Module in Survey of English and American Literature

The course is a comprehensive survey of the English and the American literatures released
from its vast literary movements. The course is designed to trace the development of literature in
the Western cultures from the oldest to the postmodern time. This three-unit course aims to explore
the readers’ varied reading experiences by enriching their appreciation of the works of the major
writers in different epochs. The genres are selected for literary analysis to arouse the students’
interest and challenge their imagination, level of understanding as well as their critical thinking
skills. This course also aims to increase the student’s appreciation of the values embedded in each
of the selections.
The students are tasked to analyze and interpret the distinct characteristics, forms and
structure of the literary pieces produced through the ages through a series of aesthetic and
intellectual discussion and literary criticism. The course is also geared towards enhancing the
students’ communication skills and ability to expound on their views, insights, and sentiments
through varied means of creative expressions such as role playing, group dynamics, research
activity, film / book critiques, oral presentations and the like. Likewise, the students are expected
to draw out authentic human values and attitudes from the works produced by representative men
of letters in the realm of the English and American civilization. Finally, the learners are expected
to find the social relevance of studying the Western literature by relating the Christian-Augustinian
spirit to a broader life context that is directed upon elevating the students’ deeper perspectives on
the values and meanings of the texts that may influence their character and choices in life.
This module provides the parameters for the adoption and integration of flexible learning
and teaching that are suitably aligned with the institutional learning and teaching goals and
objectives. Online strategy will be made through synchronous modality (happening collaboratively
and at the same time with a group of online learners and usually a teacher) and asynchronous
modality (happening at any time, not necessarily in a group, but with teachers’ feedback). In
addition, the writer of this module decided to follow the format suggested by Pawilen, G. T. (2019)
in writing module for flexible learning.

Anticipatory Set Performance Task Performance Task

(Critical Thinking) (Collaboration,

Communication,
Creativity &

Read Reflect Respond

At the end of the course, the students are expected to:
 Relate significant and evocative experiences of the characters parallel to real life
contexts;
 Point out the most significant ideas, feelings, tastes of writers from the different
classes and historical periods;
 Describe a deeper connotation of the relations between man and his times, their minds,
values and perspectives of time and space;
 Draw out valuable insights from the themes and other symbolic representations
conveyed by the writers;
 Describe the historical accounts, socio-political, cultural and literary atmosphere
during the period;
 Expound on the critical evaluation of representative works of modern fiction;
 Identify substantial works of men of letters that demonstrate important movements and
features of literature of different periods;
 Recognize and analyze the historical, geographical, social, and psychological settings for
given pieces of literature;
 Identify the literary efforts and contributions of writers emerging from the period;
 Assess the main considerations affecting the purpose of the authors in their
compositions;
 Point out the major influences and impact of the literature created by the greatest men
of English and American letters;
 Analyze the central theme and literary conventions that appear through the reading
material selected;
 Familiarize with the general knowledge of the social and daily life of the English
speaking countries
 Manifest appreciation of the rich historic accounts of the age and its pioneer and
succeeding literary periods;
 Mold students who are socially active, refined and profound thinkers and writers of the
humanities who can easily adapt to changing times in the global world.

Note: Remind the students to create their own website using Google Site. This is only with
internet access. For students who have limited access to technology, they are requested to print
the modules.
Week 1: Development of the English Language
“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author
that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you
felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though.”
― J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

At the end of the lesson, the students are expected to

 point out the major influences and impact of the literature created by the greatest men
of English and American letters;
 create a blog about the topic; and
 manifest appreciation of the rich historic accounts of the age and its pioneer and
succeeding literary periods.

Before we Begin…
Establish your own development in the English language by accomplishing the KWLA
Graphic Organizer. Submit your work to your professor through Messenger.

What I know What I would want to know

What I learned What affected me

 READ

The history of English is conventionally, if perhaps too neatly, divided into three periods usually
called Old English (or Anglo-Saxon), Middle English, and Modern English. The earliest period
begins with the migration of certain Germanic tribes from the continent to Britain in the fifth
century A.D., though no records of their language survive from before the seventh century, and it
continues until the end of the eleventh century or a bit later. By that time Latin, Old Norse (the
language of the Viking invaders), and especially the Anglo-Norman French of the dominant class
after the Norman Conquest in 1066 had begun to have a substantial impact on the lexicon, and
the well-developed inflectional system that typifies the grammar of Old English had begun to
break down.

Old English in Perspective It is very difficult

to say when Old English began, because this pushes us back
beyond the date of our earliest records for either Old English
or any of its closest relatives (with the exception of very
occasional inscriptions and the evidence of words and names
occurring in Latin or in other languages). Everyone agrees in
calling the language of our earliest extensive sources found in
contemporary copies ‘Old English’: these are Latin-English
glossaries from around the year 700. (Some other material was
certainly composed before 700, but survives only in later
copies.) By this time Old English was already very distinct
from its Germanic sister languages (see below) as a result of
many sound changes (i.e. changes in how certain sounds were
pronounced, chiefly when they occurred near to certain other
sounds) and other linguistic developments. In fact, most of the
most important changes which we can trace through our
surviving Old English documents had already happened before
this time. Some of them were very probably well in progress or even complete before the time of the
settlement in England.
 The conventional dividing date of approximately 1150 between Old English and Middle
English reflects (very roughly) the period when these changes in grammar and vocabulary begin to
become noticeable in most of the surviving texts (which are not very numerous from this transitional
period). In what is often called ‘transitional English’ the number of distinct inflections becomes fewer,
and word order takes on an increasing functional load. At the same time borrowings from French and
(especially in northern and eastern texts) from early Scandinavian become more frequent. All of these
processes were extremely gradual, and did not happen at the same rate in all places. Therefore any
dividing date is very arbitrary, and can only reflect these developments very approximately.

The Indo-European Base of English

English belongs to the Indo-European family of languages and is therefore related to most
other languages spoken in Europe and western Asia from Iceland to India. The parent tongue,
called Proto-Indo-European, was spoken about 5,000 years ago by nomads believed to have
roamed the southeast European plains. Germanic, one of the language groups descended from this
ancestral speech, is usually divided by scholars into three regional groups: East (Burgundian,
Vandal, and Gothic, all extinct), North (Icelandic, Faroese, Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish),
and West (German, Dutch [and
Flemish], Frisian, and English).
Though closely related to English,
German remains far
more conservative than English in
its retention of a fairly elaborate
system of inflections. Frisian,
spoken by the inhabitants of the
Dutch province of Friesland and the
islands off the west coast
of Schleswig, is the language most
nearly related to Modern English.
Icelandic, which has changed little
over the last thousand years, is the
living language most nearly
resembling Old English in
grammatical structure.
The Germanic Roots of English
Hundreds of languages compose the Indo-European family, so linguists divide them into
closely related subfamilies. The Germanic branch is one of the ten or so Indo-European
subfamilies. Germanic languages are English’s distant cousins, so to speak. The Germanic family
itself has subgroups; English is in the West Germanic branch along with German, Dutch,
Afrikaans, and a few others.
West Germanic languages all trace back to one parent language. No one knows its name or
exactly how it sounded. Linguists theorize its characteristics from modern languages that
descended from it. Just like children who inherit features from their parents, languages that share
West Germanic parentage have family characteristics.
Languages within the same family exhibit similar variations. To illustrate, compare “Good
morning” or “Good day” in some of the Germanic languages. There’s the German Guten Morgen,
the Dutch Goedemorgen, the Swedish God morgon, and the Danish Godmorgen.
There is evidence that thousands of years ago, the people of southern Scandinavia and
northern Germany spoke this ancestor language of English. Speakers of this proto-language
migrated. As they went their separate ways, the language evolved differently in each group.
Eventually, the languages became distinctly different tongues, but they retained some similar
features that make them identifiable as part of the same language family. To compare, let’s look
at “Good day” in the Romance languages. These languages fall into one of the most widely-spoken
subgroups of the Indo-European family, but they are not on the same branch as the Germanic
languages. The French Bonjour is quite similar to the Italian Buongiorno. Yet, the terms are unlike
the English ones because the Romance languages are not as closely related to English as the
Germanic languages are.

The Scandinavian Influence

The Scandinavian influence on the English language began soon after the arrival of the
Scandinavians on the British Isles. The Norsemen, usually Norwegians and Danes, began their
raids on the British ground at the end of the eighth century. They came to plunder, but also to settle
on the new land. The arrival of the Norsemen or, as they were also called, Vikings in the late eighth
century marked the beginning of the period in the English history known as the 19 Viking age.
After years of battles between the two civilizations, began the period of assimilation of the Danes
and Norwegians with the English people (Fennel, 2008: 57, 58). The district known as the Danelaw
was also established and it occupied the eastern parts of the northern British territory. The two
civilizations were very similar and even used the similar language. Thus the influence of the
Scandinavian language on the English was very significant. In the period of about two centuries,
during which the Vikings dominated on the British ground, they left their mark on the language
which can be recognized even today.
 The influence was so
deep that it affected even the
English grammar. The
ending –s in 3rd person
singular, participial ending –
and in Northumbrian dialect
(now replaced by –ing), or
the final t which denotes the
neuter adjective ending of
Old Norse in words want and
scant are all consequences of
the Scandinavian influence.
The most important change
under the Scandinavian
influence was simplification
of the inflections. After the
contact with the
Scandinavian language,
inflections gradually disappeared from the English language and it shifted from synthetic to
analytic type (Baugh, Cable, 2005: 93). In syntax there are also traces of Old Norse language like
the omission of the relative pronoun in relative clauses and retention or omission of the conjunction
that. The use of shall and will in the MidE are much the same as in Scandinavian. Also the tendency
to put a strong stress at times on the preposition and the 21 occurrence of locutions such as “he has
someone to work for” is common to both, Scandinavian and the English language, but not in other
Germanic languages (Baugh, Cable, 2005: 94). It can be said that the Scandinavian influence on
the English language is evident not just in vocabulary, but also in grammar and syntax. The words
of Scandinavian origin are still used in everyday life and even in a larger amount in the northern
English dialects. Thus we can say that the influence of the Scandinavian language has been one of
the most important involvements in the structure of the English language.

