LIT 49906/ENGL508: Old English

M 5:30 PM - 8:20 PM in BL 153

W 5:30-6:20 Recitation Location TBA

Dr. Felicia Jean Steele

Office: Bliss Hall 207; 771-2698 (I prefer email)

Office Hours: TF 1:00-2:00, Check schedule for availability.

Email: steele@tcnj.edu

Class Website: http://steele.intrasun.tcnj.edu/fall2005/oldenglish

 

Course Description:

 

This course will introduce the language, literature, and culture of the Anglo-Saxons (449AD-1066AD). In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Old English was treated as the classical stage of the English language; this approach has several flaws: it posits perfect continuity between Old English and later stages of the language; it privileges heroic genres over ecclesiastical and historical genres; and it seeks to recreate a perfect textual exemplar. We will not look at Old English as the original stage of the language from which everything has fallen into corruption. Instead, our study of Old English will combine close examination of problems of historical linguistics with issues of manuscript production and cultural production. All of these discussions will lead toward an examination of the place of Old English within the discipline of English studies.

 

We will spend the first eight weeks of class gaining proficiency in reading Old English. We will learn to parse and read Old English poetry and prose using a method that combines traditional philology with modern formal linguistics. By the end of the eighth week of class, students will have acquired a rudimentary reading knowledge of the language, which they will then hone with intensive reading and translation. The second half of the semester will be spent examining manuscript culture, literary and extra-literary genres popular in Anglo-Saxon England, and current topics of in literary criticism of Old English texts. We will also explore contemporary critical issues central to Anglo-Saxonists with interests in language and cultural/literary studies..

 

Course Objectives: This course has a number of major objectives. In this course, students will

Course Outcomes: In this course, students will

Required Texts:

Baker, Peter. Introduction to Old English. Blackwell.

Liuzza, Roy. Old English Literature. Yale.

Fulk, Robert and Christopher Cain. A History of Old English Literature.

Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms

Selected Reserve and SOCS Resources Readings

Baker, Peter. Old English Aerobics

 

Grading:

Mid-term examination (linguistic description) 20%

Editing Project 10%

Response Papers (5) 10%

Bibliographical Annotations 10%

Translation Portfolio 25%

Researched Final Paper 25%

 

Descriptions of Assignments:

 

Bibliographical Annotations In the first half of the term, you will be exploring research questions in addition to the rest of your workload. For each scholarly essay we read, you will identify an issue that you find interesting in the essay and do a bibliographical search for other articles that address that issue. You will then read one of those essays you have found and formulate a brief annotation for it in our collaboratively constructed bibliography. Please submit your citations and annotations to the class Bibliofile. By the time you begin your research for your final paper in earnest, you will have access to the collective reading wisdom of the entire class. If students wind up duplicating annotations, I'll combine them together. Multiple opinions are always good. One note of caution--I will be checking database annotations to compare them to your own. Your annotations should focus on making connections between the essays you've read as class assignments and the essays you've chosen.

 

Midterm Examination Your midterm examination will objectively test your understanding of the grammatical structure of Old English. You will be asked to identify parts of speech, cases, tenses, numbers, and voices. You will receive one passage that you have not yet seen and be asked to parse it out. A glossary will be provided.

 

Editing Project Due For your editing project you will take one half of a leaf from an Old English text from those I have selected from the Oxford Electronic Text Archive. You will produce a diplomatic transcription of this half leaf. As you will learn, a diplomatic transcription reproduces as closely as possible (within the limitations of modern typography) the manuscript page as it was originally produced--reproducing spelling, spacing, and pointing. You will also produce a corrected “edition,” that includes glossary and notes. You should check existing editions of the text, noting variations between this manuscript and the editorial exemplar used in creating the standard edition. You should also check articles that might address textual cruces. I've kept it to half a leaf to try to keep your work to a minimum.

