Iyengar, Sujata
MWF 11:30 AM
Park Hall 0144
This upper-division English Literature class investigates the poetry and poets that flourished during the Tudor dynasty and in particular during the reign of the first Queen Elizabeth (1533-1603), including Edmund Spenser's enormous English epic, The Faerie Queene (six books and two cantos, about a twenty-hour reading time, written in a self-consciously "difficult" style so that readers enounter and must conquer cognitive struggles of their own comparable to the protagonists' challenges with monsters, giants, femmes fatales, and other mythical creatures).
You don't have to like D&D, Star Wars, fantasy novels, The Crown, or writing poetry to get into The Faerie Queene, but it sure helps! Students in previous years have responded to this epic poem by making board- and card-games, writing contemporary poetry, writing short microtheme essays, and even comics (cartoonist Jacob Andrews has a whole series!).
This blended class incorporates remote, asynchronous learning tools that everyone will use on eLC alongside a rotation of remote synchronous meetings with me via eLC chat or Zoom and a voluntary rotation of physically distant, masked, live study group meetings with me in our classroom in Park Hall (144).
I will assign all students to a study group of fewer than ten; each group will meet at regular, announced intervals, in our classroom in Park Hall, or via Zoom, or via eLC chat, to permit students who prefer a synchronous schedule but who need to remain remote the opportunity to participate in live, real-time discussion.
Any student may choose to take this course using the remote, asynchronous option or the remote synchronous option, regardless of whether a student has been granted accommodations by UGA’s DRC, but please let me know by the second week of class whether you would like to join the fully remote group or the hybrid group, so that I can map out your study group.
Course Learning Outcomes
• By the end of this course you will be able to identify and discuss the historical, literary, and political contexts of the Tudor dynasty in general and of Queen Elizabeth 1 in particular in discussion posts, chat, quizzes, diagrams, and creative assignments.
• By the end of this course you will be able to evaluate the acoustic patterns, imagery, and language effects of spoken and written poetry in English through live or recorded recitation or presentation, and discussion.
• By the end of this course you will be able to compose thesis-driven, textually-supported, arguable discussion posts and microtheme essays about some of the major themes of the course.
• By the end of this course you will be able to critique your own work and that of your peers, working in teams and individually, remotely or face-to-face, as circumstances permit, through written self- and peer-assessments and the use of a rubric.
REQUIRED MATERIALS
BOOK (printed or electronic text is fine)
The Penguin Book of Renaissance Verse -- used is fine, any edition is fine, as long as it is the one edited by H. WOUDHUYSEN and DAVID NORBROOK.
BOOK (printed or electronic text is fine)
The Faerie Queene, published by Longman -- again, used, rental, all is fine as long as it is the one edited by A.C. HAMILTON.
BOOK (you can read it for free online on The Poetry Foundation website, but it’s long enough that you might prefer a printed copy or an ebook)
The Defense of Poesy [also published as An Apologie for Poetry], by Sir Philip Sidney
FILM: Elizabeth, dir. Shekhar Kapur, available in the UGA Libraries for viewing on-site or for purchase or rental from Amazon Prime.
I am developing my course modules now and will share more information about due dates and assessment in due course.Check your email if you have questions; I have been sending regular updates to registered students. I am an experienced teacher in online and hybrid formats as well as, of course, face-to-face, and am doing my best to keep up with the constantly-changing information we are receiving from the USG.
In the meantime, don't hesitate to contact me -- and try to get a head start on The Faerie Queene, if you can!