In Class
- Course introduction.
- Setting up learning logs.
- First learning log entries: why should anyone study the very earliest literary works in English?
- After class: begin reading assignments.
Blackboard Thursday
- Go into Blackboard Discussion Board, find the Thursday Forum, and create a Thread for yourself.
- Post your first Blackboard Thursday entry. Instructions are located at the BB Thurs. site.
- Aquaint yourself with our Homepage and all course links.
- Be reading all assignments due for the 31st. Read actively— mark your texts; jot notes; formulate questions.
- Oh, and take a look at: A Word to My Students.
Before Class
Read in Norton, Vol. 1: "The Middle Ages," pp. 1-7 and pp. 22-23.
"Bede and 'Caedmon's Hymn,'" pp. 24-27.
"The Dream of the Rood," pp. 27-29.
Beowulf, pp. 29-99.
"The Wanderer," pp. 111-113.
"The Wife's Lament," pp. 113-114.
Listen to audio selections in NLO--try to hear as many as you can.
In Class
- Perspectives on reading lit, drawing on BB Thurs. postings.
- Old English and OE prosody.
- Read shorter works aloud.
- Begin work with Beowulf.
Blackboard Thursday
Post original poem in alliterative verse, at least 50 lines long. See our BB Thurs. site for full instructions.
Full BB Thurs. instructions for each week are in the BB Thurs Forum.
Take a look at Form and Poetry. We also have a Power Point version of this material in Blackboard.
Also click here for a quick reference sheet on Old English prosody. (A hardcopy will be handed out in class.)
Canterbury
Before Class (fairly heavy reading this week!)
Read in Norton:
- Middle English Lyrics, pp. 436-437. Click here for additional lyrics, including one called, "In Praise of Brunettes"!
- Chaucer: read all introductory material in your text on Chaucer, pp. 213-218; skim "The General Prologue" (be sure to read the bracketed note at the bottom of p. 238); then read all of "The Miller's Tale," p. 239-255 and "The Wife of Bath's Tale," pp. 256-284.
Go online and listen to Old and Middle English audio! Click here.
In Class
- Examine timeline, discuss form, finish film, llisten to Middle English on audio.
- Work with Chaucer.
Blackboard Thursday
Full instructions for all BB Thurs. work are in the BB Thurs. Forum of our Discussion Board.
Before Class
In Norton, read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, pp. 160-213.
If interested, check out:
If you haven't already, take a look at Form and Poetry. (You can also view a Power Point presentation in Blackboard on the same material.)
In Class
Gawain worksheet.
Blackboard Thursday
This week's assignment is to continue and complete the group worksheet begun on Tues. the 14th. The group's secretary will post a copy in a Thread of the "Sir Gawain and Topics in Medieval Lit" Forum, and each group member will post a copy to their personal threads for BB Thurs.
Before Class
In Class
Groups present on BB Thurs. work from previous week.
Begin collaborative timelines of 16th century.
Blackboard Thursday
See "Weekly Instructions," as always, in our BB Thurs. Forum.
Before Class
Take electronic quiz on the Middle Ages at Norton Topics Online.
In Class
Pre-reading Hamlet and the bard.
Blackboard Thursday
For this week you will do a little research into one of the questions raised in class on the 28th. See our BB Thurs. area of Blackboard for full instructions.
Before Class
Read all of Hamlet.
In Class
Blackboard Thursday
Hunt down 2 film versions of Hamlet and watch them, keeping in mind questions which will be emailed Oct. 6th.
Before Class
Be sure to watch your 2 film versions of Hamlet.
You might be interested in this review of a Peter Brook Hamlet: click here.
In Class
Ok--what was your film experience? How did the film medium affect your understanding of the play? How, in particular, was SETTING distinct in each film you saw?
Elizabethan cosmology.
Blackboard Thursday
Questions, as always, are in our BB Thurs. Forum.
Before Class
If you like, be reading ahead in Norton: Herbert, Donne, Herrick .
Review Hamlet, re-reading passages in light of issues discussed on the 12th and BB Thurs. questions for the 14th.
In Class
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Review BB Thurs. work from last week.
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Close reading of Act I for motifs.
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Formalist analysis: identifying a topic and thesis for possible paper.
Blackboard Thursday
This week's work will be reading notes on Moore and Herrick. See BB Thurs. Forum for instructions.
Before Class
- Read Moore's Utopia, Book 2, pp. 545-589.
Then:
- Read "The Early Seventeenth Century, 1603-1660," pp. 1235-1259.
- Read all of Herrick in your Norton, pp. 1653-1666, as well as THESE POEMS.
In Class: REVISED; We will hold a "cyber class" today!
- Intensive work with Moore and Herrick. (See this week's BB Thurs. assignments.)
Blackboard Thursday
Complete group worksheet on Utopia.
Complete independent worksheet on Herrick.
Full instructions are in "Weekly Assignments" in our BB Thurs. Forum.
Before Class
- Read all of Herbert in your Nortion, pp. 1605-1625, as well as additional poems in a .pdf file in Blackboard (go to Power Point Presentations and Other Docs).
