Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Planning a Class - The 17th Century

Here's the course description: Covers prose, poetry and drama of the post-Renaissance period through the Restoration with special focus on works of John Milton.

The big focus in the description is on Milton. To me, that means we're going to read a fair bit (and maybe all) of Paradise Lost, and also want to read the big poems.*

The Norton has the whole of Paradise Lost, but no Samson Agonistes.

The Longman has chunks of Paradise Lost, but only Bks 1, 2, and 9 in their entirety. And it has Samson Agonistes.


I'm going to have to go with the Norton for the 17th century class.



*I have a true confession: I've never made it through Samson Agonistes. Never. Yep, I should probably lose my credentials for that. Maybe I'll give it a go this week, and see what I see?

10 comments:

  1. Ok, the biggest thing that I think, reading your titles and course descriptions, is that your department needs to think about updating those so that they are less... restrictive? Old-fashioned? I think maybe some of the difficulty you're having is related to catalog titles and descriptions. Why not have a course that is "early modern"? Why not have a course that is restoration and romanticism (or something like that? Basically, my sense of the field is that we're moving toward a model that extends fields to be something like early modern, long 18th century, long 19th century, and 20th-21st century. Whatever the case, that's what the job ads are looking like. Maybe updating your curriculum would make all of this less fraught? More flexible? (though of course doing so is a pain in the ass)

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  2. Don't forget, this is a one semester guest thing for me. I'm not going to change their curriculum. I'm going to do the best job I can within their structures.

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  3. Bardiac, I get it. I'm just sayin' :)

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  4. The Cambridge Companion to Milton has some good essays in it; I assign it to my undergrad Milton class and the students actually like them. The Samson essay is called "Milton Reading the Bible" I think. It's interesting to think about the treatment of Delilah in comparison with that of Eve, and each compared to their Biblical treatments. The political issues are even more interesting. Laura Lunger Knoppers' edition of Paradise Regained and Samson has a terrific intro. that helps on that score. I'll be glad to send you my Milton syllabus if that would be useful.

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  5. @ca78john, Thanks, it might be very helpful. Much appreciated! (I haven't taught Milton in forever!)

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  6. Look me up on the Dickinson College Web site and email me. I will then send it. (I can't find an email address for you on the blog!)

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  7. As a historian, I'd use Areopagitica when teaching Milton. I'm weird that way. Samson Agonistes? Eh. Sure. It's unexpected for many and doesn't have a whole bunch of Cliff Notes-style sites.

    I'd also throw in some Aphra Behn to clear my palate. A big chunk of Milton goes a long way (really - they can't think of any other write to focus on but him? Gah!).

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  8. I'm all about ruining my street cred today, but I will here admit -- I have never read ANY Milton. Isn't it horrible? I have Paradise Lost, and I have tried to read it, but never got past the first few pages. This is probably silly, but I ended up taking Shakespeare three different times in grad school with three different teachers, and took two other Renaissance courses, as well as read something like 100 early modern plays (that I'd never read before) for my qualifying exams reading list. But Milton? Never Milton. I suck.

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  9. I myself like a bit of Paradise Regained after Paradise Lost. And Comus! But Samson Agonistes = meh.

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  10. I'm with Janice about using Areopagtica with Paradise Lost (I had a student fall in love with Milton over Areopagitica last semester!), and I would personally much prefer either Comus or Paradise Regained to Samson Agonistes.

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