of the divine in love? What is Pandarus's role in Book 1? What is his relationship to Troilus? to Criseyde? How does his family connection play out in his actions? Does his role change in later books? How much control does he have over Troilus and Cressida? Locate textual evidence asserting control, both narratively and philosophically. How does this control affect Troilus's final laugh?

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)

Utopia and the ideal society: More first wrote his description of Utopia (Book 2), then added Book 1 and its discussion of court service's merits. How do Books 1 and 2 depend on each other (or do they)? What is the role of religion in Utopia, and what does it reveal? Is Utopia a disciplined, or undisciplined society? Why would More write his book in Latin, rather than English?

Troilus and Cressida and the end of honor: While this play begins with Ulysses enumerating the Great Chain of Being--a symbol for harmony in the universe--the play gives us anything but harmony. On the other hand, the play's references to a classical past, along with that past's importance to England's imperial project, might provide some kind of comfort. Compare the death of Hector with the end of the Iliad; how do you account for Shakespeare's changes? What, in the end, is honor in this play?

Teresa of Avila's Autobiography and the religious self: While the historical Teresa lived in the sixteenth century, her Autobiography was published only after her death. Her canonization in 1622, along with the book's popularity in the seventeenth century (an antidote to secularization?),helps to account for the famous Bernini statue pictured below. In reading Teresa's mystical experiences, assess their power as rhetorical devices both individual and cultural.

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

Candide and the human condition: How do we reconcile skepticism with optimism?

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While it would be ideal for you to read every text in its entirety, you are responsible only for the passages indicated in the reading schedule. Total reading: Troilus and Criseyde, about 230 pages; Courtier, about 180 pages.

Troilus and Criseyde

Book 1	whole thing
Book 2	whole thing
Book 3	stanzas 1 to 196, 250-253
Book 4	stanzas 165-76, 180-204, 229-43
Book 5	whole thing

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

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This page created by Louise M. Bishop | Last updated 8 March 2000