LITERATURE/DESIRE

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Weeks 4-6: The Language of Seduction

1. Cite some variations in the Loathly Lady fabula across the three tales in your Reader. Focus on the conditions by which the lady is either beautiful or ugly, and the actions of the knight/king/"hero"... 2.  The Wife of Bath's Tale is considered by some critics to indicate that Chaucer may have been a feminist.  Why might they believe this?  Do you agree?  Remember to cite evidence from the text or some other source. 3. Hahn's essay (see critical reader) on The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle identifies the motif of the loathly lady, but arguably it has a different purpose than asserting the feminine.  What does he think the function of the story is? 4. In the context of Elizabethan and Jacobean sonnets, how can we define "conceits"? 5. Discuss what you think is the most striking or outrageous example. 6. What does Revard (1997) suggest about the relationship between language, sex, power and transgression in the English Renaissance?  
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Weeks 7-9: Romatic Revival

1. How is the Romantic notion of the Sublime reflected in the texts under consideration in this Romanticism reader? Discuss one or two examples from Blake's  Songs of Innocence  and  Songs of Experience . 2. How do Blake and Rousseau's ideas align and differ (themes to consider are slavery, religion and education)? 3. See what you can find out anything about what really happened at the Villa Diodati that fateful summer in 1816... 4. How many fictional accounts (film and other narrative media) can you find about that? Provide some useful links, including Youtube clips (hint: for a start try Ken Russel Gothic on Youtube). 5. Discuss the links between the Villa Diodati "brat-pack" and the birth of Gothic as a modern genre with reference to specific texts by the authors who gathered there and subsequent texts (e.g.  The Vampire  >>  Dracula , etc). 7. How does Frankenstein a) reference the Bible, b) foreshadow the Death of God and c) juggle genres as wel
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Weeks 1-3

1. What genres do the following texts belong to, and how do their intended period contexts, purposes, and intended audiences differ? Voluspa, Volsunga Saga, Beowulf, The Hobbi t and  Lord of the Rings . Remember to give some examples from these texts that support your identification (for example: "Voluspa is an example of the _____ genre, as the following references to gods from the poem illustrate: "Hear my words / you holy gods' (l.1) "By Odin's Will I'll speak the ancient lore" (l.3), etc). 2. What are some possible features of residual (or "secondary") orality preserved in  Voluspa , according to the criteria Ong (1982) advances? 3. Identify a central incident that happens in at least four of the above texts, and discuss how it is both similar and different in each example (remember to cite from the original texts). 4. How did Tolkien draw on the Old Norse and Old English texts in his  The Hobbit  and  The Lord of the Rings  fanta
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