In this critical survey of British authors and literary periods from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century ("Beowulf to Virginia Woolf," in the words of a colleague), we will establish a common language for literary inquiry and trace major topics (including politics, religion, violence, and the role of art in society) across the canon of literature we will discuss.
But will we judge books by their covers??
Here's a very brief overview of the literary territory we will cover in this course:
Course Documents
Fall 2012 Syllabus
Recitation Guidelines
Some thoughts on memorizing poems
Essay Guidelines
Purdue's Online Writing Lab offers a guide to MLA Style for citations
The British Library's online collection of sources from throughout English history
Some thoughts on why we read old, "classic" works of literature
This particular piece is about drama, rather than any other form of literature or art, but there's something more generally applicable in what Syme argues: "What’s great about actual classics is not that they’re old. It’s that they’re old enough to be available for rediscovery: they are old and difficult and distant and inaccessible enough that they should challenge directors and actors to reinvent them, as radically as necessary, for modern audiences. Classics are classics because they are sufficiently resilient to remain available for such reinvention. It’s not that they speak to us across centuries; it’s that they demand of us that we come up with new ways of making them speak. Respect them, try to serve them, and they die. You can’t be gentle with a classic, nor do you have to be: history isn’t gentle, nor is it respectful. You can’t be well-mannered. Classics don’t call for curators, they call for innovators. ... Classical works challenge us to bridge past and present, other and self, the strange and the familiar, the weird and the comforting."
Discussing Beowulf and the tenth anniversary of the September 11th attacks
A piece in Foreign Policy argues that other events of the last decade will prove to have been more significant than the 9/11 attacks.
How does the poem shape or unsettle conceptions of leadership, revenge, empathy, and violence for the common good?
The York Crucifixion Play
Introduction to the modern performances of the York plays (2010) - note the wagon-based staging that moves through the city.
A performance of Mankind (another medieval play) in Middle English - see how close it is to modern English! This is also a good example of a non-wagon staging, on the steps of a cathedral.
Elizabeth I
Here is a performance of Elizabeth's famous Speech to the Troops at Tilbury, which plays with different stages of composition and performance.
What did Shakespeare's plays originally sound like?
Shakespeare in the original pronunciation at KU
David Crystal recording excerpts in original pronunciation
David Crystal's Original Pronunciation website
Holger Syme, who writes regularly on Bardolatry and its 'evil twin,' anti-Stratfordianism: Shakespearean Mythbusting I: The Fantasy of the Unsurpassed Vocabulary
On a related note, Think on my Words is a website with various data sets on Shakespeare's use of English
Gulliver's Travels
Some images of the famous Hapsburg lip, displayed by the Lilliputian emperor. Given what else you know about European history - if you remember nothing else from your high school World History course, you at least know about the Spanish Armada and about WWI! - can you see why an English writer might choose to caricature this feature of the Hapsburg line? (Yes, WWI was much later than Gulliver's Travels, but it didn't come out of nowhere!)
Frankenstein
Here is information about Mary Shelley, from an exhibition on the Shelley and Godwin families.
You might also enjoy this trailer for the National Theatre production based on the novel. Note that Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller share both roles.
Colonial fervor and "The White Man's Burden"
Here are some contemporary images that respond to Kipling's poem, one that seems to buy into the concept and one that seems more skeptical. This Pear's Soap advertisement is a great site to think about literal text and subtext! You can find Hubert Harrison's poetic response at this link.
Your brain on literature - some studies from the emerging field of literary neuroscience
E-books and Fiona Shaw performing The Waste Land
Scanning Fiona Shaw's brain while she reads The Waste Land
The Neuroscience of your Brain on Fiction
The kinds of metaphors and descriptions that are often labelled 'evocative' actually seem to activate the parts of your brain that control motion, smell, or other relevants functions. Moreover, those who read a lot of fiction appear to have a more developed ability to empathize with and understand the motivations of those around them.
Both leisure reading and close reading stimulate increased blood flow to your brain - but in different areas of the brain. Close reading could serve "as a kind of cognitive training, teaching us to modulate our concentration and use new brain regions as we move flexibly between modes of focus."
Differing opinions at the end of the Harry Potter series