English 514:  Elizabethan Literature

Spring 2014 (TR, 2:00-3:15)

Course Description:  English 514—offered for graduate and undergraduate credit and centered on three main figures:  Edmund Spenser, Christopher Marlowe, and William Shakespeare—surveys poetry, prose narratives, drama, and critical theory of the Elizabethan period (1558–1603).  The course divides into three units: 

• The first unit uses Philip Sidney’s An Apology for Poetry to set a context for the works of Edmund Spenser.
• Unit two relates the works of Marlowe to Christian martyrology and travel literature.
• Unit Three considers Shakespeare’s nondramatic poetry in connection with works on love and works by women (especially the work of Anne Lock, whose prose one of my former students called “the most beautiful thing I’ve ever read”).

Requirements:  The course requires a midterm examination to be written in class, four response papers, a longer researched essay, a final examination, and participation.  The midterm and final examinations will be open-book and open-notes, and there will be fewer stages in the paper assignment than there are in my Shakespeare class.  Undergraduates will write four response papers (each a minimum of 2 full pages) and a longer researched essay of at least 8 pages (it may be based on one or more of your response papers).  I will not use a portfolio system, but I will be glad to read your drafts if they are submitted at least a week before the due dates.  Graduate students will have the same requirements, but they will write a slightly longer research paper (at least 12 pages) that uses more sources.

Course Format:  My hope and intention is that we will be able to operate “collegially,” which means with a high degree of student engagement.  I will fill in gaps where gaps need to be filled, but otherwise I will expect you to discuss and discover on your own.  I will provide questions and pose problems in advance (in fact, the daily handouts are already posted on the course website); the rest is largely up to you.  The course will operate almost exclusively on the basis of small- and large-group discussion, and there will be a great emphasis on in-class reports and on out-of-class collaboration.

Critical Issues:  This course may be for you if you find any of the following questions intriguing:  What is the second most important book in Elizabethan England?  Which play provided Shakespeare a model for Prospero in The Tempest?  What happens to persons psychologically and spiritually on their deathbed?  How can one have a “good” death?  Who was the dark lady in Shakespeare’s sonnets?  What is the “shape” of a poet’s career?  What is historical allegory?  What kind of voice did women writers have four centuries ago?  I hope that you will consider joining me  for an exploration of these and other questions.

With all best wishes,

Dr. Fike