PURPOSE OF THE COURSE:    This course will explore the epic poem, from its origins in the earliest literature we have, to its controversial modern revisions.  We will examine the language of epic, the epic as history, the epic as a cultural encyclopedia bearing the identity of a people, the epic as a heroic story, and the epic as an argument in various political, social, and religious contexts.

REQUIRED TEXTS:

                        The Epic of Gilgamesh (trans. Benjamin R. Foster; New York: Norton, 2001)

            Homer, The Odyssey (trans. Robert Fagles; New York: Penguin, 1996)

            Beowulf (trans. Seamus Heaney; New York: Norton, 2000)

            Virgil, Aeneid (trans. Robert Fitzgerald; New York: Vintage, 1983)

            Dante Alighieri, Inferno (trans. Robert Pinsky; New York: Noonday/Farrar,

                  Straus & Giroux, 1994)

John Milton, Paradise Lost (ed. Elledge, 2^nd ed.;  New York: Norton, 1993)

RECOMMENDED TEXTS:

            Walt Whitman, Song of Myself (in Leaves of Grass [New York: Bantam, 1983])

T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land (in The Waste Land, Prufrock and other Poems

      [Mineola, NY: Dover, 1998])

Ezra Pound, Cantos (New York: New Directions, 1996)

William Carlos Williams, Paterson (Rev. ed; New York: New Directions, 1995)

            Allen Ginsberg, Howl (San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1991)

            Derek Walcott, Omeros (New York: Noonday/Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1990)

Wayne A. Meeks, Jouette M. Bassler, et al., eds. The HarperCollins Study Bible

      (New York: HarperCollins, 1993)

COURSE SCHEDULE

1/7       Introduction to the course; distribution of syllabus; assignment of projects and

presentations; opening discussion of epic

Three “Primary Epics”

1/14    The Epic of Gilgamesh [written c. 2500-1000 BCE] (trans. Benjamin R. Foster)

            (Read also: Genesis chapters 1, 6-9; Proverbs 1-3, 8-9; Ecclesiastes 9; other OT

and apocryphal Wisdom literature [Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch];

essays by Moran, Jacobsen, Harris)

1/21    Martin Luther King Day—Holiday

1/28    Homer, The Odyssey [c. 800-600 BCE] (trans. Robert Fagles)

            Presentation 1: “The Homeric Question”

            Presentation 2: “Oral-formulaic theory (Parry/Lord)”

2/4       Beowulf [c. 800-1000 CE] (trans. Seamus Heaney)

            Presentation 3: “Christianity vs. Paganism in Beowulf”

            Presentation 4: "Women in Beowulf"

            Prospectus for Seminar Paper Due

Three “Secondary Epics”

2/11    Virgil, Aeneid [30-19 BCE] (trans. Robert Fitzgerald)

            Presentation 5: “Aeneas and Augustus”

            Presentation 6: “Virgil as a ‘Christian’ poet (Eclogue IV)”

2/18    Dante Alighieri, Inferno [c. 1308-1321] (trans. Robert Pinsky)

            Presentation 7: “Dante’s personal history & the Commedia”

            Presentation 8: “Allegorical Interpretation”

2/25    John Milton, Paradise Lost [c. 1660-1674]

            Presentation 9: “Milton’s personal history and PL”

            Presentation 10: “Epic simile in Milton”

3/4       Milton, Paradise Lost (continued)

            Presentation 11: “The four invocations (Bks 1, 3, 7, 9)”

            Presentation 12: “Who is the hero of PL?”

3/11    Some Modern Epics—Group Presentations; Seminar Papers Due

            Walt Whitman, Song of Myself (1855-1892; in Leaves of Grass)

T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land (1921)

Ezra Pound, Cantos (1917-1970)

William Carlos Williams, Paterson (1946-1958)

Allen Ginsberg, Howl (1957)

Derek Walcott, Omeros (1990)

Friday, March 15: Scheduled final exam time—exams due 7:45 p.m. (note date)

REQUIREMENTS: 

            Online Discussion Group (4^th-hour project) ..................................15%

            Solo Presentation on assigned topic (with short paper)............. 20%

            Group Presentation on modern epic............................................. 15%

            Paper (including prospectus) ........................................................ 35%

            Take-home Final ............................................................................. 15%

ONLINE DISCUSSION GROUP <eng74001@wright.edu>:

I have created an online discussion group for this class.  This discussion group will count for the unmet fourth hour.  You will want to read the postings regularly, at least twice a week.  You will be required to make a number of substantial postings to this group over the course of the quarter.  What is a “substantial posting”?  To quote the English department’s online-discussion muse, Dr. Carol Loranger, “I consider an adequate post to be one which fills about 2/3 of the screen.”

Use the discussion group to converse with your classmates about the week’s reading and discussion, to note relationships among readings, to raise questions, confusions or concerns, to test theories and argue points we can’t always get to in class, or to alert the rest of us to an interesting find in your outside reading and research.  One useful approach might be to quote a passage from one of the week’s readings and frame a discussion around it.  Or reply to the discussion or questions of another. Sometimes I will suggest a discussion topic.  Mostly, though, the discussion group is your forum. To quote Dr. Loranger again, “Often these email discussions are more lively than class discussion because you can comment at your leisure and when you feel most inspired to post. To keep discussion useful, please treat your posts as part of a conversation, don’t just list questions or make pronouncements. Don’t worry about being profound or seeming dumb. Listen to what others are saying. Don’t shy away from argument, or even hot contention, but don’t forget your manners either.”