 

Researched Final Paper

Your final research project asks you to address one particular issue regarding an Anglo-Saxon text (or genre, or set of texts) and make an original argument. I expect you to make a theoretically sophisticated argument regarding one or more elements of a text we read this semester, or a text you have chosen on your own. You should plan to read secondary material (literary criticism, history, linguistics, codicology) and formulate an original (and I realize how problematic that term is) argument about the text or issue. Your final project should be at least twenty pages in length, turned in December 20 (the day after the final day of classes--I want to give you an additional day to integrate feedback you might get from your classmates after your presentations). Additionally, you should prepare a five minute presentation based on your final paper, which you will share with your peers the final day of classes. You should prepare a handout to accompany your presentation that includes the following information: a brief declaration of your argument (your thesis from your paper) and two or three of your most compelling pieces of evidence (quotations or illustrations from your sources). You should plan to consult with me prior to beginning your project, especially since you should allow for plenty of time to secure secondary sources through inter-library loan. Your final paper will be evaluated according to the following criteria: do you make a sound, erudite, reasonable, and logical argument that reflects insight on a problem of significance to Anglo-Saxon scholarship? Do you use sources effectively, appropriately, and with due diligence paid to their meaning? Do you translate Old English sources effectively and compellingly? Is your argument well-written, documented appropriately in MLA style? Do you have all the appropriate pieces of apparatus (an abstract, textual notes, and a works cited)? All papers should be well-edited and closely proofread.

 

Translation/Homework Portfolio (revised to reflect shift to Homework portfolio)

During our weekly sessions, we will be presenting many of our translations in class, although our discussion will focus most on developing good translation practices. Each week, you will be responsible for translating or decoding a specific portion of the text in class. When asked to translate in class, you translate from the Old English text itself and your notes on that text alone, not from prepared translations. I expect you to compose corrected translations of your assigned portions of each of our readings. Moreover, every student should prepare a full translation of The Wanderer. Twice during the second half of the course you will prepare a portfolio of homework representing your interaction with the texts up to that point of the semester. yI will collect your portfolio at the conclusion of the course as well. Only your final portfolio will be graded, although I will have commented upon your portfolio on the intermediate occasion. Your portfolio of translations will be graded according to the following criteria: full representation of all assigned tasks over the semester; grammatical and stylistic accuracy, grace of idiomatic Present Day English (PDE) phrasing, and accessibility to PDE readers for translations. Adequate portfolios (which would earn a C grade) will be reasonably complete, legibly prepared, demonstrating an understanding of the assigned tasks; translations will be generally accurate, written in grammatically correct PDE, although they might maintain too slavish an adherence the original syntax or to dictionary definitions, thereby poorly reflecting the tone of the original text. Good portfolios (B) will be complete, thoroughly prepared, demonstrating proficiency in the assigned tasks; translations will be accurate, written in grammatically correct and idiomatic PDE, with sufficiently stylish word choices to demonstrate understanding of the tone of the original text. Excellent portfolios (A) will be entirely complete, demonstrating excellence in the assigned tasks; translations will be accurate, written in grammatically correct and comfortably idiomatic PDE, with exceptionally good and stylish word choices that demonstrate insight into the original text and that present a good alternative for the original text for modern readers.

 

A Note on Preparation and Time Commitments

After reading the description of the course requirements above, you should realize that you will be facing a wide range of different kinds of tasks over the whole semester: from grammatical drills to writing researched arguments. I wanted to shed some light on my syllabus design process to give you a sense of how I anticipate you will have to manage your time. Those of you enrolled in the undergraduate version of this course (LIT 499) are earning four undergraduate credit hours. In general, faculty anticipate that students who will be most successful in their undergraduate classes will spend between two and three hours of time preparing for class for every hour they spend in class (8-12 hours per week). Those of you enrolled in the graduate version of the course (ENGL508) will be earning three graduate hours for the class. Faculty anticipate graduate students will have to spend between three and four hours per week preparing for class for every credit hour earned (9-12 hours per week). As you can see, you will likely be spending between nine and 12 hours per week outside of class preparing for our three hour session on Monday nights. While I may not have assigned nine hours worth of homework for every class, I anticipate that you will want to spend considerable time doing independent research or studying with other members of the class. I understand that most of you will have additional commitments while enrolled in the course, so I want to make sure that you know up-front how much time you will need to spend to succeed in the course. I want to make sure that you have all the tools and information you need to succeed--that's just as much my goal as I'm sure it is yours.

 

Accommodations

The College of New Jersey is committed to ensuring equal opportunity and access to all members of the campus community in accordance with Section 503/504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). The College prohibits discrimination against any student on the basis of physical or mental disability, or perceived disability. The College will provide reasonable and appropriate accommodations to enable students to participate in the life of the campus community. Individuals with disabilities are responsible for reporting and supplying documentation verifying their disability. Requests for accommodations must be initiated through the Office of Differing Abilities Services, Eickhoff Hall 159, 609.771.2571. If you require special assistance, I will make every effort to accommodate your needs and to create an environment where your special abilities will be respected.