The Latin Influence

Latin has influenced the English language tremendously. Most of the influence, however,
has been indirect. The indirect effect of Latin on English came mainly after the Normans invaded
England in 1066. Their language, not surprisingly, influenced English. Since their language
(French) was a Romance language descended from Latin, this gave Latin an indirect influence on
English.

Latin also influenced Old English directly because of the Roman Conquest of England. But
this influence was not as great or as lasting as the indirect influence.
 In between the end of Roman occupation and the Norman invasion, Latin also influenced
English because Latin was the language of the Catholic Church (which was then the only Christian
church).

About 70% of English words come from Latin. This alone make Latin the most important
language to influence English. For example, the word, promise, comes from “pro-mitto,” meaning
to send before. Here are some more examples: word = verbum; canine = canis; college =collegium.
I think you get the picture. Also Latin has influenced our grammar. For example, the distinction
between “I” and “me” is based on cases. I equals nominative case in Latin and me equals dative,
ablative and accusative cases. Even little things like the improper use of split infinitives come from
Latin, since in Latin infinitives cannot be split. For example, to love is amare (one word) in Latin.
So, in short, Latin continues to play a huge role.

Among the three great influences, –Latin, French, Scandinavian, -Latin is the oldest.
There three influences have changed the content and characteristic of the Keltic language, the
original language of English. Before 499, -the period of the settlement of the Anglo-Saxon, in
‘Briton’, -the present England had Roman occupation. It was a pre-historical period. Since then,
Latin element began to enter into the then language of England. Again, in the remote past, Greek-
language was the highest cultural language. Some of the Greek-words, after being converted into
Latin found inception into the English language. So, by the classical linguistic influence is meant,
the simultaneous influence of the two classical languages, – Greek and Latin Word coinage from
Latin is a prolonged continuation. It had started from the pre-historical period, and had been
continuing in greater and less extent till the renaissance, and it is still continuing. To have a
comprehensive resultant of the influence, the philologists and the scholars have marked the span
of the influence into three distinguished and decisive phases.

These three stages are: (a) pre-Christian-period (b) the period of conversion of the English
people Christianity (597A.D.) (c) the period covering the Renaissance and the post Renaissance in
the 16th century.

The Latin influence on English vocabulary has been 3-fold. Moreover, the Latin words
were mixed up with the Greek in most cases, and hence it should be called the Latin and Greek
influence.

The 1st phase of importing Latin words into English began long before the Angles and
Jutes came to England, and the Germanic forefathers of the English were still living in the
Continent. The words that were imported during this phase were mainly related to plants, fruits,
food; eg. wine, pea, plum, cheese, mint, street, cook, kitchen, milk. These did not necessarily exist
in these forms, and the original words have undergone many changes.

The 2nd phase of Latin loan words came to England with the Christian Missionaries in the
late 6th and 7th centuries A.D. They brought in with them ideas related to religion, the Church and
monastic living. Eg:minster(L. monesterium), monk(L. monachus), bishop(L. episcopus), priest(L.
presbyter), church(L.cyriacum). Most of these words were Greek, which entered English via Latin.
During this phase the following words came from Latin to English: - apostle, disciple, Pope,
archbishop, provost, abbot; shrine, cowl, pall, rule, mass, offer, altar, anthem, martyr, incarnate,
pulpit, rosary, and scripture.

With Christianity, classical & scientific learning, concepts of law were also introduced.
Eg: legal, prosecute, custody, zenith, index, mechanical, allegory, ornate, scripture.

The 3rd phase came with the great revival of classical scholarship in England in the 16th
century. The words came over through the medium of writing, and were first absorbed and used
by the learned, before filtering to the other classes.
1. Some words which had come from French were Latinized:
 verdit – verdict
 perfet – perfect
 doute – doubt
 dette – debt
 langage – language
 avis – advice
 aventure – adventure

2. Many new words were invented on classical analogies.

 native words + L. suffix : starvation, heathenism, talkative, etc
 Gk word + L. suffix : climactic
 L. prefix + native word : ex-king, interchange, preview, rebirth.
 Eng proper names with Latinized adjectives : Oxford – Oxonian,
Shakespeare – Shakespearean.

3. Many Latin words and English synonyms which exist side by side
 with same meaning : fire – conflagration, ask – interrogate, truth –
veracity.
 have acquired slightly different connotations and are used in
different contexts : same – identical, youthful – juvenile, readable –
legible, manly – masculine, greatness – magnitude.

4. Some native nouns have English and/or Latin adjectives : father – fatherly,
paternal; king – kingly, royal, regal; mouth – oral, nose -nasal, heaven – heavenly,
celestial; water – watery, aquatic; mind – mental; moon – lunar; sun – solar;
son/daughter – filial, eye – ocular; home – domestic.

Additional Material:
Watch and listen to this video clip, explaining the development
of of the English language:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quMPO33fivs
 Be ready for the synchronous discussion on _____________
at _______________.

R E F L E C T/ T H I N K
Answer the following questions:

1. What is often called ‘transitional English?’

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

2. Why do you think English has Indo-European bases?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

3. What is the Germanic family?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

4. Why do you think Latin has such a great influence on the English language?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
 RESPOND

Task 1: TEDEd
Macro Skills: viewing and writing Mode of Submission (Options)
Date of Submission: ________________ Online: Answer on TEdEd Lesson
Offline: Answer on the module

Watch the presentation on “Where Do English Come from?”. Visit the link,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEaSxhcns7Y. Then, answer the following questions.

1. There are about 7000 languages in the world. What is the main (or traditional) language
of the area you come from? Which family does it belong to?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

2. We talked about several similarities between English and German. Can you find others
by looking at a dictionary of German and comparing the words to their English
translations?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
 3. While we talked about the origin of Indo-European as being in Russia and Ukraine,
another prominent hypothesis places the Indo-European homeland in modern day Turkey.
Why might researchers have come to different conclusions?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Task 2: Blog Writing

Macro Skills: writing Mode of Submission (Options)
Date of Submission: ________________ Online: See the instructions below
Offline: See the instructions below
Write a synthesis regarding the lesson discussed, along with your evaluation as to how the
English language developed throughout British history.
Online: Upload your blogs on your Google Site
Offline: Write your synthesis in the module. Include a design related to the topic.

__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
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 Essay Rubric
Criteria 1 2 3 4
Thesis and/or Introduction states Introductory Well-developed
problem is vague the thesis but does paragraph introductory
or unclear. not adequately contains some paragraph
Background details explain the background contains detailed
are a seemingly background of the information and background
Introduction
random collection problem. The states the information, a
of information, problem is stated, problem, but does clear explanation
unclear, or not but lacks detail. not explain using or definition of the
related to the details. States the problem, and a
topic. thesis of the paper. thesis statement.
Conclusion does Conclusion Conclusion Conclusion
not adequately summarizes main summarizes main summarizes the
summarize the topics, but is topics. Some main topics
main points. No repetitive. No suggestions for without repeating
suggestions for suggestions for change are previous
Conclusion change or opinions change and/or evident. sentences; writer's
are included. opinions are opinions and
included. suggestions for
change are logical
and well thought
out.
Less than three Three or more Three or more Three or more main
main points, with main points, but all main points are points are well
poor development lack development. present but may developed with
of ideas. Refutation lack detail and supporting details.
Refutation missing paragraph missing development in Refutation
or vague. and/or vague. one or two. paragraph
Main points
Refutation acknowledges the
paragraph opposing view,
acknowledges the and summarizes
opposing view, but their main points.
doesn't summarize
points.
Lacks sources All sources are All source material All source material
and/or sources are accurately is used. All sources is used and
not accurately documented, but are accurately smoothly
documented. many are not in documented, but integrated into the
Incorrect format is the desired format a few are not in text. All sources are
used. on the Works Cited the desired format accurately
Use of sources Sources are not page. Some on the Works Cited documented and
relevant nor sources are page. in the desired
reliable. relevant and Most sources are format on the
reliable. relevant and Works Cited page.
reliable. All sources are
relevant and
reliable.
Work contains Work contains Sentence structure Punctuation and
multiple incorrect structural is generally capitalization are
sentence weaknesses and correct. Some correct.
structures. There grammatical awkward
Mechanics are four or more errors. There are sentences do
errors in three or four errors appear. There are
punctuation in punctuation one or two errors in
and/or and/or punctuation
capitalization. capitalization.
References for Week 1
What are the origins of the English Language?. Retrieved from https://www.merriam-
webster.com/help/faq-history
Durkin, P. (2012, August 12). Old English: An overview. Retrieved from
https://public.oed.com/blog/old-english-an-overview/
Potter, S. (2019, August 22). English language. Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com/topic/English-language
Allen, S. (2016, January 16). Why English is a germanic language Retrieved from
https://www.grammarly.com/blog/why-english-is-a-germanic-language/
Kosić, M. (2015). Scandinavian influence on the historical development of English. Retrieved
from
https://zir.nsk.hr/islandora/object/ffos:1072/preview#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20most
%20important,extends%20to%20syntax%20and%20morphology.
Butnariu, A. (2016, February 2). Latin influence on the english language. Retrieved from
https://feelenglish.wordpress.com/2016/02/02/latin-influence-on-the-english-language/

Images
https://www.thehistoryofenglish.com/pics/anglo_saxon_chronicle.jpg
https://cdn.britannica.com/s:700x500/83/1983-050-705E524C/locations-languages-Indo-
European-Eurasia.jpg
https://www.pngitem.com/pimgs/m/499-4990876_viking-boat-svg-clip-arts-vikings-clip-art.png
Week 2: Brief History of Literature in England
“Only the very weak-minded refuse to be influenced by literature and poetry.”
― Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Angel

At the end of the lesson, the students are expected to

 end
At the point
ofout
thethe majorthe
lesson, influences andexpected
students are impact oftothe literature created by the greatest men
of English and American letters;
 create
define alinguistics
blog about the topic; and
 manifest appreciation of the rich historic accounts of the age and its pioneer and
succeeding literary periods.

