English 204: Introduction

I. Subjects of the Course—relation to Core I

A. The romance of reading—detecting, decoding and deciphering

1. Humanism and rhetoric; education based on reading great books--bonae litterae

a) Gerrit Dou [book is Bible, boy is Grandson of King James]

2. Texts and authors

a) Thomas More

b) Sir Walter Raleigh

c) Christopher Marlowe

e) Elizabeth Tudor

f) William Shakespeare

h) Francis Bacon

i) John Donne

j) George Herbert

k) Mary Wroth

l) Andrew Marvell

m) John Milton

n) Ann Bradstreet

3. Cultural tradition: continuity and change

a) allusion, imitation, transformation

b) the classics(e.g.Utopia), and the book of nature(Bacon)

c) the sacred and the secular (David)

4. Comprehension and insight

a) Parsing a text—reading and rereading [structural paradigm]

b) literary forms and styles

(1) lyric, drama, epic, history

c) sound and sense

(1) metrics, word painting

d) literal and figurative thinking

(1) metaphor, emblem and conceit

(2) irony, ambiguity and wit

(3) error and misprision

e) George Wither

B. History—the presence of the past

1. Value and reconstruction of the past—then and now

2. 16^th and 17^th Centuries: Tudors, Stuarts and Puritans; Catholics and Protestants,

3. Renaissance, Reformation, and Early Modern

4. New England and Old—America, Utopia, Colonialism

5. Economics, politics, technology and culture

6. Documents and interpretations

C. Authority and rebellion: Political, religious, familial and scientific

1. Absolutism vs. Individualism; monarchy and democracy, patriarchy and feminism, generational strife

2. Staying within limits vs. exploration

3. Course Emblem -"instauration"=      1. The action of restoring or repairing; restoration, renovation, renewal.  2. Institution, founding, establishment. The Latin phrase at the bottom from the Book of Daniel means: "Many will pass through and knowledge will be increased."

D. Subjectivity and feeling

1. Love and desire

2. Spiritual longing and fulfillment

3. Pastoral—beauty and innocence [45 minutes]

II. Workload and Assignments

A. Hard reading, quality and quantity—quizzes and exam

1. Norton Anthology

2. Shakespeare, Henry V

3. Printouts of texts on website

B. Writing—four shorter papers, one longer one; conferences and rewrites

C. Creative project