English 2273.X1 - Fall 2020

T, Th: 10:30 - 12:00 PM
Room: BAC 132
Professor: Richard Cunningham
"Office" Hours: M, W 1:30 - 2:30*, and by appointment

( *'"Office" Hours' rather than 'Office Hours' because any contact between us will be mediated through MS Teams, email, or telephones.)


Acknowledgement of Traditional Territory:

We are in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People.
This territory is covered by the “Treaties of Peace and Friendship” which Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) and Mi’kmaq peoples first signed with the British Crown in 1725. The treaties did not deal with surrender of lands and resources but in fact recognized Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) title and established the rules for what was to be an ongoing relationship between nations.


Accessible Learning Services Blurb

If you are a student with documentation for accommodations or if you anticipate needing supports or accommodations, please contact Ian Ford, Accessibility Resource Facilitator at 902-585-1520, disability.access@acadiau.ca or Marissa McIsaac, Manager, disability.access@acadiau.ca. Accessible Learning Services is located in Rhodes Hall, rooms 111-115.


The Acadia Writing Centre

(Could also be called "your best friend" if your plan is to get good grades by writing well.)

The Writing Centre offers free help to students wanting to improve their writing skills. You can sign up online today:

· To book a one-to-one appointment with a trained writing tutor, click here: writingcentre.acadiau.ca/writing-tutorials.html

· To see which helpful presentations and workshops you’ll want to attend this year, click here: writingcentre.acadiau.ca/workshops-and-presentations.html


Course Description

This is a course devoted to the first two or three books of Edmund Spenser's long poem, The Faerie Queene. If we're able, within the amount of time we have this term, we'll study the third book in addition to the first two. The pace we achieve and maintain will determine how far we get.

The course is designed to allow us to shift to an online model if we need to do so. That said, your attendance in every class is required, and this is reflected in the grading scheme. In the event we are required to abandon the classroom, attendance grades will be based on that portion of the term we shared prior to being forced out. [So don't miss any classes unless you absolutely must.]

You may want to have your computer with you in every class so you can move independently through your classmates comments. On this, see Commentaries, below.

You must turn your phone off and put it away during class. This is the professor's rule. The professor assigns your grade for this course. You do not want to generate animosity between you and the person who assigns your grade.


Course Texts

Spenser, Edmund. The Faerie Queene. Ed. Thomas P. Roche. Penguin: 1978.


Grading

Attendance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5%
Commentaries (roughly 50/50 split, see below). . . . . . .
80%
Short paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
15%
 
 

Attendance:
  Required. Each student should expect to be called on to speak during every class period.

 

Commentaries:
  Click on the Book 1 link in the Menu you used to get to this page. You'll be able to see that The Faerie Queene has been sub-divided and that each student registered in the class has been assigned a few stanzas upon which to comment. Find your name in the right-hand column and you'll be able to see which stanzas are your responsibility. Your name will appear more than once; be sure you make all the comments for which you are responsible.
  On the first day of class the professor will obtain from you the email address you use most often. That address will then be used to invite you to join these Google documents. You will then be able and are required to write your comments in the right-hand column, below your name, in the cell beside the stanzas themselves. Sometimes it will seem that you have several stanzas on which to comment, other times you may only have one. This will be true for everyone. Keep that in mind if your requirement seems heavy in comparison to others. There will be times when your roles reverse. By the end of the term, students always seem to find this system fair.

  As for the comments themselves:

  1. Your written comments are due on Sunday, for Tuesday classes, and by 10:00 AM on Wednesday for Thursday classes.
  2. In class, you will be called on to orally paraphrase, expand upon, or riff off of your written comments. In no circumstances should you merely read in class what you've already posted for us to read ourselves. Your grade will be apportioned roughly half and half between your written comments and what you say in class. Each is a required element.
  3. You'll find almost immediately that it is extremely difficult (I find it impossible) for you to simply "drop in" to some point in The Farie Queene and make sense of what you're reading. This means that you won't be able to skip the rest of the poem and read only those stanzas assigned to you. To understand your stanzas you're going to need to read what comes before them, and often what comes after.
  4. In your comments, it is most important that you tell us what's going on in the poem. Try to briefly paraphrase or summarize what is happening on a literal level. If you can discern any of the allegories, or pick up on any of the poetic devices Spenser uses, great. Even if you merely suspect something in your stanzas must be representative of something outside the poem, that would be fair game for comment. But the most important thing is to make us aware of the action in the poem, of what is happening: what characters are in this "scene" and what is each one doing, and where is the action taking place?
  5. Once the basics of who and where have been addressed, then you might turn your attention to more thematic issues or to more literary qualities.
  6. Remember that more than half your grade is dependent on this assignment. Submitting your written comments on time and being present in class to comment on the poem are both significant components of this assignment.

Short paper:
  I do mean short. This paper should be no more than 5 pages long.
  While the field is wide open, I'll gladly accept papers that address your response to The Faerie Queene as a poem, or that offer your sense of Edmund Spenser as a poet. Alternatively, you might find yourself wanting to consider on a deeper level something we discuss in class or that you begin to address in one of your comments. Whatever you decide to write, be sure it's more than a mere rant; support what you have to say with evidence from the poem. We'll decide as a class when this paper is due.