Before we begin…Establish your own goals for learning the history of English
literature by accomplishing the Goal Organizer: 5W’s and H worksheet below.
 READ

Britain before Anglo-Saxons

The story of early Britain has traditionally been told in terms of waves of invaders
displacing or annihilating their predecessors. For over 10,000 years people have been moving into
- and out of - Britain, sometimes in substantial numbers, yet there has always been a basic
continuity of population.

The gene pool of the island has changed, but more slowly and far less completely than
implied by the old 'invasion model', and the notion of large-scale migrations, once the key
explanation for change in early Britain, has been widely discredited.

Substantial genetic continuity of population does not preclude profound shifts in culture
and identity. It is actually quite common to observe important cultural change, including adoption
of wholly new identities, with little or no biological change to a population. Millions of people
since Roman times have thought of themselves as 'British', for example, yet this identity was only
created in 1707 with the Union of England, Wales and Scotland.

Before Roman times, 'Britain' was just a geographical entity, and had no political meaning,
and no single cultural identity. Arguably this remained generally true until the 17th century, when
James I of England and VI of Scotland sought to establish a pan-British monarchy.

Throughout recorded history the island has consisted of multiple cultural groups and
identities. Many of these groupings looked outwards, across the seas, for their closest connections
- they did not necessarily connect naturally with their fellow islanders, many of whom were harder
to reach than maritime neighbors in Ireland or continental Europe.
 It therefore makes no sense to look at Britain in isolation; since there’s a need to consider
it with Ireland as part of the wider 'Atlantic Archipelago', nearer to continental Europe and, like
Scandinavia, part of the North Sea world.

From the arrival of the first modern humans - who were hunter-gatherers, following the
retreating ice of the Ice Age northwards - to the beginning of recorded history is a period of about
100 centuries, or 400 generations. This is a vast time span, and we know very little about what
went on through those years; it is hard even to fully answer the question, 'Who were the early
peoples of Britain?', because they have left no accounts of themselves.

However, it can be said that biologically they were part of the Caucasoid population of
Europe. The regional physical stereotypes familiar to us today, a pattern widely thought to result
from the post-Roman Anglo-Saxon and Viking invasions - red-headed people in Scotland, small,
dark-haired folk in Wales and lanky blondes in southern England - already existed in Roman times.
Insofar as they represent reality, they perhaps attest the post-Ice Age peopling of Britain, or the
first farmers of 6,000 years ago.

From an early stage, the constraints and opportunities of the varied environments of the
islands of Britain encouraged a great regional diversity of culture. Throughout prehistory, there
were myriad small-scale societies, and many petty 'tribal' identities, typically lasting perhaps no
more than a few generations before splitting, merging or becoming obliterated. These groups were
in contact and conflict with their neighbors, and sometimes with more distant groups - the
appearance of exotic imported objects attest exchanges, alliance and kinship links, and wars.

Germanic Invasions
The withdrawal of the Romans from England in the early 5th century left a political
vacuum. The Celts of the south were attacked by tribes from the north and in their desperation
sought help from abroad. There are parallels for this at other points in the history of the British
Isles. Thus in the case of Ireland, help was sought by Irish chieftains from their Anglo-Norman
neighbors in Wales in the late 12th century in their internal squabbles. This heralded the invasion
of Ireland by the English. Equally with the Celts of the 5th century the help which they imagined
would solve their internal difficulties turned out to be a boomerang which turned on them.
According to the Ecclesiastical History of the English People written by a monk called the
Venerable Bede around 730 in the monastery of Jarrow in Co. Durham (i.e. on the north east coast
of England), the Celts first appealed to the Romans but the help forthcoming was slight and so
they turned to the Germanic tribes of the North Sea coast. The date which Bede gives for the first
arrivals is 449. This can be assumed to be fairly correct. The invaders consisted of members of
various Germanic tribes, chiefly Angles from the historical area of Angeln in north east Schleswig
Holstein. It was this tribe which gave England its name, i.e. England, the land of the Angles (Engle,
a mutated form from earlier *Angli, note that the superscript asterisk denotes a reconstructed form,
i.e. one that is not attested).
Other tribes represented in these early invasions were Jutes
from the Jutland peninsula (present-day mainland Denmark),
Saxons from the area nowadays known as Niedersachsen (‘Lower
Saxony’, which is historically the original Saxony), the Frisians
from the North Sea coast islands stretching from the present-day
North West coast of Schleswig-Holstein down to north Holland.
These are nowadays split up into North, East and West Frisian
islands, of which only the North and the West group still have a
variety of language which is definitely Frisian (as opposed to Low
German or Dutch).
The indigenous Celts of Britain were quickly pressed into
the West of England, Wales and Cornwall, and some crossed the
Channel in the 5th and 6th centuries to Brittany and thus are
responsible for a Celtic language — Breton — being spoken in
France to this day, although Cornish, its counterpart in south-west
England, died out in the 18th century.
The Germanic areas which became established in the period following the initial
settlements consisted of the following seven ‘kingdoms': Kent, Essex, Sussex, Wessex, East
Anglia, Mercia and Northumbria. These are known as the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. Political power
was initially concentrated in the sixth century in Kent but this passed to Northumbria in the seventh
and eighth centuries. After this a shift to the south began, first to Mercia in the ninth century and
later on to West Saxony in the tenth and eleventh centuries.
The Germanic tribes in England show a characteristic distribution almost from the very
beginning. The Jutes, according to legend led by the brothers Hengest and Horsa (both words mean
‘horse’), settled in Kent (the name is Celtic) probably having made their way via the coast of
present-day Belgium. The Saxons settled in the remaining area south of the Thames and on the
Isle of Wight. They were to remain there and found a kingdom which obtained practical
sovereignty over England in the late Old English period and which was known then as West
Saxony from which the name Wessex is derived (the same holds for Sussex and Essex). North of
the Thames the Angles settled. This large area can be further subdivided. North of the Humber
was a region which represented an amalgamation of two former Celtic kingdoms, Bernicia and
Deira. Between Humber and Thames lay the area of Mercia. This was bounded on the west by
Wales along what is called Offa’s Dyke after King Offa (757-796) and on the east coast by the
area of East Anglia.
The Anglo-Saxon Society
England was one of the wealthiest kingdoms in Europe. This was due to successful farming and
trade in the towns and villages. The king, his earls and the Church all profited from this through
taxes.

The Anglo-Saxon community in England was basically a rural one. Most people depended on the
land for survival. At the top of the social system was the royal house. This consisted of the king
and aethelings who claimed a common ancestry with the king.

1. Royal family: By the middle of the 9th century, the royal family of Wessex was universally
recognized as the English royal family and held a hereditary right to rule. Succession to the
throne was not guaranteed as the Witan, or council of leaders, had the right to choose the
best successor from the members of the royal house.
 2. Major nobility: Below the king were the earls, the ruling nobility. The earl was the king's
‘right hand man’ in a shire. The position was not hereditary, but it became usual in the 10th
century to choose earls from a few outstanding families.

3. Minor nobility: Below an earl was a thegn. They formed the backbone of the Anglo-Saxon
army. With good service they received lands from the king and could rise to become earls.

4. Freemen: The upper group of commoners who held land freely and did not pay rent to a
lord were known as freemen. Some freemen were expected to attend local courts to solve
disputes. The lower group worked on land held by a lord and made their money by selling
or exchanging crops or by pursuing craft activities like blacksmithing.

5. Serfs: There were many people in England in the 10th century who held no land and
worked for others in exchange for food and shelter. There were others who were legally
recognized as slaves and had no civil rights although they could work on their own behalf
and earn enough to buy their own freedom.

Urban Society

Towns were not structured in the same way as rural estates were. The major towns such as
London, York, Winchester and Oxford were fortified against enemy attack. Most commercial
activity took place in the towns. It was also home to skilled tradesmen and other professionals such
as doctors and merchants. Most people lived in what we would consider to be villages. London
was the biggest town in England and yet only had 10,000 residents.

Establishment of Christianity
During three or four generations starting in the 590s, all the English kings and their courts
converted to Christianity. Italian and Frankish missionaries converted people in the south of
England, whilst Irish missionaries did the same in the north.

However, not all of England accepted Christianity with the same enthusiasm. The Irish
missionaries who had converted the people of northern England were more successful than the
continental European missionaries because they promoted monasticism. This approach to
Christianity complemented Anglo-Saxon family-based society.

By the 660s monasteries could be found throughout the country and the abbots and monks that
maintained them performed a number of important social functions, such as:

 The monasteries were the main centers of learning. Most of the literate people in England
were monks.
 By the 11th century almost every village had a church of some kind. These parish churches
performed baptisms at birth, consecrated marriages and prayed for the dead. The church
was central to people’s lives.
 The church collected ten percent of people’s annual earnings. This large sum of money was
used to pay priests, build churches and, most importantly, to support the poor.

On the other hand, the ‘Great Heathen Army’ of 865 was a large force of pagan Norwegians
and mostly Danes who were determined to pillage as much of England as they could. The
Danes had their own ancient religion that included human sacrifice and encouraged warfare.
This frightened the people of England who saw themselves as more civilized and peaceful than
the 'Vikings', as these raiding Danes were known. The Vikings had been targeting monasteries
and churches since the 790s but by 865 they had come to conquer.

Additional Material:
Watch and listen to this video clip, detailing the Anglo-
Saxons in Britain, and its relation to Christianity:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7GLM_AOUSI

Be ready for the synchronous discussion on _____________

at _______________.
 REFLECT
Answer the following questions:

1. Why does it makes no sense to look at Britain in isolation?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

2. What event took place due to the withdrawal of the Romans from England in the early
5th century?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

3. Why is England one of the wealthiest kingdoms in Europe?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

4. Why is it that not all of England accepted Christianity with the same enthusiasm?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
 RESPOND

Task 1: Blog Writing

Macro Skills: viewing and writing Mode of Submission (Options)
Date of Submission: ________________ Online: See the instructions below
Offline: See the instructions below
Write a synthesis regarding the lesson discussed, along with your evaluation as to how the
Britain developed their language in relation to their historical background.
Online: Upload your blogs on your Google Site.
Offline: Write your synthesis in the module. Include a design related to the topic.