Academic Integrity

Please review the campus-wide policy on academic integrity. Plagiarism is intellectual theft, no matter the source of the original text. Since you are all advanced students, I anticipate that you will have no problem keeping to a high standard of integrity. If I suspect otherwise, I will confront you about it directly. Please begin the good practice of retaining your notes and working drafts to document your original work. I recommend highly the use of bibliographical management software such as Endnote to keep track of your research.

 

Preliminary Course Schedule

Tuesday, September 6: Old English: its Indo-European Past and its Modern English Future

Class Activities: Introduction to the class and methods of instructions; recommendations for preparation and research.

Class sight-reading: Appolonius of Tyre

Readings:

Baker, Chs. 1, 2, & 3

Have completed for class: Response Paper I: Write a one-page single spaced response that addresses your preconceptions about Old English. What has been your experience with Old English? What are your anxieties about this course and the course material? What are your assumptions about Old English and about Anglo-Saxon literature and culture?

 

Monday, September 12: How do we decode Old English?

Parts of speech, parsing, morphology, inflectional systems, and an introduction to comparative linguistic analysis.

Readings:

Fulk and Cain, "Introduction"

Baker, Chs. 4-6 (inclusive)

Class Sight-reading: Selections from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

Research Question 1: Do a basic bibliographical search on one issue, term, concept, or text mentioned in Fulk and Cain's "Introduction." For example, you could look up comitatus in the MLA, Project Muse, or EBSCOHost databases and see what you come up with. I would caution against plugging in Beowulf unless you are terribly interested in seeing the range of four thousand articles written about the text. Find a recent article (within the last ten years) addressing that issue. Read it, and write a brief annotation for that essay. Post the annotation to the class bibliography in the class Bibliofile..

 

Monday, September 19: Introduction to the Verbal System(s)

Introduction to the principal parts of verbs, to the terms and mechanisms of the strong verbal system; how to recognize the seven classes and their component parts. Introduction to ancillary resources in Old English scholarship: Dictionary of Old English and Dictionary of Old English Corpus. Library Field Trip

Readings:

Baker, Ch. 7

Fulk and Cain, Ch. 1

SOCS, Roger Lass, “Ablaut, the laryngeal(s) and the IE root”

--Class sightreading: Selections from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

Homework: Drills on the Seven Classes

Response Paper II: The reading from Roger Lass should demonstrate the congruencies between Old English verbal structures and the verbal structures of other Indo-European languages. Write a brief, one page response, that details the way in which you’ve decided to learn these fairly complex patterns. What sort of system have you formulated for yourself to make sense of this?

 

Monday, September 26: More about verbs

          Introduction to the other two parts of the Old English verbal system, weak verbs (verbs derived from other parts of speech), and anomalous or preterite-present verbs.

          Modern English verbs of the highest frequency belong to these two classes. We will discuss their development and the reasons why they are both so enduring and so flexible within the evolution of English.

Readings:

Liuzza: Nicholas Howe, “The Cultural Construction of Reading in Anglo-Saxon England”

Fulk and Cain, Ch. 5, Biblical Literature

Translation homework: "The Fall of Adam and Eve"

Research Question 2: Do a basic bibliographical search on one issue mentioned in Howe's essay. Find a recent article (within the last ten years) addressing that issue. Read it, and write a brief annotation for that essay. Post the annotation to the class bibliography in the class Bibliofile..

 

Monday, October 3: Word formation: nominal and adjectival morphology

We will begin by revisiting the determiners and move on to the adjectives and the nouns. We will then discuss the various word-building features of Old English: compounding, prefixation and affixation, participial constructions.

Readings:

Baker, Chs. 8-10

Fulk and Cain, Ch. 2; Katherine O'Brien O'Keefe, "Orality and the Developing Text of Cædmon's Hymn”; Clare Lees and Gillian Overing, "Birthing Bishops and Fathering Poets: Bede Hild, and the Relations of Cultural Production.

Translation homework: Bede’s accounts of the conversion of King Edwin of the poet Cædmon.

Response Paper III How do O’Keefe’s notions of “orality” complicate your understanding of textuality? What happens to our modern notion of “author” in an oral literary tradition?

