More's Utopia: Page Numbers and Study Questions

Re-reading More's Utopia, I've decided that not all of Book I is absolutely necessary to read--the descriptions of the island of Utopia are far more interesting. This'll keep your total reading for this week the same, and cut way down on next week's. So, for 5/4, please just read:

• "Thomas More to Peter Giles, Greetings" (521-24)
  
• Book I, only through Raphael's dialog with the Cardinal about thieves, slaves and the death penalty (524-35)
  
• And then from Book II, just up to the section entitled "The Travels of the Utopians" (545-56)
  

QUESTIONS:

Q1 (Sophia): How would you describe the tone of the opening letter to Peter Giles? If you had read it without knowing that Utopia wasn’t a real place, and that Raphael was a made-up character, what would you think? How does that effect the tone?

Q2 (James): What do you make of Raphael’s argument against private property? What historical events does More seem to be reacting to? (Hint: check out this passage, “Your sheep . . . that used to be so meek and eat so little. Now they are becoming so greedy and wild that they devour human beings themselves, as I hear,” p. 531).

Q3 (Emily): What do you think of Raphael’s alternative to capital punishment as a penalty for theft?

Q4 (Carrie): Why does More set Utopia in the Americas (i.e., in the “New World”)?

Q5 (Mardy): Based on what you have read about Utopia so far, what do you think would be the ramifications if certain of their laws and customs were imported to Taiwan? Pick a couple. (Bonus: Is a Utopia, or perfect society, possible?)

Q6 (Debbie): Say something about the “occupations” of the Utopians (550-53).

Q7 (Verthandi): Say something about the “social relations” of the Utopians (553-56).

Q8 (Valerie): What do you make of this Raphael Hythloday figure? How seriously do you think we should take him? (Hint: Look at the early footnote about his name; does that undercut what he says, or does it merely relieve More of responsibility for his character’s controversial ideas?)

Midterm Tips

As all of you finish up your studying, here's a few last minute tips:

1. Once again, re-reading all of the words in each of the texts might not be the best way to use your study time. Instead, go back through the texts and look for key passages that you think will be important, or that you think you could write an essay about; remind yourself of the basic order of events in each text, but only focus on what you think is important in the context of the class. Study, in other words, strategically.
   
2. Get those passages straight in your head so that you don't have to flip open the book to re-remember what they were about; the test will be timed (2hrs), and searching for the 100% perfect quote will, more often than not, waste more time than it will save you. I recommend keeping a closed book for the first half, in fact.
   
3. To refresh your understanding of the history of the texts, read the Norton introductions to them, and to the periods. Also, in the Chaucer handouts, it might be helpful to read the bits and pieces of the tales that come before and after The Miller's and the Wife of Bath's tales.
   
4. Practice reading a few sonnets you've never seen before. (Hint: For inspiration, push the Shakespeare bobble-head doll, pictured right.)
   
5. Write some sample questions, and organize the texts and quotations you might use to answer them.
6. Practice your facility with meter by reading Shakespeare's Sonnet 12 (pp. 1062-63), and marking the stresses and unstresses... then decide what that meter is emphasizing. I'll note some interesting things about the meter in the comments below.

Happy studying! If all goes as planned, we'll watch a movie in the last part of class tomorrow.

Midterm Study Sessions

Later this week I have planned a set of 5-7 person study sessions to help all of you prepare for the midterms. Tentative times are:

Wednesday, 5-6pm
Friday, 11-12
Friday, 1-2
Friday, 2-3
Friday, 4-5

Feel free to claim a spot in one of those times in the comments section below (there will be a cap of 7, for now). The basic format will be 100% informal, with you asking questions and me answering them.

Therefore, when you come, you'll need to do two things:

• Bring three questions about the readings we've done, one of each of these types:
  

One Detailed Textual Question (e.g., In Sonnet 65 what does Shakespeare mean by "the wrackful siege of battr'ing days"?; or, What is iambic pentameter, and what is an alexandrine?);


One Thematic Question about a Text (e.g., Why is the Green Knight green? or, Why does Julian of Norwich keep repeating that Christ told her that "Sin is behovely, but all shall be well"?);


One Big Question about History or the Connections between our Texts (What, again, does feminism mean? or, Why did the sonnet become so popular in England during the 16th century?)