__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
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__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
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 Essay Rubric
Criteria 1 2 3 4
Thesis and/or Introduction states Introductory Well-developed
problem is vague the thesis but does paragraph introductory
or unclear. not adequately contains some paragraph
Background details explain the background contains detailed
are a seemingly background of the information and background
Introduction
random collection problem. The states the information, a
of information, problem is stated, problem, but does clear explanation
unclear, or not but lacks detail. not explain using or definition of the
related to the details. States the problem, and a
topic. thesis of the paper. thesis statement.
Conclusion does Conclusion Conclusion Conclusion
not adequately summarizes main summarizes main summarizes the
summarize the topics, but is topics. Some main topics
main points. No repetitive. No suggestions for without repeating
suggestions for suggestions for change are previous
Conclusion change or opinions change and/or evident. sentences; writer's
are included. opinions are opinions and
included. suggestions for
change are logical
and well thought
out.
Less than three Three or more Three or more Three or more main
main points, with main points, but all main points are points are well
poor development lack development. present but may developed with
of ideas. Refutation lack detail and supporting details.
Refutation missing paragraph missing development in Refutation
or vague. and/or vague. one or two. paragraph
Main points
Refutation acknowledges the
paragraph opposing view,
acknowledges the and summarizes
opposing view, but their main points.
doesn't summarize
points.
Lacks sources All sources are All source material All source material
and/or sources are accurately is used. All sources is used and
not accurately documented, but are accurately smoothly
documented. many are not in documented, but integrated into the
Incorrect format is the desired format a few are not in text. All sources are
used. on the Works Cited the desired format accurately
Use of sources Sources are not page. Some on the Works Cited documented and
relevant nor sources are page. in the desired
reliable. relevant and Most sources are format on the
reliable. relevant and Works Cited page.
reliable. All sources are
relevant and
reliable.
Work contains Work contains Sentence structure Punctuation and
multiple incorrect structural is generally capitalization are
sentence weaknesses and correct. Some correct.
structures. There grammatical awkward
Mechanics are four or more errors. There are sentences do
errors in three or four errors appear. There are
punctuation in punctuation one or two errors in
and/or and/or punctuation
capitalization. capitalization.
References for Week 2
James, S. (2011, February 28). Peoples of Britain. Retrieved from
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/british_prehistory/peoples_01.shtml
https://www.uni-due.de/SHE/HE_GermanicInvasions.htm
Anglo-saxon society pre-1066. Retrieved from
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z8f4mnb/revision/2
Anglo-saxon society pre-1066. Retrieved from
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z8f4mnb/revision/3

Images
https://www.uni-due.de/SHE/Bede_(History_of_the_English).gif
https://bam.files.bbci.co.uk/bam/live/content/z8bjg82/large
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z8f4mnb/revision/2#:~:text=The%20Anglo%2DSaxon%2
0community%20in,common%20ancestry%20with%20the%20king.
Week 3: The Church as a Cultural Force
“That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal
longings, that you're not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald

At the end of the lesson, the students are expected to

At the end of the lesson, the students are expected to
 recognize and analyze the historical, geographical, social, and psychological settings
 for
define linguistics
given pieces of literature;
 create a blog; and
 display professional commitment in studying Literature.

Before we begin…
Let’s review some of the influences that made an impact on the English language. In the
boxes below, write the effects of these influences.

ENGLISH
 READ

The Roman Influence

Anglo-Saxons received an enormous boost when Christianity brought its huge Latin
vocabulary to England in AD 597. There was a collision of Old English and Latin. Pope Gregory
the Great sent St Augustine and a party of about 50 monks to bring God’s word to Anglii. They
landed in Kent, which already had a small Christian community. The liberal-minded king arranged
for Augustine to have a house in Canterbury, the capital of this tiny kingdom.
The conversion of England to Christianity was a gradual process, but a peaceful one. In
AD 635, Aidan (a charismatic preacher from the Celtic church in Ireland) independently began the
conversion of the North.
With the establishment of Christianity came the building of churches and monasteries,
providing education in a wide range of subjects. (Not only literature, but also taught poetry,
astronomy and arithmetic).
The importance of this cultural revolution in the story of the English Language is not only
that it strengthened and enriched Old English with new words, more than 400 of which survive to
this day, but it also gave English new capacity to express abstract thoughts.

I. The Latin Language in Britain

An evidence of the Romanization is the use of the Latin language. A lot of inscriptions
have been found, all of them in Latin. These proceed from the military and official class. They do
not indicate a widespread use of Latin by the native population.
However, Latin did not replace the Celtic language as it did in Gaul. Its use by native
Britons was probably confined to members of the upper classes and the inhabitants of the cities
and towns. Its use was not sufficiently widespread to cause it to survive. Its use probably began to
decline after 410.The use of Latin did not survive, as the Celtic language did, the Germanic
invasions that began in 410.
 Many Latin words were incorporated into the English Language. The influence of Latin on
English has been analyzed in three main periods.

II. Latin Influences on Old English

The influence of Celtic upon Old English was slight because the Celt was not in a position
to make any notable contribution to Anglo-Saxon civilization. It was different with Latin, which
was the language of a higher civilization. Contact with that civilization first had an impact
commerce and military, then on religious and intellectual. These extended over many centuries
and was constantly renewed.
The Germanic tribes (who later became the English) were still occupying their continental
homes. They had various relations with the Romans through which they acquired a considerable
number of Latin words.
Later, when they came to England, they learnt from the Celts a few additional Latin words.
Moreover, when Roman missionaries introduced Christianity into the island, it became an
extensive adoption of Latin elements into the language.

III. Latin and English

In the 4th century, St Jerome’s Vulgate Bible became the model for Christian writing in
Latin. His example was followed in England by other scholars as Bede (7th-8th century). From
this moment on, Latin continued to be the primary language of scholarship until the end of the
17th century.
In the late 17th century, Sir Isaac Newton chose Latin as the medium for the Principia, but
later he wrote in English. His work was Opticks and it was written in 1704, marking the point at
which significant scholarly work began to appear in English and without any translation into Latin.
A large part of the lexicon of Latin has entered English in two major waves. First, religious
vocabulary from the time of Old English until Reformation, and scientific, scholarly and legal
vocabulary from Middle Ages onwards.

The Danish Invasions and King Alfred the Great

Alfred, also spelled Aelfred, byname Alfred the Great, (born 849—died
899), king of Wessex (871–899), a Saxon kingdom in southwestern England. He prevented
England from falling to the Danes and promoted learning and literacy. Compilation of the Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle began during his reign, circa 890.
In 876 the Danes again advanced on Wessex. They retired in 877 having accomplished
little, but a surprise attack in January 878 came near to success. The Danes established themselves
at Chippenham, and the West Saxons submitted, “except King Alfred.” He harassed the Danes
from a fort in the Somerset marshes, and until seven weeks after Easter he secretly assembled an
army, which defeated them at the Battle of Edington.
They surrendered, and their king, Guthrum, was
baptized, Alfred standing as sponsor; the following
year they settled in East Anglia.
Wessex was never again in such danger.
Alfred had a respite from fighting until 885, when he
repelled an invasion of Kent by a Danish army,
supported by the East Anglian Danes. In 886 he took
the offensive and captured London, a success that
brought all the English not under Danish rule to
accept him as king. The possession of London also
made possible the reconquest of the Danish territories
in his son’s reign, and Alfred may have been
preparing for this, though he could make no further
advance himself. He had to meet a serious attack by a
large Danish force from the European continent in
892, and it was not until 896 that it gave up the
struggle.
The failure of the Danes to make any more
advances against Alfred was largely a result of the defensive measures he undertook during the
war. Old forts were strengthened and new ones built at strategic sites, and arrangements were made
for their continual manning. Alfred reorganized his army and used ships against the invaders as
early as 875. Later he had larger ships built to his own design for use against the coastal raids that
continued even after 896. Wise diplomacy also helped Alfred’s defense. He maintained friendly
relations with Mercia and Wales; Welsh rulers sought his support and supplied some troops for his
army in 893.
Alfred succeeded in government as well as at war. He was a wise administrator, organizing
his finances and the service due from his thanes (noble followers). He scrutinized the
administration of justice and took steps to ensure the protection of the weak from oppression by
ignorant or corrupt judges. He promulgated an important code of laws, after studying the principles
of lawgiving in the Book of Exodus and the codes of Aethelbert of Kent, Ine of Wessex (688–
694), and Offa of Mercia (757–796), again with special attention to the protection of the weak and
dependent. While avoiding unnecessary changes in custom, he limited the practice of the blood
feud and imposed heavy penalties for breach of oath or pledge.
The Anglo-Saxon Literature
Historically, the word Anglo-Saxon is a term used to describe any member of the Germanic
populace that settled and ruled – during 5th century CE until the Norman Conquest in 1066 – the
lands that came to be known as England and Wales. These people are said to be descendants of
three specific Germanic groups, namely the Angles, Saxons and the Jutes; that migrated from their
homeland Germany to Britain during the 5th century. Over time, people from different Anglo-
Saxon kingdoms spoke their own dialect, which eventually evolved together to form the now
known Old English. Emerging from this vernacular, literature is formed, one of which is the epic
poem Beowulf (Britannica, 2019).