In order to receive a grade of C for discussion group participation you will need to make 4 substantial postings.  A grade of B requires 7 substantial postings, while a grade of A requires 10 substantial postings.  Do not put your discussion group participation off until the end of the quarter.  I will count no more than two postings in each of the final three weeks of the course, so if you want an A for the newsgroup discussion section of the course, you will need to post at least four substantial messages during weeks one through seven.  Start early and post often!  To post a message to the discussion group, just send an email message to <eng74001@wright.edu>.

SOLO PRESENTATION ON ASSIGNED TOPIC:

Each student will give a 15-minute presentation on an assigned topic relating to the reading of the day.  Write the presentation up as a short paper (3-5 pages) and hand it in on the day of your presentation.  There will be at most two presentations in each class period.  We will allow time for followup discussion, so be sure to prepare to ask and answer questions.  Topics are listed on the class schedule (page 2).  You will have the chance to sign up for topics during the first and second days of class. 

GROUP PRESENTATION ON MODERN EPIC:

On the last day of class (Monday, March 11), we will examine five or six modern works that have been or can be classed as epics.  The class will divide into five or six groups of two or three students each; each group will give a 15-minute report on one modern epic.  Discuss the work’s author, subject, style, reference to epic history or conventions (if any), and critical reception.  There will be five to ten minutes for questions following each report.

SEMINAR PAPER:

The topic for your seminar paper is open to any subject in the field of the study of epic or on any of the individual epics we have read.   Since the paper will be due in the same class in which you will be giving your presentations on modern epic, you may devote your paper to the modern work on which you will be reporting.  However, that is simply an option.  Your paper may be about another work or topic altogether.

The paper should be approximately 12 pages of text (a minimum of 10) plus any notes and bibliographies.  It should be typed, double spaced, and formatted and documented correctly using MLA format.  The normal standards of writing competence and effectiveness at the graduate level in English studies will naturally be applied to these papers, so please edit and proofread carefully, and please try to give yourself enough time to write and revise a substantial paper by planning ahead and budgeting your time.  “Last-minute” papers, often attended by last-minute computer crashes or printing crises, are unnecessarily stressful for all concerned, and rarely yield high-quality work.

To develop your topic and get a jump on your research early, you should prepare a prospectus for this paper, due in class on February 4.  A prospectus is a tentative preliminary statement of the working hypothesis of the paper, together with a discussion of the likely direction you plan to develop it.  The prospectus will give both of us a chance to see what you are planning to work on; it will require you to begin the planning process while there’s still time to find adequate resources (on Ohiolink for example); and it will give you the opportunity to benefit from my preliminary response as you develop your paper.  Your prospectus should be written in the form of a short essay, at least one page long (250 words); it should clearly state the topic, give a tentative statement of the thesis, and outline the likely arguments in support of your thesis; the prospectus may also suggest the final paper’s organization, although it does not have to do so.  It should be accompanied by a tentative bibliography of the major sources (at least five) you plan to consult for the paper.

The paper will be graded as follows:

Prospectus meets minimal standards, on time         --  10% (5% if it is late—up to 1 week)

Paper due Monday, March 11 by 7:00 p.m.                --  90%           

Note that a paper with no prospectus (or with a prospectus more than one week late) can get a grade no higher than a B+.  Any prospectus which is on time and meets minimal standards for length, bibliography, and coverage will automatically get full credit.

The paper itself is due on March 11.  I will deduct 5% of the total grade (1/2 of a letter grade) for each weekday it is late.  Please see me if you have any questions about this assignment.

FINAL EXAM:

There will be a take-home essay final examination. The exam will be handed out by the last day of class, if not before, and it will be due by Friday, March 15 at 7:45 p.m.

POLICIES:

Attendance & Calendar   I have not listed “Attendance” among the requirements for this course, but it can count in a negative way.  This Monday class meets only 9 times during this quarter—if you miss only one class, you miss more than 10% of the course.  More than any other class, a seminar depends on the attendance and participation of the students.  Therefore, I will enforce the following policy on attendance:

            One absence................................................. No penalty

            Two to three absences.................................. Final grade drops one letter

            Four or more absences................................. F for course

Note: an official university closing due to weather or some other cause will not count as an absence for any student.  If a class is cancelled due to an official closing, we will move the schedule back one week and use the scheduled final exam time (Friday, March 15 at 7:45 p.m., or some other equally convenient time to be decided upon by the class) during the exam period as our last class meeting time.  If the university is not officially closed, there will be class.  

Late Work   For all work (unless otherwise specified) I will deduct two points for each day such work is late.  Policies on the prospectus and final paper are specified above.  I cannot accept a late final exam after Tuesday, March 19.

Academic integrity is essential to the fair and successful conduct of class, and violations of the university’s academic integrity policies will be punished.  Violations includes various kinds of cheating,  “plagiarism” (using the words or ideas of another as if they were your own), and submission of a paper previously submitted or simultaneously submitted for another course.  Penalties for academic integrity violations can be severe; for lesser assignments, the work will receive a grade of zero.  An academic integrity violation on the final seminar paper will result in a grade of F for the course.  All violations of academic integrity will also be reported to the university Office of Judicial Affairs.  For more information, please see the Student’s Guide to Academic Integrity, available from the Office of Judicial Affairs (368 University Hall) or at the following website:

            <http://www.wright.edu/students/judicial/stuintegrity.html>

INSTRUCTOR         Henry Limouze

            Email:             <henry.limouze@wright.edu>

            Online Discussion Group:

                                    <eng74001@wright.edu>

            Office              126 Allyn

            Hours              Mondays 12-5

                                    Tuesdays through Fridays 2-4  and by appointment

            Phone             775-2093 (my desk); 775-3136 (Eng. office); 775-2707 (fax)