• Also, bring along your Norton Anthology, and the photocopies of The Canterbury Tales.
  

See you all tomorrow!

The Faerie Queene: Week 7

The readings for this week will be from Edmund Spenser's unfinished allegorical romance, The Faerie Queene (1590):

Read: the "Letter of the Authors," pp. 716-19;
Book II, Canto 12, pp. 857-67;
and Book III, Canto 6, pp. 867-79.

It is also essential to read the editor's introduction (pp. 714-16), since it goes far to explain the poem's goals and narrative structure, which are complex.

Q1 (Joanna): In his "Letter of the Authors," Spenser tells Sir Walter Ralegh that The Faerie Queene is a "continued Allegory, or darke conceit." First, what is an allegory? Second, what is a poetic conceit? And lastly, from what we've read in Books II & III, pick out a few moments that seem to you particularly allegorical. (Hint: the Norton editors' intro could help you here. Also, bonus: why does Spenser call his poem a "darke conceit"?)

Q2 (Mandy): In the beginning of the "Bower of Bliss" episode, we hear about "a place pickt out by choice of best alive, / That natures work by art can imitate" (Book II, Canto 12, ll. 372-3). Find some places throughout the canto where "art," imitation, and illusions are discussed. What do you think the canto leads us to believe about the value of art? (Bonus: what about the fact that Spenser needs to use art to tell us this?)

Q3 (Carol J.): In the "Letter of the Authors," Spenser makes it clear that his poem is in some sense a political allegory; the Faerie Queene, for instance, is allegorical of Queen Elizabeth's public rule and private virtue. This political aspect of the poem has led some critics to suggest a connection between Book II's "The Bower of Bliss" and the colonial condition of the Irish people; (a condition Spenser knew well because he lived in Ireland, helping England impose a brutal regime upon the Irish). Take a look at this excerpt from Spenser's essay "A View of the State of Ireland" (click on the link). What connections can you draw between Book II, Canto 12 and the essay? (Hint: Lines 703-83 in that canto might be a good place to start.)

Q4 (Christine): Comment on something in the Bower of Bliss that you found interesting (or confusing, or paradoxical), or come up with a question for me. Use some quotations from the text.

Q5 (Matt): If the "Bower of Bliss" is the realm of Art and Illusion, then perhaps the "Garden of Adonis" is the dominion of Nature; it is "so faire a place as Nature can devise" (l. 255). How does Nature and how do natural things seem to work in this episode; what sorts of principles seem to guide them? Give some examples. (Hint: you can choose examples from the actual description of the Garden, or from the opening of the canto which describes Belphoebe's miraculous conception, ll. 19-81).

Q6 (Mark): Compare and contrast the initial description of the creation of forms in the "Garden of Adonis" (ll. 280-320) with the description of the "huge eternall Chaos" (ll. 321-342) that fuels that production. How are the two aspects of earthly creation related? Are they polar opposites, or do they share any qualities? Are they necessary to each other? Why does the one contain more "positive" associations and descriptions, and the other more "negative" ones?

Q7 (Renée): The "Garden of Adonis" and the "Bower of Bliss" possess an astounding number of similarities. To name three examples: they each are described as being intensely beautiful; each is somehow related to the "infinite" (Book II, Canto 12, l. 550 & Book III, Canto 6, l. 307, for example); and each have a powerful woman amorously engaging with a (more mortal) lover. (The Witch and the young man in the "Bower of Bliss," and Venus and Adonis in the "Garden"). Why then is the "Bower of Bliss" destroyed by Sir Guyon and the "Garden of Adonis" let be? What's the difference between the two? Do the differences strike you as real differences?

Q8 (Josie): Comment on something you found interesting (or confusing, or paradoxical) in the "Garden of Adonis" episode, or ask me an extended, quotation-rich question about it. Talk about whatever you like.

Week 6: Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe Questions

Here's the questions for this week's readings, Julian of Norwich's A Book of Showings (Norton, pp. 271-83), and The Book of Margery Kempe (283-93, 294-97).