Beowulf
Poetry is one of the more dominant literary expression during this period, used along with
the predominant oral tradition, and stated to have been subcategorized into two: (1) the Christian
and (2) the heroic. A good example of Christian poetry during this period can be found in the
Exeter Book, a manuscript volume of Old English poetry with religious and secular nature. The
works included in the manuscript were recorded to have been from differing dates, and was just
compiled circa 975. It was then given to the Exeter Cathedral by Bishop Leofric around 1072.
Meanwhile, perhaps the most well-known example of a heroic poetry is Beowulf. This extant poem
is stated to have pre-Christian origins, and mythological, historical and traditional Germanic
background (Aguirre, 2010).
Poetry in the Old English is described as highly formal, whereas its form is distinct from
the modern English. This means that each line of an Old English poem is divided into to two,
separated by a pause (called caesura), represented by a large gap on the page. For example, in
Beowulf:
Setton him to heafdon hilde‐ randas
It is also worth to note that since this period is predominantly in the oral tradition, poets
(then called scops) must memorize every line and how it should be delivered depending in one of
the complicated rules, because “each of the two halves of an Anglo‐ Saxon line contains two
stressed syllables, and an alliterative pattern must be carried over across the caesura. Any of the
stressed syllables may alliterate except the last syllable; so the first and second syllables may
alliterate with the third together, or the first and third may alliterate alone, or the second and third
may alliterate alone.” To demonstrate; Lade ne letton. Leoht eastan com, wherein Lade, letton,
leoht, and eastan are the four stressed words (Borges, 2000).
Borges (2000) also stated that Old English literature is rich in the use of rhetorical devices,
particularly their use of kenning – a literary expression used in place of a thing’s name. For
example, a ship/ocean vessel may be used substituted with the word ‘sea-rider.’ However, eventual
translations opted to use kennings in moderation.
Plot

King Hrothgar of Denmark, a descendant of the great king Shield Sheafson, enjoys a
prosperous and successful reign. He builds a great mead‐ hall, called Heorot, where his warriors
can gather to drink, receive gifts from their lord, and listen to stories sung by the scops, or bards.
But the jubilant noise from Heorot angers Grendel, a horrible demon who lives in the swamplands
of Hrothgar’s kingdom. Grendel terrorizes the Danes every night, killing them and defeating their
efforts to fight back. The Danes suffer many years of fear, danger, and death at the hands of
Grendel. Eventually, however, a young Geatish warrior named Beowulf hears of Hrothgar’s plight.
Inspired by the challenge Beowulf sails to Denmark with a small company of men determined to
defeat Grendel.
Hrothgar, who had once done a great favor for Beowulf’s father Ecgtheow, accepts
Beowulf’s offer to fight Grendel and holds a feast in the hero’s honor. During the feast, an envious
Dane named Unferth taunts Beowulf and accuses him of being unworthy of his reputation.
Beowulf responds with a boastful description of some of his past accomplishments. His confidence
cheers the Danish warriors, and the feast lasts merrily into the night. At last, however, Grendel
arrives. Beowulf fights him unarmed, proving himself stronger than the demon, who is terrified.
As Grendel struggles to escape, Beowulf tears the monster’s arm off. Mortally wounded, Grendel
slinks back into the swamp to die. The severed arm is hung high in the mead‐ hall as a trophy of
victory.
Overjoyed, Hrothgar showers Beowulf with gifts and treasure at a feast in his honour.
Songs are sung in praise of Beowulf, and the celebration lasts late into the night. But another threat
is approaching. Grendel’s mother, a swamp‐ hag who lives in a desolate lake, comes to Heorot
seeking revenge for her son’s death. She murders Aeschere, one of Hrothgar’s most trusted
advisers, before slinking away. To avenge Aeschere’s death, the company travels to the murky
swamp, where Beowulf dives into the water and fights Grendel’s mother in her underwater lair.
He kills her with a sword forged for a giant, then, finding Grendel’s corpse, decapitates it and
brings the head as a prize to Hrothgar. The Danish countryside is now purged of its treacherous
monsters.
The Danes are again overjoyed, and Beowulf’s fame spreads across the kingdom. Beowulf
departs after a sorrowful goodbye to Hrothgar, who has treated him like a son. He returns to
Geatland, where he and his men are reunited with their king and queen, Hygelac and Hygd, to
whom Beowulf recounts his adventures in Denmark. Beowulf then hands over most of his treasure
to Hygelac, who, in turn, rewards him.
In time, Hygelac is killed in a war against the Shylfings, and, after Hygelac’s son dies,
Beowulf ascends to the throne of the Geats. He rules wisely for fifty years, bringing prosperity to
Geatland. When Beowulf is an old man, however, a thief disturbs a barrow, or mound, where a
great dragon lies guarding a horde of treasure. Enraged, the dragon emerges from the barrow and
begins unleashing fiery destruction upon the Geats. Sensing his own death approaching, Beowulf
goes to fight the dragon. With the aid of Wiglaf, he succeeds in killing the beast, but at a heavy
cost. The dragon bites Beowulf in the neck and its fiery venom kills him moments after their
encounter. The Geats fear that their enemies will attack them now that Beowulf is dead. According
to Beowulf’s wishes, they burn their departed king’s body on a huge funeral pyre and then bury
him with a massive treasure in a barrow overlooking the sea (Borges, 2000, pp. 55-56).

Additional Material:
Watch and listen to this video clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4nZi5wQzz4&t=195s

Be ready for the synchronous discussion on _____________

at _______________.
 REFLECT

Choose any character from Anglo-Saxon Literature and complete the graph
below.

Relate the experience of the character to your own experience.

______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
 RESPOND

Task 1: Short Response

Macro Skills: reading and writing Mode of Submission (Options)
Date of Submission: ________________ Online: Google Classroom
Offline: Module

Answer the following questions:

1. What happened when Britain had contact with Latin civilization?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

2. What is the probable cause of the Danes’ failure to make any more advances against
Alfred the Great?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

3. What does the word “Anglo-Saxon” described?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

4. What is the Exeter Book?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Task 2: Blog Writing
Macro Skills: reading and writing Mode of Submission (Options)
Date of Submission: ________________ Online: See the instructions below
Offline: See the instructions below
Read and understand the plot of Beowulf at the lesson part of
this module, then explain how the story talks of bravery and
courage.
Online: Upload your blogs on your Google Site
Offline: Write your synthesis in the module. Include a design
related to the topic.

__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
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 Essay Rubric

Criteria 1 2 3 4
Thesis and/or problem Introduction states the Introductory paragraph Well-developed
is vague or unclear. thesis but does not contains some introductory paragraph
Background details are adequately explain the background contains detailed
a seemingly random background of the information and states background
Introduction collection of problem. The problem the problem, but does information, a clear
information, unclear, or is stated, but lacks not explain using explanation or
not related to the topic. detail. details. States the definition of the
thesis of the paper. problem, and a thesis
statement.
Conclusion does not Conclusion Conclusion Conclusion
adequately summarize summarizes main summarizes main summarizes the main
the main points. No topics, but is topics. Some topics without
suggestions for change repetitive. No suggestions for change repeating previous
Conclusion or opinions are suggestions for change are evident. sentences; writer's
included. and/or opinions are opinions and
included. suggestions for change
are logical and well
thought out.
Less than three main Three or more main Three or more main Three or more main
points, with poor points, but all lack points are present but points are well
development of ideas. development. may lack detail and developed with
Refutation missing or Refutation paragraph development in one or supporting details.
vague. missing and/or vague. two. Refutation Refutation paragraph
Main points
paragraph acknowledges the
acknowledges the opposing view, and
opposing view, but summarizes their main
doesn't summarize points.
points.
Lacks sources and/or All sources are All source material is All source material is
sources are not accurately used. All sources are used and smoothly
accurately documented. documented, but many accurately integrated into the text.
Incorrect format is are not in the desired documented, but a few All sources are
used. format on the Works are not in the desired accurately documented
Use of sources
Sources are not Cited page. Some format on the Works and in the desired
relevant nor reliable. sources are relevant Cited page. format on the Works
and reliable. Most sources are Cited page.
relevant and reliable. All sources are
relevant and reliable.
Work contains multiple Work contains Sentence structure is Punctuation and
incorrect sentence structural weaknesses generally correct. capitalization are
structures. There are and grammatical Some awkward correct.
Mechanics four or more errors in errors. There are three sentences do appear.
punctuation and/or or four errors in There are one or two
capitalization. punctuation and/or errors in punctuation
capitalization.
References for Week 3
Nessie School of Languages (2007). The roman conquest, latin influence on english language,
borrowings from latin. Retrieved from https://blocs.mesvilaweb.cat/Subirats/?p=58892
Whitelock, D. (2020). Alfred: King of wessex. Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alfred-king-of-Wessex
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica (2019, July 30). Anglo-Saxon. Retrieved April 25,
2020, from brittanica.com/topic/Anglo-Saxon

Aguirre, J. E. (2010). Timeline and Characteristics of British Literature. Retrieved April 25,
2020, from slideshare.net/jeaguirre/timeline-and-characteristics-of-british-literature-5512725

Borges, L. (2000). British Literature & American Literature. Centro Universitario Da Cidade.
Randall, B. (2016). Historical Linquistics. Retrieved April 25, 2020,
from slideplayer.com/slide/8898221

Images
https://www.historic-uk.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/alfred-great-1-255x300.jpg
slideplayer.com/slide/8898221
Weeks 4 & 5: The Medieval Era (1066 – 1485)
“Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one.”
― Terry Pratchett

At the end of the lesson, the students are expected to

 analyze the central theme and literary conventions that appear through the reading
At the end of theselected;
material lesson, the students are expected to

 summarize the story; and
define linguistics

 display professional commitment in studying Literature.

Before we begin…
Establish your impression of what life could be in the Middle Ages. Draw those
impressions in the box provided below. Send your work to your professor through Messenger.
 READ

Overview
Literature during the Medieval Period is arguably international, “divided more by lines of
class and audience than by language.” In this era, Latin became the language of the Church and
education, whereas French became the language used for secular European literature. It is also in
this period that the already established Celtic poems and stories regarding King Arthur and his
Knights of the Round Table was adapted, expanded and further popularized in Latin narratives and
French romances.
This romance is a literary genre well-utilized during the Middle Ages. Specifically, this
pertains to romance languages that includes lengthy composition written in that specific language.
Additionally, this also refers to verses and proses with elements related to “legendary,
supernatural, or amorous subjects and characters.” Over time, it came to apply to tales concerning
knights, chivalry, and courtly love. Furthermore, the hero usually undergoes a process of self-
discovery in the course of his adventure. (Borges, 2000; Moore Schools, n.d.).

