ENGL 201 Renaissance to the Enlightenment 3.

0 Credits
A survey of Western literature from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, focusing on works by Cervantes,
Erasmus, Rabelais, Petrarch, Voltaire, Rousseau, Swift and Pope.

College/Department: College of Arts and Sciences

Repeat Status: Not repeatable for credit
Restrictions: Cannot enroll if classification is Freshman
Prerequisites: ENGL 103 [Min Grade: D] or ENGL 105 [Min Grade: A]

Learning Outcomes

In English 201, we focus on an increased awareness in the development of English in the four
centuries comprising the Renaissance and Enlightenment, the conventions used both in English
writing and in other, primarily Continental, literature of the time, the role and function of
translation in transmitting cultural developments among the various nations and language
groups comprising England and Western Europe, and the overall cultural self-awareness that
was the Renaissance and its development into the Enlightenment.

Course Description: We read texts of historical importance and cultural significance in relation
to the “rebirth of knowledge” and the “perfection of knowledge” in the Renaissance and
Enlightenment, with texts indicating both the enthusiastic and highly critical self-awarenesses
that were expressed among writers from Marsilio Ficino to Voltaire. We will read a large number
of small extracts from larger works and focus intensively on two of the outstanding larger works
in their entirety, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels and Voltaire’s Candide. In the area of poetry,
we will put special emphasis on the sonnet form, as it was “born” shortly before the period is
generally agreed to have begun and in many ways reflects the aesthetic and mindset both of the
Renaissance and the early Enlightenment.

Objectives of English 201

In English 201, students will:

 Use research to enhance their understanding of topics in the course that are meaningful
to them.
 Find reputable information using Internet and library searches to open up works from
another historical period.
 Be able to integrate information from outside sources into their written work in an ethical
manner.
 Write persuasive arguments appropriate to audiences both inside and outside of
academia.
 Respond productively to their classmates’ writing.
 Improve their clarity, grammar and mechanics.
 Develop a more positive attitude towards writing.
 Develop an understanding of how elegant writing of another historical period can
contribute to the development of improved writing in the present.

Course Requirements
Texts:

Kramnick, Isaac, ed. The Portable Enlightenment Reader. New York: Penguin, 1995.

Negri, Paul, ed. Great Sonnets. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover, 1994.

Ross, James Bruce, ed. The Portable Renaissance Reader. New York: Penguin, 1981.

Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver’s Travels. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover, 1996.

Voltaire. Candide: or, Optimism. Ware (illos.), Cuffe (trans.). New York: Penguin, 2005.

Class Participation and Attendance

Your participation is essential to your success in this class. Class participation means being
present and prepared, and actively engaging with discussion, readings, and writing. Students
who miss more than 10% of class meetings due to unexcused absences will have their grades
reduced. A student who misses more than 20% of scheduled class time as a result of
unexcused OR excused absences will fail the course. An excused absence is defined as one
that is the result of a condition or circumstance beyond the student’s control, such as illness, a
family crisis or emergency, or essential travel; an official university event (e.g., academics,
athletics or performing arts); or a religious holiday. Normally, an absence will be excused only if
there is some documentation verifying the circumstances that caused the absence.

Being on time is also important. Students who are often late to class may be marked absent at
their instructor’s discretion.

Technology Expectations and Tech Support

You need to be able to access Blackboard Learn, and you also must have an active Drexel
email account. If you are having problems accessing Learn, setting up your email please
contact http://www.drexel.edu/irt/ or call the Help Desk at 215.895.2020.

Academic Dishonesty

All students must abide by Drexel’s policy about academic dishonesty. The policy can be
accessed here: http://www.drexel.edu/provost/policies/academic_dishonesty.asp

Drexel University Writing Center

The Drexel Writing Center (DWC) is staffed by Peer and Faculty readers who will help you
develop as a writer through one-on-one consultations on current writing projects. The DWC
website has more details: www.drexel.edu/writingcenter. The DWC is located in 0032
MacAlister Hall and can be reached at 215-895-6633.

Add/Drop/Withdraw

You will have until the end of the first week to add or drop a course. Please note that you are
responsible for any work you miss in the late addition of a course. For more information on
Add/Drop, please visit Add/Drop. Undergraduates have until the end of the 7th week of the term
to withdraw. For details on the withdrawal policy, see Withdraw

Drexel Office of Disability Resources

Students with disabilities who request accommodations and services at Drexel need to present
a current accommodation verification letter (AVL) to faculty before accommodations can be
made. AVLs are issued by the Office of Disability Resources (ODR). For additional information,
contact the ODR online at http://www.drexel.edu/oed/disabilityResources/Overview/. The ODR
is located at 3201 Arch St., Ste. 210, Philadelphia, PA, 19104. Phone: 215-895-1401; TTY: 215-
895-2299.