Q1 (Carol C.): Read this typical piece of Church Doctrine, from Saint Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica (Part III Question 26, Articles 1 & 2), and contrast both its style and message with the style and message of Julian of Norwich's A Book of Showings. Give quotations both from Aquinas's and Julian's text. (Hint: Because Aquinas's argument, or "catechism," concerns Christ as Mediator between God and Man, it might help to focus on Chapters 58-61 & 86 in Julian).

Q2 (Sam): One of the principle intellectual and rhetorical tropes that Julian uses in her text is "paradox." What sorts of paradoxes do you see in her text? Why do you think she uses paradox so often? (Hint: While wikipedia is typically an insufficient and unreliable source for information, this particular entry on paradox is pretty clear.)

Q3 (Alice): Come up with a question for me about Julian of Norwich, or write a comment about something in her text that you found interesting.

Q4 (Mia): Critics often cite Julian of Norwich as an extremely astute and creative religious thinker, not merely because she is a woman, but because of her particular style which anticipates C17 poets like George Herbert. What do you think is original about her thinking or her style? Does the fact that she's a woman affect her religious or political views?

Q5 (Jenny): Who do you think is a more innovative interpreter of Christian doctrine, Margery Kempe or the the Wife of Bath? Why? (Cite quotations from each...).

Q6 (Isabella): Some people think that The Book of Margery Kempe is the first "autobiography" written in English. Would you call her book an "autobiography"? Or do you think it is closer to some other genre? Cite some examples from the text for why you think so.

Q7 (Ashley): Compare and contrast the writing styles of Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich. Which writer do you prefer? Cite some examples to explain why.

Q8 (Anne): Come up with a question for me about Margery Kempe, or a comment on a topic you found interesting.

Week 5: The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale

Last week's comments were splendid; thanks to everyone who posted! Here's the questions for the Wife of Bath's Tale; keep on quoting and citing those details from the text. If you didn't get a copy of the translation in class, they're outside my office door (B507) for pick-up whenever you like. They're in a little black box--just be sure you take the one that says "Fragment III (Group D) - The Prologue of the Wife of Bath's Tale" at the top.

Q1 (Jill): Before we hear her in her own tale, we are given the Poet's description of the Wife of Bath in the General Prologue. Translate, in your own words, lines 447-478 (pp. 229-30 in the Norton). What details do you think are important for the development of her character?

Q2 (Eleana): So far in this class we have seen examples of several different genres of literature: the Old English Epic (Beowulf), Romance (Sir Gawain), and the "Fabliau" or Satirical Romance (Miller's Tale). How would you characterize the genre of the Wife of Bath's Prologue (pp. 219-240 in the handout)? Does it parody anything? Does it remind you of anything else you've ever read?

Q3 (Jason): In the first lines of her Prologue, the Wife of Bath says "Experience, though noon auctoritee / Were in this world, is right ynough for me / To speke of wo that is in mariage" (ll. 1-3). Aside from relating her own experiences, how does the Wife attempt to prove her authority in the subject of marriage and the relations between men and women? Does she reference anything--(or manipulate our understanding of it)? (Hint: Remember, the two traditional sources of authority in late-fourteenth-century England were the Church, and church doctrine, and the Court, and its literary traditions.)

Q4 (Demi): After her ribald Prologue, we might expect the Wife of Bath's Tale to be more like the Miller's fabliau. But instead, we get a tale about "the'olden dayes of the King Arthour" (l. 863, Norton; p. 240, handout). Admittedly, it is not your ordinary courtly romance, but why do you think she tells that particular tale in that particular form?

Q5 (Kate): On pages 235-39 of your translation (lines 672-834, Norton) the Wife of Bath makes fun of all the "anti-feminist" literature that her fifth husband was reading, and then confronts him about how awful it is. And yet, the Wife of Bath herself sometimes is depicted as a stereotype of a particular sort of woman. Do you think that The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale successfully criticizes and satirizes the anti-feminist literature collected in Jankin's Valerie and Theofraste (line 677), or is it simply an example of such literature? In other words, is the tale feminist (pro-woman), anti-feminist, some of each, or neither? Cite some specific examples.(Hint: the footnotes about the different texts in Jankin's book might help you; the translation you have doesn't have any notes).