Age of Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer, the outstanding English poet before Shakespeare and “the first finder of
our language.” His The Canterbury Tales ranks as one of the greatest poetic works in English. He
also contributed importantly in the second half of the 14th century to the management of public
affairs as courtier, diplomat, and civil servant. In that career he was trusted and aided by three
successive kings—Edward III, Richard II, and Henry IV. But it is his avocation—the writing of
poetry—for which he is remembered.
Perhaps the chief characteristics of Chaucer’s works are their variety in subject
matter, genre, tone, and style and in the complexities presented concerning the human pursuit of a
sensible existence. Yet his writings also consistently reflect an all-pervasive humor combined with
serious and tolerant consideration of important philosophical questions. From his writings Chaucer
emerges as poet of love, both earthly and divine, whose presentations range from lustful cuckoldry
to spiritual union with God. Thereby, they regularly lead the reader to speculation about man’s
relation both to his fellows and to his Maker, while simultaneously providing delightfully
entertaining views of the frailties and follies, as well as the nobility, of mankind.

The age of Chaucer is the first significant period in the literary history of England. In every
walk of life there were signs of change. The social, political, religious and literary changes were
taking place. In short, it was an age of change. It is characterized by the following:
1. An Age of Transition: The age of Chaucer was a transitional age. The medievalism was
departing and modernism was developing slowly. Wycliffe and his followers were sowing the
seeds of Reformation. They were making attack upon the church. Individualism was being
emphasized. Military events were contributing to the growth of patriotism and national
consciousness. The industrial development was giving rise to the middle and working classes. It
led to the end of feudal system. In this way we find that the age of Chaucer was an era of transition.
2. Growth of National Sentiment: The age of Chaucer witnessed the beginning of the
Hundred Years War. England was at war with Scotland and France. This war brought great
victories in the battles of Crecy and Poitiers. The consciousness of national unity was strengthened.
The war gave a feeling of national pride and self-respect to the people of England. The national
life got purified and powerful national sentiments grew.
 3. Black Death, Famine and Social Unrest: The age of Chaucer faced natural calamities
and social unrest. Plagues and pestilences, constitutional conflicts and unorthodoxy came to the
forefront. In 1348-49 came the terrible Black Death. It shook the social fabric violently. A large
number of people died. It reappeared in 1362, 1367 and 1370. Famine followed plague. Vagrants
and thieves multiplied. Labor became scarce. Heavy taxation was imposed. The Toll Tax brought
about the peasants' revolt. This revolt was a clear sign of social tension and unrest.
4. The Corruption of the Church: In the age of Chaucer the church was the seat of power
and prestige. It was infected with corruption. The churchmen were fond of wealth and luxury.
They indulged themselves in all sorts of vices. They lived in a Godless and worldly way. John
Wycliff, the morning star of the Reformation, led an attack upon the growing corruption of the
church.
5. The New Learning: The age of Chaucer marked the dawn of new learning. It brought
about a change in the general outlook of the age. Man's intellectual horizon expanded. He began
to make efforts to liberate himself from the shackles of theological slavery. Two Italian writers
Petrarch and Boccaccio were the pioneers of this great revival. But beneath the medievalism the
heaven of Renaissance was already at work. The modern world was in the process of being born.
Thus in the age of Chaucer a curious modern note began to be apparent. There was a sharper
spirit of criticism. The vogue of the romance was passing. In this age there was a spirit of revolt.
The church was losing her great hold upon the masses of people. Reformation was in process. The
light of new learning was shining. This age was given proper voice by Chaucer.

The Canterbury Tales

Another one of the better known works in Medieval Literature is The Canterbury Tales. It
was written by Geoffrey Chaucer around 1387 to 1440. It is composed primarily of 17,000 lines
of Middle English, arranged in verses (and sometimes prose). These lines are divided into 24 tales,
as relayed by various characters/pilgrims.
The order of the pilgrim’s tales has been a subject of debate among scholars, thus some
scholar editions have used fragments and groups, as these convey a sense of order based on the
pilgrims (Murphy, n.d.).

FRAGMENT GROUP TALES

Fragment I A  General Prologue
 The Knight’s Tale
 The Miller’s Tale
 The Reeve’s Tale
 The Cook’s Tale
 Fragment II B1  The Man of Law’s Tale
Fragment III D  The Wife of Bath’s Tale
 The Friar’s Tale
 The Summoner’s Tale
Fragment IV E  The Clerk’s Tale
 The Merchant’s Tale
Fragment V F  The Squire’s Tale
 The Franklin’s Tale
Fragment VI C  The Physician’s Tale
 The Pardoner’s Tale
Fragment VII B2  The Shipman’s Tale
 The Prioress’s Tale
 Sir Thopas’ Tale
 The Tale of Melibee
 The Monk’s Tale
 The Nun’s Priest’s Tale
Fragment VIII G  The Second Nun’s Tale
 The Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale
Fragment IX H  The Manciple’s Tale
Fragment X I  The Parson’s Tale

Medieval Romance/Courtly Love

Courtly love as a literary phenomenon reflects one of the most far-reaching revolutions in
social sensibility in Western culture--the dramatic change in attitude towards women that began in
the late eleventh century, spread throughout western and northern Europe during the twelfth
century, and lingered through the Renaissance and on into the modern world where traces can still
be found. In its essential nature, courtly love, or fin' amors, as the Provencal poets called it, was
the expression of the knightly worship of a refining ideal embodied in the person of the beloved.
Only a truly noble nature could generate and nurture such a love; only a woman of magnanimity
of spirit was a worthy object. The act of loving was in itself ennobling and refining, the means to
the fullest expression of what was potentially fine and elevated in human nature.

More often than not, such a love expressed itself in terms that were feudal and religious. Thus,
just as a vassal was expected to honor and serve his lord, so a lover was expected to serve his lady,
to obey her commands, and to gratify her merest whims. Absolute obedience and unswerving
loyalty were critical. To incur the displeasure of one's lady was to be cast into the void, beyond all
light, warmth, and possibility of life. And just as the feudal lord stood above and beyond his vassal,
so the lady occupied a more celestial sphere than that of her lover. Customarily she seemed remote
and haughty, imperious and difficult to please. She expected to be served and wooed, minutely
and at great length. If gratified by the ardors of her lover-servant, she might at length grant him
her special notice; in exceptional circumstances, she might even grant him that last, longed-for
favor. Physical consummation of love, however, was not obligatory. What was important was the
prolonged and exalting experience of being in love.

It was usually one of the assumptions of

courtly love that the lady in question was
married, thus establishing the triangular pattern
of lover-lady-jealous husband. This meant that
the affair was at least potentially adulterous, and
had to be conducted in an atmosphere of secrecy
and danger. The absolute discretion of the lover
was therefore indispensable if the honor of the
lady were to be preserved.

Though the convention did not stipulate

adultery as a sine qua non, it is nevertheless true
that the two great patterns of courtly love in the
Middle Ages--Tristan and Isolt and Lancelot
and Guenevere (as depicted in the image)--both
involved women who deceived their husbands.

British and the Medieval Drama

The long-held scholarly account of medieval drama asserts that the religious drama of the
Middle Ages grew from the Church’s services, masses conducted in Latin before a crowd of
peasants who undoubtedly did not understand what they were hearing. This idea certainly fits with
the concept of church architecture in its cruciform shape to picture the cross, its stained glass
windows to portray biblical stories, and other features designed to convey meaning to an illiterate
population. Many scholars suggest that on special days in the liturgical year, the clergy would act
out an event from the Bible, such as a nativity scene or a reenactment of the resurrection.
Gradually, these productions became more complex and moved outside to the churchyard and then
into the village commons.
A. Mystery plays

These depict events from the Bible. Often mystery

plays were performed as cycle plays, a sequence of plays
portraying all the major events of the Bible, from the fall of
Satan to the last judgment. Some play cycles were performed
by guilds, each guild taking one event to dramatize. One of
the most famous of the play cycles, the York mystery plays,
is still performed in th e English city of York. Records from
the Chester cycle, also still performed, list which guilds were
involved and which plays each guild presented. In a few
places, such as York, the cycles were performed on pageant
wagons that moved on a pre-determined route through the
city. By staying in the same place, the audience could see each
individual play as the wagon stopped and the actors performed before moving on to
perform again at the next station. Four English cities were particularly noted for their cycles
of mystery plays: Chester, York, Coventry, and Towneley (referred to as the Wakefield
plays). Dennis G. Jerz, Associate Professor of English at Seton Hall University, created
a simulation of the path of the pageant wagons through York, showing the route and the
order of the plays. One of the most well-known of the mystery plays is The Second
Shepherds’ Play.

B. Morality plays

Morality plays are intended to teach a moral lesson. These

plays often employ allegory, the use of characters or events in a
literary work to represent abstract ideas or concepts. Morality
plays, particularly those that are allegorical, depict representative
characters in moral dilemmas with both the good and the evil parts
of their character struggling for dominance. Similar to mystery
plays, morality plays did not act out events from the Bible but
instead portrayed characters much like the members of the
audience who watched the play. From the characters’ difficulties,
the audience could learn the moral lessons the Church wished to
instill in its followers. One of the most well-known of extant
morality plays is Everyman. In this morality play, God sends
Death to tell Everyman that his time on earth has come to an end.

Additional Material:
Watch and listen to this video clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpSHK9kt_Ic
Be ready for the synchronous discussion on _____________
at _______________.
REFLECT

Complete the Synthesis Journal below. Write your answer on this module.
Send it to your professor through Messenger/ Facebook
 RESPOND

Task 1: Short Response

Macro Skills: Writing Mode of Submission (Options)
Date of Submission: ________________ Online: Google Classroom
Offline: Module

1. What is romance?
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2. Why is the Age of Chaucer very significant?

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3. What is courtly love?

