This syllabus is under construction. The theme of the seminar will be Travel. We will be reading stories about quests, pilgrimages, exile, wandering, and exploration--stories of knights, ladies, religious pilgrims, and adventurers--from the Old English through Early Modern periods, and maybe a bit of other stuff thrown in for fun.

Dr. Derrick G. Pitard
Class Meeting: TBA . . .
Office: SWC 313L
Office Hours for Spring, 2009: Mon. 9-12; T/Th from 11-12
Contact: (738-)2369, or

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This course covers an enormous span of literary history--about nine centuries. To lend our work some coherence, we will follow two threads: the development of the genre of romance, and the changes in conceptions of gender which this reveals. If these will be the water in which we will swim, note that there will also be a strong undertow: the development of literary culture as it grows from orality into literacy. As we shall come to see, this undercurrent has an immensely powerful influence on romance and gender during these periods, which is part of the reason why the middle ages and the Renaissance make such fascinating periods to study.

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Please make sure that you get these editions; some have extra readings and criticism which we will be reading. Most of the course will be based on readings in the Norton.

1. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 8th ed., vol. A. We will be using the first two parts of vol. A. The textbook has a companion website which contains a number of texts, not contained in the printed volume, which are useful for cultural context.
7. Obtain the MLA Style Manual and use it religiously during the course for all aspects of format and documentation.
8. Bring a manila folder with your name on it to class ASAP; all of your graded work will be kept in this folder.

Contribution to class. Please do! A master's degree is a professional degree: this is what you do, so dig in and enjoy. Class is where you share your ideas, where you push them out to sea and find out whether they float. If you don't share them, they'll sink.

Weekly Work. You will hand work every week as answer to prompts which I hand out (and which will be on the Calendar as .pdf files). They may ask for some research, or some work towards a paper. They can be places to begin working on essay topics. These assignments comprise a crucial part of the course, since they are where you begin to actually work on the texts. There is a principle behind them: that to think, you need to write. Their importance is implied in the percentage of the final course grade assigned to them collectively: 40%. These assignments should be presented professionally, in full MLA style.

Presentation. Everyone will present once during term on a topic of their choice; you will choose the week you would like to present on (beginning after the first two or three weeks), and this choice will dictate your topic. For more, see the page on Presentations.

Papers. There will be either one or two papers due during term--the choice is yours. Due dates in either case are on the Calendar. These are persuasive or argumentative papers in which you'll gather evidence--especially linguistic evidence--to argue a point. See the Papers page for more specific information.

1. All work must be completed to pass the course.
2. All procedures pass through a memo. This memo form must be used to request an excused absence or a late paper, or for any other formal request you may want to make. This will be put in your folder to make a paper trail for all business in the course. Staple to it any documentation you'll need.
3. Absence policy:
   • There are two unexcused absences permitted during the term. After this, I will penalize your FINAL course grade by 10 points for each unexcused absence. If you want an excused absence, you must get in touch beforehand and fill out the memo form. Attach to it documentation of a very good excuse. Treat attendance like going to work: you can't just miss a day without giving adequate notice (though adequate notice does not necessarily qualify the reason as excusable).
   • If you miss a class for any reason, you need to fill out a memo form for that day. This is not a form to ask for an excuse, and this is not a punishment; it is to make sure that you keep up with what is going on in the course.
   • If you miss more than 3 weeks of the course--even if you have outstanding reasons for doing so--I will ask you to withdraw from the course. If you miss more than 20% of the course, I just can't give you credit for the course because so much of the work actually happens in the classroom.
4. If you turn in late work, points will be deducted without a valid excuse. For each day that an assigment is late, 5% will be deducted from its grade. I realize that there are other commitments, but you have committed now to this class, too. If you need to turn in something late, clear it with me beforehand and, again, fill out this memo form: don't wind up disappointed with an excuse that you thought was good enough (it has happened).
5. Work must be finished on the day assigned. If it is not, or if you are not otherwise prepared for class, you may be asked to leave and to take an unexcused absence for the day.

1. The grading in the class goes by a percentage system.
   • The weekly assignments are worth 40% of the final grade.
   • The presentation is worth 10% of the final grade.
   • The papers (one or two) are worth 50% points towards the final grade (25% each, if you choose to write two).
2. Note that I have to give a grade based on work that you have done--I can't give a good grade for being a hard worker ("effort") if you at the same time (for whatever reason) haven't been able to complete work for the course. If your paper grades improve over the course of the term, this is concrete evidence. If you feel you are working hard and they still aren't, ask about it!