Q6 (Tina): Same as Q5. What do you think?

Q7 (Rachel): What exactly is the Wife of Bath's description of how marriage works? Is a good marriage possible in her eyes? How? And, finally, do you think that the power structures that she finds in marriage are necessary to any marriage, or just certain marriages? Why?

Q8 (Annie): A different version of the Wife of Bath's Tale is called Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell, in which the Knight is Sir Gawain, and the magical woman is Lady Ragnell. Does this Knight resemble Gawain from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight? What do each of them learn? Why do you think Medieval poets would think this Knight is like Gawain?

Q9 (Vicky): At the end of the Wife's tale, does the magical woman regain her "maistrye" ("mastery"; line 1242, Norton; p. 250 in the handout)? Is the "maistrye" that she and the Wife of Bath describe the sort of thing that more than one person can hold in a relationship?

Chaucer: "The Miller's Tale," Questions

Here's the study questions for the first part of our reading of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, "The Miller's Tale" and "The General Prologue" (ll. 717-860). Last week's response to Sir Gawain were even better than I could have hoped! In your answers this week, remember to try to include as many quotations (with line or page numbers) and concrete details as you can. (One nice thing about this blog is that it can act as a study aid for your midterm and final exams!)

Question 1 (Debbie): Based on what you have read of "The General Prologue" and the Prologue to "the Miller's Tale," describe the setting in which these tales are told. Pay particular attention to the sorts of people telling the tales and listening to them. How does the setting (and the people) differ from that depicted in the beginning of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight?

Question 2 (James): The Canterbury Tales are reported to us by a narrator (who we eventually learn is called "Geoffrey Chaucer"). Based on what he says in "The General Prologue" (ll. 717-860) and in the Prologue to "The Miller's Tale," how would you describe the narrator as a character? What sort of person do you imagine him to be? (Bonus: what sorts of artistic freedoms do you think Chaucer might have won himself in telling his tales through other characters? Hint: in the late 14th century, poets were supposed to write either courtly romances, or poetry in support of the Church.)

Question 3 (Valerie): Before we hear the description of the Miller in the Prologue to his tale, the narrator describes him in "The General Prologue." Read lines 547-68 of that description (in the Norton, pp. 231-32), and translate it into your own words. Most of the tougher Middle English words will be translated in the Norton, and the ones that aren't you can look up here. The write a quick few sentences about why you decided to translate it how you did. Feel free to translate the passage into verse or prose, and have fun with it! (Hint: that funny word "eke" just means "also").

Question 4 (Mardy): Based on the description of the Miller in the "General Prologue" (ll. 547-68), the Miller's Prologue, and the very beginning of the "Reeve's Tale" (in your handout, pp. 98-99), what do you think the effect is of having this tale told by the Miller? Does it change our attitude towards it? And what's a Miller, anyways?! How does his social class and character clash with or complement that of the other characters, either those in his tale or in the audience (e.g. of the Host, or of the Monk, or the narrator)?

Question 5 (Sophia): Read the anthology's paraphrase of "the Knight's Tale" (Norton, p. 238), the very end of that tale printed in your handout (pp. 78-79), and the description of the Knight from "the General Prologue" (Norton, lines 43-63, p. 219-220). What parallels do you think there might be between the two tales? And what contrasts? Why do you think Chaucer decided to have the Miller's tale follow right after the Knight's tale?

Question 6 (Verthandi): Compare and contrast some of the characteristics of Absolon, from "the Miller's Tale," and Sir Gawain, from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. How are they similar? How are they different? Do we learn a "moral" at the end, like Gawain (supposedly) did? (Hint: do you think Chaucer is satirizing anything? What?)

Question 7 (Carrie): What do you think is the tale's take on marriage? Does it resemble what you would imagine marriage to be like in Medieval times? Does it have anything to do with social class or economics?

Question 8 (Emily): Like Mark did last week, read through these questions, and read the tale, and write a question for me to answer. It could be about the historical setting, the plot, the kind of poetry Chaucer was writing... anything you are wondering about! (This is a very very strange tale!) Just make sure it doesn't overlap too much with the questions above.