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4. What is a mystery play?

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Task 2: Pardoner’s Tale
Macro Skills: reading and writing Mode of Submission (Options)
Date of Submission: ________________ Online: See the instructions below
Offline: See the instructions below
Read and understand the Pardoner’s Tale, then explain how greed is the root of all evil. Provide
situational examples commonly found in the society today.
Online: Upload your essay on your Google Site.
Offline: Write your synthesis in the module. Include a design related to the topic.

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Task 3: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Macro Skills: reading and writing Mode of Submission (Options)
Date of Submission: ________________ Online: See the instructions below
Offline: See the instructions below
Read a summarized version of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, then explain how chivalry
plays a significant role in the knights’ occupation, and relate that to the current situation of the society
where it has been stated that “chivalry is dead.”
Online: Upload your blogs on your Google Site.
Offline: Write your synthesis in the module. Include a design related to the topic.

__________________________________________________________________
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 Essay Rubric
Criteria 1 2 3 4
Thesis and/or problem Introduction states the Introductory paragraph Well-developed
is vague or unclear. thesis but does not contains some introductory paragraph
Background details are adequately explain the background contains detailed
a seemingly random background of the information and states background
Introduction collection of problem. The problem the problem, but does information, a clear
information, unclear, or is stated, but lacks not explain using explanation or
not related to the topic. detail. details. States the definition of the
thesis of the paper. problem, and a thesis
statement.
Conclusion does not Conclusion Conclusion Conclusion
adequately summarize summarizes main summarizes main summarizes the main
the main points. No topics, but is topics. Some topics without
suggestions for change repetitive. No suggestions for change repeating previous
Conclusion or opinions are suggestions for change are evident. sentences; writer's
included. and/or opinions are opinions and
included. suggestions for change
are logical and well
thought out.
Less than three main Three or more main Three or more main Three or more main
points, with poor points, but all lack points are present but points are well
development of ideas. development. may lack detail and developed with
Refutation missing or Refutation paragraph development in one or supporting details.
vague. missing and/or vague. two. Refutation Refutation paragraph
Main points
paragraph acknowledges the
acknowledges the opposing view, and
opposing view, but summarizes their main
doesn't summarize points.
points.
Lacks sources and/or All sources are All source material is All source material is
sources are not accurately used. All sources are used and smoothly
accurately documented. documented, but many accurately integrated into the text.
Incorrect format is are not in the desired documented, but a few All sources are
used. format on the Works are not in the desired accurately documented
Use of sources
Sources are not Cited page. Some format on the Works and in the desired
relevant nor reliable. sources are relevant Cited page. format on the Works
and reliable. Most sources are Cited page.
relevant and reliable. All sources are
relevant and reliable.
Work contains multiple Work contains Sentence structure is Punctuation and
incorrect sentence structural weaknesses generally correct. capitalization are
structures. There are and grammatical Some awkward correct.
Mechanics four or more errors in errors. There are three sentences do appear.
punctuation and/or or four errors in There are one or two
capitalization. punctuation and/or errors in punctuation
capitalization.
References for Weeks 4 & 5
Borges, L. (2000). British Literature & American Literature. Centro Universitario Da Cidade.
Moore Schools (n.d.) Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Translated by Y.R. Ponsor. Retrieved
April 25, 2020,
from mooreschools.com/cms/lib/OK1000367/Centricity/Domain/3069/Sir%20Gawain%2
0and%20the%20Green%20Knight.pdf
Roy, H (2017, October 21). Chief characteristics of the age of Chaucer. Retrieved from
https://www.englitmail.com/2017/10/chief-characteristics-of-age-of-chaucer.html
Lumiansky, R.M. (2020, March 27). Geoffrey Chaucer. Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Geoffrey-Chaucer
Courtly love. (2000). Adapted from A guide to the study of literature: A companion text for core
studies 6. Retrieved from http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/love.html

Medieval Drama. (2012). An introduction to british literature. Retrieved from

https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/an-introduction-to-british-literature/s01-03-
medieval-drama.html
Murphy, M. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer: A Reader-Friendly Edition.

Images
https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/images/og-geoffrey-chaucer-214.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a0/13/f7/a013f7b3b5503095d5e58d55e61e2dc5.jpg
https://i.gr-
assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1400019873l/22082591.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/XPGiKYVdnipAAXwijF-
TxmGKUoOJ0s6QvxX21KLno3v97jQB0B6j9o2VM56zAQrg43sV5g9ehsaPO5gaX4wh40ZaM
lNN5Q7OkSU
Weeks 6 & 7: The Period of Rebirth and Elizabethan Era
“There is no surer foundation for a beautiful friendship than a mutual taste in literature.”
― P.G. Wodehouse
Dorothy L(eigh) Sayers

At the end of the lesson, the students are expected to

At the end of the lesson, the students are expected to
 describe the historical accounts, socio-political, cultural and literary atmosphere
 during
define linguistics
the period;
 create a poem; and
 demonstrate belief on the importance of Literature.

Before we begin…
Are you ready to move forward? Circle the symbol that best represents your readiness and
explain why you chose such.

______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
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 READ

Overview
The Renaissance period is a period of rebirth, in such a way that the world had undergone
various changes. This movement originated in Italy had revolutionized the art and literature
spectrum, which then spread to England as the latter rose to become the most powerful nation in
the European continent.
In a tradition of literature remarkable for its exacting and brilliant achievements,
the Elizabethan and early Stuart periods have been said to represent the most brilliant century of
all. (The reign of Elizabeth I began in 1558 and ended with her death in 1603; she was succeeded
by the Stuart king James VI of Scotland, who took the title James I of England as well. English
literature of his reign as James I, from 1603 to 1625, is properly called Jacobean.) These years
produced a gallery of authors of genius, some of whom have never been surpassed, and conferred
on scores of lesser talents the enviable ability to write with fluency, imagination, and verve. From
one point of view, this sudden renaissance looks radiant, confident, heroic—and belated, but all
the more dazzling for its belatedness. Yet, from another point of view, this was a time of unusually
traumatic strain, in which English society underwent massive disruptions that transformed it on
every front and decisively affected the life of every individual. In the brief, intense moment in
which England assimilated the European Renaissance, the circumstances that made the
assimilation possible were already disintegrating and calling into question the newly won
certainties, as well as the older truths that they were dislodging. This doubleness, of new
possibilities and new doubts simultaneously apprehended, gives the literature its unrivaled
intensity.
Sidney and Spenser
With the work of Sir Philip
Sidney and Edmund Spenser, Tottel’s
contributors suddenly began to look old-
fashioned. Sidney epitomized the
new Renaissance “universal man”: a
courtier, diplomat, soldier, and poet
whose Defence of Poesie includes the
first considered account of the state of
English letters. Sidney’s treatise defends
literature on the ground of its unique
power to teach, but his real emphasis is
on its delight, its ability to depict the
world not as it is but as it ought to be.
This quality of “forcibleness or energia”
he himself demonstrated in
his sonnet sequence of unrequited
desire, Astrophel and Stella (written
1582, published 1591). His Arcadia, in
its first version (written c. 1577–80), is a
pastoral romance in which courtiers
disguised as Amazons and shepherds Figure 1. Sir Philip Sidney
make love and sing delicate
experimental verses. The revised version (written c. 1580–84, published 1590; the last three books
of the first version were added in 1593), vastly expanded but abandoned in mid-sentence, added
sprawling plots of heroism in love and war, philosophical and political discourses, and set pieces
of aristocratic etiquette. Sidney was a dazzling and assured innovator whose pioneering of new
forms and stylistic melody was seminal for his generation. His public fame was as an aristocratic
champion of an aggressively Protestant foreign policy, but Elizabeth had no time for idealistic
warmongering, and the unresolved conflicts in his poetry—desire against restraint, heroism against
patience, rebellion against submission—mirror his own discomfort with his situation as an
unsuccessful courtier.

Protestantism also loomed large in Spenser’s life. He enjoyed the patronage of the earl of
Leicester, who sought to advance militant Protestantism at court, and his poetic manifesto, The
Shepherds Calendar (1579), covertly praised Archbishop Edmund Grindal, who had been
suspended by Elizabeth for his Puritan sympathies. Spenser’s masterpiece, The Faerie
Queene (1590–96), is an epic of Protestant nationalism in which the villains are infidels or papists,
the hero is King Arthur, and the central value is married chastity.

Spenser was one of the humanistically trained breed of public servants, and the Calendar,
an expertly crafted collection of pastoral eclogues, both advertised his talents and announced his
epic ambitions. The exquisite lyric gift that it reveals was voiced again in the marriage
poems Epithalamion (1595) and Prothalamion (1596). With The Faerie Queene he achieved the
central poem of the Elizabethan period. Its form fuses the medieval allegory with the
Italian romantic epic; its purpose was “to fashion a gentleman or noble person in virtuous and
gentle discipline.” The plan was for 12 books (6 were completed), focusing on 12 virtues
exemplified in the quests of 12 knights from the court of Gloriana, the Faerie Queene, a symbol
for Elizabeth herself. Arthur, in quest of Gloriana’s love, would appear in each book and come to
exemplify Magnificence, the complete man. Spenser took the decorative chivalry of the
Elizabethan court festivals and reworked it through a constantly shifting veil of allegory, so that
the knights’ adventures and loves build into a complex, multileveled portrayal of the moral life.
The verse, a spacious and slow-moving nine-lined stanza, and archaic language frequently rise to
an unrivaled sensuousness.

The Faerie Queene was a public poem, addressed to the queen, and politically it echoed
the hopes of the Leicester circle for government motivated by godliness and militancy. Spenser’s
increasing disillusion with the court and with the active life, a disillusion noticeable in the poem’s
later books and in his bitter satire Colin Clouts Come Home Again (1591), voiced the fading of
these expectations in the last decade of Elizabeth’s reign, the beginning of that remarkable failure
of political and cultural confidence in the monarchy. In the “Mutability
Cantos,” melancholy fragments of a projected seventh book (published posthumously in 1609),
Spenser turned away from the public
world altogether, toward
the ambiguous consolations of eternity.

