All entries for Wednesday 07 October 2009

Week Two: Ben Jonson, The Alchemist

One of the three “most perfect plots ever planned”, Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Preparation for the Seminar:

Points in bold type are a compulsory part of the course. Everything else is intended to be an optional guide to help with preparation.

For next week, please read Ben Jonson, The Alchemist. The campus bookshop has multiple copies of the New Mermaids edition ed. Elizabeth Cook (Methuen, 2004).

Points to think about:
- Where and when is the play set? Why is this significant?
- Language: how is it being used in the play? What different kinds of language are being used? What does the play as a whole have to say about language?
- Alchemy: what is alchemy? What is said about alchemy in the play? How do alchemical ideas/themes emerge in the structure/themes of the play?
- If you can, try and imagine what this play would look like if performed on stage? How might the exits and entrances work? What effect would this have on your understanding of the play?
- Is the end of the play surprising? If so, why? If not, why?

Useful Resources:
For a more detailed description of Anabaptists than that included in the New Mermaids edition, see:
http://www.exlibris.org/nonconform/engdis/anabaptists.html
(Scroll down for a section on Anabaptists in England)

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01445b.htm

A slightly bizarre but very interesting site on alchemy can be found here:
http://www.levity.com/alchemy/

Alice Eardley : 07 Oct 2009 10:58 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Welcome Back!

EN228: Seventeenth Century Literature and Culture: Week One

Alice Eardley: a.eardley@warwick.ac.uk
Office hour: Thursday 4.00-5.00 H528

Course website: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/undergraduate/current/modules/fulllist/second/en228/

Aims of the Course
1. To end up with a real understanding of why people wrote in the seventeenth century, and who read their work
2. To acquire knowledge of seventeenth-century writing, both canonical and non-canonical
3. To develop skill in reading the particular genres and codes of seventeenth-century writing
4. To enjoy reading seventeenth-century writing no-one else has read.

Assessment
Two essays of 2,500 words and a two-hour examination. There is also a required unassessed essay due in Term 1, week 7.

Preparation for seminars
Every Thursday evening/Friday morning I will send out an email detailing the work that needs to be done for the following week’s seminar. This will include information about where to find the text and a series of issues/questions for you to think about while you’re reading.

Presentations
Starting after Reading Week I will be asking each of you to give a presentation on a chapter or article of criticism related to that week’s reading. The week before it is your turn to present, I will send you an email with a list of articles from which you will be asked to select one. Presentations need not be more than five or ten minutes long.

NB: If you read one critical study this year, make it: Jason Scott-Warren, Early Modern English Literature (Cambridge: Polity, 2005)

Any questions: EMAIL ME!

Alice Eardley : 07 Oct 2009 10:25 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem