Closely Reading
Professor: Richard Cunningham
Course Description
In this course students will read one of the most intellectually challenging poems in the English language, John Milton’s twelve-book epic poem Paradise Lost. Students will write and be graded on multiple short responses to their reading, and a final exam. Your responses and your in-class summations of them will both count toward a very high percentage of your final grade.
If you are less than 100% confident that you can and will attend every class of English 2283 this term, then this really is not the right class for you. Be realistic with yourself, with your professor, and with your classmates: if 9:30 AM seems early for you, or if three hours a week seems like a lot of class time to you, or if three to six additional hours of reading seems like a lot to you, do yourself and the rest of us a favour and drop this class immediately.
All students registered in 2283.X2 will be required to compose a few sentences about at least one section of Paradise Lost for each day of class. Failing to meet this requirement will make it impossible for you to pass this course. In class, you will be required to summarize verbally what you have written. You are called on to summarize or speak about what you have written, rather than simply reading it to us.
Text
Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Ed. Merritt Y. Hughes. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 2003.
Requirements and Grading
Commentaries – 80%
Final Exam – 20%
Comments must:
1. inform your reader who is speaking in the section of poem on which you are commenting; and
2. contribute something to our understanding of the passage under examination.
Comments might:
1. make connections to things outside the poem (you might explain classical or biblical references, for example, or suggest that the passage reminds you of something else you have read or experienced);
2. make connections to other parts of the poem (this is likely to happen more often in the latter parts of the poem than in the earlier parts);
3. question anything that is unclear (either to you personally, or more generally);
4. offer any relevant thought(s) that enlightens.
Caveat
You are not required to summarize the passage or to provide its main point. Sometimes you might be able to do so, and you are encouraged to do so when possible; but doing so may prove quite difficult most of the time, so focus on the details and we’ll let the larger picture emerge in class.
Rules
• In the event you know you are going to miss a class, you are required to submit your commentary well before class so that the rest of class can read it in your absence.
• In the event you come down with a sudden illness, you will still be able to submit your commentary in advance provided you develop the habit of preparing for class at least the day before. Since our class meetings start at 9:30 AM, developing this habit is nothing more than common sense.
• In the event a 16-ton weight falls out of the sky and onto your head on your way to class in the morning, your absence and your failure to provide written commentary may be excused.
If you fail to submit more than one commentary, you are required to visit the professor to discuss your situation. These commentaries will provide 80% of your final grade for ENGL 2283.X2.
Final Exam
Answer all questions. In every answer, include quotations from the poem. You may use your copy of Paradise Lost and a dictionary for this exam. Remember to apportion your time appropriately. All questions must be answered or the exam mark will be zero. Each question will count as much as all others toward your exam mark.
1) The thesis of Paradise Lost is an attempt to “justify the ways of God to men.” Argue that the poem succeeds.
2) The thesis of Paradise Lost is an attempt to “justify the ways of God to men.” Argue that the poem fails.
3) Argue in favour of the assertion that Eve is most culpable for humanity’s Fall in Paradise Lost.
4) Argue against the assertion that Eve is most culpable for humanity’s Fall in Paradise Lost.
5) Argue that God can foreknow and humans can have free will.
6) Argue that if God foreknows, humanity does not have free will.
7) What did you learn from reading Paradise Lost?