Class Schedule:

Key:

E-Reader = Kramnick, Isaac, ed. The Portable Enlightenment Reader. New York: Penguin, 1995

R-Reader = Ross, James Bruce, ed. The Portable Renaissance Reader. New York: Penguin,
1981

Sonnets = Negri, Paul, ed. Great Sonnets. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover, 1994

Swift = Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver’s Travels. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover, 1996

Volt = Voltaire. Candide: or, Optimism. Ware (illos.), Cuffe (trans.). New York: Penguin, 2005

January

10: No prior reading; presentation on the Renaissance World-view in class.

12: R-Reader: “A Bleak Prospect,” “The Golden Age in Florence,” “An Age of Gold,” “The
Excellence of This Age,” and “Don Quixote and the Golden Age”

17: R-Reader: pages 421-452 (lyric poetry), “Petrarca and the Art of Poetry” (127-130)

19: Sonnets: pages 1-4 (Wyatt through Ralegh): Wyatt—“The long love that in my heart doth
harbor” “My galley charged with forgetfulness” “Farewell, love, and all thy laws forever”
“Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind” Howard—“The Soote Season” “Love, that doth
reign and live within my thought” Gascoigne—“You must not wonder, though you think it
strange” Ralegh—“Sir Walter Raleigh to His Son”

24: Sonnets: pages 5-16 (Spenser through Shakespeare) Spenser—“Happy ye leaves! whenas
those lily hands” “Most glorious Lord of life, that on this day” “One day I wrote her name upon
the strand” “Fair is my love, when her fair golden hairs” Sidney—“Loving in truth, and fain in
verse my love to show” “With how sad steps, O Moon, thou climb’st the skies!” “Come Sleep! O
Sleep! the certain knot of peace” “Leave me, O Love, which reaches but to dust” Samuel
Daniel—“Fair is my Love and cruel as she’s fair” “Care-charmer Sleep, son of the sable Night”
“Let others sing of Knights and Paladines” “If this be love, to draw a weary breath” Drayton—
“Dear, why should you command me to my rest” “Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and
part” Joshua Sylvester—“Were I as base as is the lowly plain” SHAKESPEARE—“When I do
count the clock that tells the time” “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” “When in disgrace
with fortune and men’s eyes” “When to the sessions of sweet silent thought” “Not marble, nor
the gilded monuments” “Let me not to the marriage of true minds” “Th’expense of spirit in a
waste of shame” “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”

26: R-Reader: Orfeo (453-460), “The Soul of Man” (387-392), “The Dignity of Man” (476-479),
“Michelangelo” (501-512)

31: R-Reader: “The Old World and the New” (157-152), “Gargantua’s Advice to Pantagruel”
(414-420), (+ “Tobacco, Tobacco”)

February

2: Sonnets: Donne (17-18): “Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay?” “At the round
earth’s imagined corners, blow” “Death be not proud, though some have called thee” “Batter my
heart, three-person’d God” Milton (21-23): “On His Being Arrived to the Age of Twenty-Three”
“On His Blindness” “On the Late Massacre in Piedmont” “On His Deceased Wife” “To the Lord
General Cromwell, on the Proposals” etc.

7: R-Reader: “The Manner of the World Nowadayes” (224-6), “A Painter’s Travels” (227-233)

9: In-class exam on the Renaissance

14: Mid-term on the Renaissance rescheduled

16: E-Reader: “The Human Mind Emerged from Barbarism” (7-17), “Encyclopédie” (17-21),
“The Rat” (60-63)

21: E-Reader: “On Bacon and Newton” (51-60), “A Letter Concerning Toleration” (81-90) ,
“Children and Civic Education” (229-235)

23: E-Reader: “The Fable of the Bees” (242-254), “An Essay on Man” (255-6), “Enjoyment and
Tahiti” (265-274)

28: E-Reader: “On Wit” (314-318), “Discourse on Style” (319-321), “The Sublime” (329-333)

March

2: In-class exam on the Enlightenment

7: Swift, Parts I & II (pages 1-107)

9: Swift, Parts III & IV (pages 109-226)

14: Voltaire, Chapters 1-18 (pages 4-50)

16: Voltaire, Chapters 19-30 (pages 51-94)

****************

25: Final papers due to be uploaded onto Blackboard Learn by 11:59 p.m. No exceptions.

Written Assignments:

February 9: In-class exam on the Renaissance (35% of final grade)

March 2: In-class exam on the Enlightenment (25% of final grade)

March 25: Paper on Swift and Voltaire—apply whichever ideas that are found in the readings on
the Enlightenment from The Enlightenment Reader (covered in class from February 14 through
the 28th) are relevant to Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels and to Voltaire’s Candide, either showing that
in certain ways either author “fits” contemporary descriptions of Enlightenment or differs from
them. In other words, use the Enlightenment readings to analyze these two longer Enlightenment
works of fiction. Upload these to the BbLearn platform before 11:59 p.m. on Saturday March
25, which is when Blackboard closes down for the term.