- Read all of Donne's poems in your Norton, pp. 1260-1302.
- Click here for some additional Herbert poems.
In Class
- Intensive work with Herbert and Donne.
- Have Learning Log ready to hand in.
- Have all Blackboard Thurs. entries in shape. Mid-term scoring of these, rather than wait until end for all? Discuss.
Blackboard Thursday
Satan's fall (Paradise Lost)
Read like a maniac the material due for Nov. 9th.
Actively mark your text. See if you can come up with your own system for noting and storing questions, observations, key passages.
Before Class
- Read in Norton, Aemilia Lanyer's, "Eve's Apology in Defense of Women," pp. 1317-1319; then "The Gender Wars," pp. 1543-1549.
- Also in Norton,read Milton, pp. 1785-1789; then sonnets, pp. 1825-1829; then Paradise Lost, pp. 1831-2055.
- Also: watch this cool thing on YouTube.
- Look at Norton Online gallery of Eden images.
- Look at Norton Online illustrations.
In Class
Intensive work with Milton.
- I may do a text-flagging check!
- Final Herbert poems.
- Begin class work with Milton. Here's the worksheet.
- Lyrics to Laurie Anderson's "Lange d'Amour"
Blackboard Thursday
Full instructions of courses are in our BB Thurs. Blackboard.
Before Class
- Review Paradise Lost.
- Read ahead, if you like. (See assignments for the 23rd and on.)
In Class
- Learning Logs returned; discuss strengths and weaknesses.
- Instructor feedback to BB Thurs. threads completed (tentative).
- Complete work with Milton.
Blackboard Thursday
Yahoos
Before Class
"The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century" 1660-1785," pp. 2057-2082.
Dryden, pp. 2083-2084; "From Annus Mirabilis," pp. 2085-2086; "To the Memory of Mr. Oldham," p. 2117; "A Song for St. Cecilia's Day," pp. 2118-2119; "Epigram on Milton," p. 2120; "Alexander's Feast," pp. 2120-2124; criticism pp. 2125-2131.
Look over Pepys, pp. 2133-2142.
John Wilmot, "Upon Nothing," pp. 2171-2172 and "A Satire against Reason and Mankind," pp. 2173-2177.
Aphra Behn, pp. 2178-2180, "The Disappointment," pp. 2180-2183; look over "Oroonoko, or The Royal Slave."
Mary Astell, pp. 2284-2288.
Read introduction to, and then look over the work of, Defoe, pp. 2288-2293
All of Anne Finch, pp. 2294-2298.
Swift, pp. 2301-2468 and all of Pt. IV of Gulliver's Travels, pp. 2418-2462.
Look over the intro to Adison and Steele, and read "The Pleasures of the Imagination" and "On the Scale of Being," pp. 2468-2490.
In Class
Discuss learning logs.
Examine sample essay topics and discuss essay assignment.
Samuel Johnson 
Where's my cranberry sauce?
Where's my turkey drumstick?
Who left empty beer cans on my dictionary?
Can someone give me a ride back from London to NDSU?
HOLIDAY
Read Paradise Lost to your family before they carve the turkey?
You MIGHT have BB Thurs. work to complete this week. See BB, as always, for instructions.
Be thinking about and researching an essay topic!
Before Class
Alexander Pope, pp. 2493-2496; "An Essay on Man," pp. 2540-2548 and look over other pieces.
Look over "Debating Women: Arguments in Verse," pp. 2589-2610.
Samuel Johnson, pp. 2664-2666; "Rambler, No. 5," pp. 2675-2678; "The Dangerous Prevalence of Imagination," pp. 2733-2734; Ramber, No. 4, pp. 2743-2746; from "The Preface to Shakespeare," pp. 2756-2761; [Lives of the Poets, From Cowley [Lives of the Poets], pp. 2766-2768; "Paradise Lost," pp. 27692773.
Read intro to Boswell and look over all pieces.
Look over all of Frances Burney, and more carefully at [A Mastectomy], pp. 2822-2827.
Thomas Gray, "2862-2870."
Christopher Smart, " 2874-2875; "From Jubilate Agno [My Cat Jeoffry]," pp. 2875-2876.
In Class
Research review.
Work with readings.
Blackboard Thursday
Deadline for posting essay topic and thesis is today, Dec. 2nd. Go to Blackboard/Discussion Board/Drop Box/Essay Topics.
Tues., Dec. 7
Before Class
- Work on drafts.
In Class
- Bring 2 hardcopies of your draft to class.
- Peer critiques.
- Examine sample outlines.
- End-of-term instructions & review.
Blackboard Thursday
Do optional extra critiquing! Buddy up with one or more people in class to arrange this.
Or contact the Center for Writers: call 231-7927 or email ndsu.cfw@ndsu.edu
I'll hold extra office hours on Tuesday, 11:00-3:00 and Wed. 11:00-3:00.
We will NOT meet as a class over finals week.
Complete online course evaluation.
Essays Due No later than 11:59, Friday, Dec. 17th.
Post in Blackboard Drop Box.