 

Monday, October 10: Putting it all together and making it fit: Syntax.

Readings:

Baker, Chs. 11-12

Fulk and Cain, Chs. 3 & 4

Liuzza: Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, "The Hero in Christian Reception: Ælfric and Heroic Poetry"

Translation homework: "St. Edmund, King and Martyr"

Research Question 3: Do a basic bibliographical search on one issue mentioned in Wogan-Browne's essay. Find a recent article (within the last ten years) addressing that issue. Read it, and write a brief annotation for that essay. Post the annotation to the class bibliography in the class Bibliofile..

 

Monday October 17 Midterm Examination (80 minutes) Your midterm examination will objectively test your understanding of the grammatical structure of Old English. You will be asked to identify parts of speech, cases, tenses, numbers, and voices. You will receive one passage that you have not yet seen and be asked to parse it out. A glossary will be provided.

    Introduction to Paleography (remainder of class period)

 

Monday, October 31: Reading and Translation

Readings:

Liuzza: Stephanie Hollis, "The Thematic Structure of Sermo Lupi ad Anglos"; Michelle Brown, selections from Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts (SOCS); Bernhard Bischoff, selections Latin Paleography (SOCS); J. R. Hall, “Old English Literature” (SOCS)

Translation Homework: Sermo Lupi ad Anglos

Research Question 4: Do a basic bibliographical search on one issue mentioned in Hollis's essay. Find a recent article (within the last ten years) addressing that issue. Read it, and write a brief annotation for that essay. Post the annotation to the class bibliography in the class Bibliofile..

 

Monday, November 7: Reading and Translation

Readings: Liuzza: Clare Lees, "Didacticism and the Christian Community: The Teachers and the Taught"; A. N. Doane, “Spacing, Placing, and Effacing: Scribal Textuality and Exeter Riddle 30 a/b” (Reserve);

Translation Homework: "The Life of St. Æþelþryþ"

Paleography Exercises SOCS

Research Question 5: Do a basic bibliographical search on one issue mentioned in either Lees's or Doane's essays. Find a recent article (within the last ten years) addressing that issue. Read it, and write a brief annotation for that essay. Post the annotation to the class bibliography in the class Bibliofile..

 

Monday, November 14: Reading and Translation

Readings: Patricia Belanoff, “Judith: Sacred and Secular Heroine”; Baker, Chs. 13-16

Translation Homework:  Judith

Response Paper IV: You should be in the midst of your edition project, so I would like you to reflect on the nature of textual production. What have you learned about the mediating roles of scribe and editor as you have been working on this project? 

 

Monday, November 21: Reading and Translation

Readings: Liuzza: Stephen D. White, "Kingship and Lordship in Early Medieval England: The Story of Sigeberht, Cynewulf, and Cyneheard";  Roberta Frank, “The Reception of the Battle of Maldon: 1726-1906”

Translation Homework:  Cynewulf and Cyneheard and The Battle of Maldon (SOCS)

Response Paper V The two Chronicle pieces that we’re reading this week are composed in different text-types: one is prose, the other verse. Reflect upon Frank’s discussion of the reception of The Battle of Maldon and try to deduce why the BoM might be called “bad” Old English poetry. You may also wish to consider some of the differences between the two pieces as well.

Editing Project Due

 

Monday, November 28

Week XII: Reading and Translation

Readings:  Liuzza: Sandra McEntire, “The Devotional Context of the Cross before AD. 1000”; Carol Braun Pasternack, “Stylistic Disjunctions in The Dream of the Rood”

Translation Homework:  The Dream of the Rood

Homework Portfolio Check Due

 

Monday, December 5

Week XIII, XIV, and XV: Reading and Translation

Readings: SOCS: Christine Fell, “Perceptions of Transience”; Liuzza: Robert E. Bjork, “Sundor æt Rune : The Voluntary Exile of the Wanderer”;  Margrét Gunnarsdóttir Champion, “From Plaint to Praise: Language as Cure in The Wanderer”

Fulk and Cain, Ch. 8: Wisdom Literature and Lyric Poetry

Translation Homework: The Wanderer

 

Monday, December 12: Reading and Translation

Readings Shari Horner, “En/closed Subjects: The Wife’s Lament and the Culture of Early Medieval Female Monasticism”

Translation Homework (as much as we can do): The Wife’s Lament and The Husband's Message

 

Monday, December 19 Class Presentations