The lessons taught by Sidney

and Spenser in the cultivation of
melodic smoothness and graceful
refinement appear to good effect in the
subsequent virtuoso outpouring of
lyrics and sonnets. These are among
the most engaging achievements of the
age, though the outpouring was itself
partly a product of frustration, as a
generation trained to expect office or
preferment but faced with
courtly parsimony channeled its
energies in new directions in search of
patronage. For Sidney’s fellow
courtiers, pastoral and love lyric were
Figure 2. Edmund Spenser also a means of obliquely expressing
one’s relationship with the queen, of
advancing a proposal or an appeal.
The Age of Shakespeare
Above all other dramatists
stands William Shakespeare, a supreme genius
whom it is impossible to characterize briefly.
Shakespeare is unequaled as poet and intellect,
but he remains elusive. His capacity for
assimilation—what the poet John Keats called
his “negative capability”—means that his work
is comprehensively accommodating; every
attitude or ideology finds its resemblance there
yet also finds itself subject to criticism and
interrogation. In part, Shakespeare achieved this
by the total inclusiveness of his aesthetic, by
putting clowns in his tragedies and kings in his
comedies, juxtaposing public and private, and
mingling the artful with the spontaneous; his
plays imitate the counterchange of values
occurring at large in his society. The sureness and profound popularity of his taste enabled him to
lead the English Renaissance without privileging or prejudicing any one of its divergent aspects,
while he—as actor, dramatist, and shareholder in the Lord Chamberlain’s players—was involved
in the Elizabethan theatre at every level. His career (dated from 1589 to 1613) corresponded
exactly to the period of greatest literary flourishing, and only in his work are the total possibilities
of the Renaissance fully realized.

Contributions/Works
A. Comedies
 All's Well That Ends  The Merchant of  Twelfth Night
Well Venice
 As You Like It  The Merry Wives of  The Two Gentlemen
Windsor of Verona
 The Comedy of Errors  A Midsummer Night's  The Two Noble
Dream Kinsmen
 Love's Labor's Lost  Much Ado About
Nothing
 Measure for Measure  The Taming of the
Shrew
 B. Histories
 Henry IV, Part 1  Henry VI, Part 3
 Henry IV, Part 2  Henry VIII
 Henry V  King John
 Henry VI, Part 1  Richard II
 Henry VI, Part 2  Richard III

C. Tragedies
 Antony and Cleopatra  Macbeth  Troilus and Cressida
 Coriolanus  Othello
 Hamlet  Romeo and Juliet
 Julius Caesar  Timon of Athens
 King Lear  Titus Andronicus

D. Romances
 Cymbeline
 Pericles
 The Tempest
 The Winter’s Tale

E. Poems
 Lucrece
 The Phoenix and
Turtle
 Venus and Adonis
 Sonnets

Shakespearean Sonnets
Shakespeare's sonnets are written predominantly in a meter called iambic pentameter, a
rhyme scheme in which each sonnet line consists of ten syllables. The syllables are divided into
five pairs called iambs or iambic feet. An iamb is a metrical unit made up of one unstressed syllable
followed by one stressed syllable. An example of an iamb would be good BYE. A line of iambic
pentameter flows like this: baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM /baBOOM.
 Here are some examples from the sonnets:

When I / do COUNT / the CLOCK / that TELLS / the TIME (Sonnet 12)

When IN / dis GRACE / with FOR / tune AND / men's EYES

I ALL / a LONE / be WEEP / my OUT/ cast STATE (Sonnet 29)

Shall I / com PARE/ thee TO / a SUM / mer's DAY?

Thou ART / more LOVE / ly AND / more TEM / per ATE (Sonnet 18)

Shakespeare's plays are also written primarily in iambic pentameter, but the lines are
unrhymed and not grouped into stanzas. Unrhymed iambic pentameter is called blank verse. It
should be noted that there are also many prose passages in Shakespeare's plays and some lines
of trochaic tetrameter, such as the Witches' speeches in Macbeth.

Sonnet Structure
There are fourteen lines in a Shakespearean sonnet. The first twelve lines are divided into three
quatrains with four lines each. In the three quatrains the poet establishes a theme or problem and
then resolves it in the final two lines, called the couplet. The rhyme scheme of the quatrains is abab
cdcd efef. The couplet has the rhyme scheme gg. This sonnet structure is commonly called the
English sonnet or the Shakespearean sonnet, to distinguish it from the Italian Petrarchan sonnet
form which has two parts: a rhyming octave (abbaabba) and a rhyming sestet (cdcdcd). The
Petrarchan sonnet style was extremely popular with Elizabethan sonneteers, much to Shakespeare's
disdain (he mocks the conventional and excessive Petrarchan style in Sonnet 130).

Only three of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets do not conform to this structure: Sonnet 99, which has 15
lines; Sonnet 126, which has 12 lines; and Sonnet 145, which is written in iambic tetrameter.

Romantic Poetry
The love poems of the English Renaissance (late 15th–early 17th century) are considered
to be some of the most romantic of all time. Many of the most famous poets are more well-known
as the Elizabethan era playwrights—Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593), Ben Jonson (1572–1637),
and the most renowned of all, William Shakespeare (1564–1616).

Throughout the medieval period, which preceded the Renaissance, poetry changed dramatically
throughout England and Western Europe. Slowly, and with influence from movements
like courtly love, the epic ballads of battles and monsters like "Beowulf" were transformed into
romantic adventures like the Arthurian legends.

These romantic legends were the precursor to the Renaissance, and as it unfolded, literature and
poetry evolved still further and took on a decidedly romantic aura. A more personal style
developed, and poems clearly became a way for a poet to reveal his feelings to the one he loved.
In the mid-to-late 16th century, there was a virtual flowering of poetic talent in England, influenced
by the art and literature of the Italian Renaissance a century before. Here are some examples:

Who Ever Loved That Loved Not at First Sight?

Christopher Marlowe
It lies not in our power to love or hate,
For will in us is overruled by fate.
When two are stripped, long ere the course begin,
We wish that one should love, the other win;
And one especially do we affect
Of two gold ingots, like in each respect:
The reason no man knows; let it suffice
What we behold is censured by our eyes.
Where both deliberate, the love is slight:
Who ever loved, that loved not at first sight?

The Silent Lover, Part 1

Sir Walter Raleigh
Passions are liken'd best to floods and streams:
The shallow murmur, but the deep are dumb;
So, when affection yields discourse, it seems
The bottom is but shallow whence they come.
They that are rich in words, in words discover
That they are poor in that which makes a lover.

Come, My Celia
Ben Jonson
Come, my Celia, let us prove
While we may, the sports of love;
Time will not be ours forever;
He at length our good will sever.
Spend not then his gifts in vain.
Suns that set may rise again;
But if once we lose this light,
'Tis with us perpetual night.
Why should we defer our joys?
Fame and rumor are but toys
Cannot we delude the eyes
Of a few poor household spies,
Or his easier ears beguile,
So removed by our wile?
'Tis no sin love's fruit to steal
But the sweet theft to reveal.
To be taken, to be seen,
These have crimes accounted been.

Sonnet 18: Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?

William Shakespeare
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art lovelier and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Additional Material:
Watch and listen to this video clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVJWoI8ObgM

Be ready for the synchronous discussion on _____________

at _______________.
REFLECT

Read the Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare, then fill out the
worksheet below.
 RESPOND

Task 1: Short Response

Macro Skills: reading and writing Mode of Submission (Options)
Date of Submission: ________________ Online: Google Classroom
Offline: Module

Answer the following questions:

1. Why do you think renaissance era is often called the period of rebirth?
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2. What is Sidney’s treatise defense on literature?

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3. How did Shakespeare achieve negative capability?

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4. What is iambic pentameter?

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Task 2: Blog Writing
Macro Skills: reading and writing Mode of Submission (Options)
Date of Submission: ________________ Online: See the instructions below
Offline: See the instructions below
Read a summary of The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare, then explain how the
story is about oppression.
Online: Upload your blog on your Google Site.
Offline: Write your synthesis in the module. Include a design related to the topic.

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Task 3: Poem Writing
Macro Skills: reading and writing Mode of Submission (Options)
Date of Submission: ________________ Online: See the instructions below
Offline: See the instructions below
Read any example of a romantic poetry written by Shakespeare, and write a poem of your own
involving the theme: “Love.”
Online: Upload your poem on Google Site
Offline: Write your synthesis in the module. Include a design related to the topic.

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CATEGORY Excellent - 4 Good - 3 Satisfactory - 2 Needs Improvement - 1

THE WRITING Student devoted a lot of time Student devoted adequate time Student devoted some time Student devoted little time and
PROCESS / and effort to the writing and effort to the writing process and effort to the writing effort to the writing process. It
process and worked hard to and worked to get the job done. process but was not very appears that the student does
make the poem a good read. The poem may have one or two thorough. Does enough to not care about the assignment.
EFFORT The poem has no errors. errors. get by. There are several The poem has many errors.
errors.

TITLE The poem has a title that The poem has a title that relates The poem has a title The poem has no title
clearly relates to the poem to the poem
and adds interest to the
theme or message of the
poem

NEATNESS The final draft of the poem is The final draft of the poem is The final draft of the poem The final draft is not neat or
readable, clean, neat and readable, neat and attractive. It is readable and some of the attractive. It looks like the
attractive. It is free of may have one or two erasures, pages are attractive. It student just wanted to get it
erasures and crossed-out but they are not distracting. It looks like parts of it might done and didn’t care what it
words. It looks like the author looks like the author took some have been done in a hurry. looked like.
took great pride in it. pride in it.

STYLE The poem is written with a The poem is written with a The poem is written The poem lacks style and the
great sense of style. The defined with style. Thoughts are somewhat with style. thoughts did not come out
poem has been well thought clear to read and Thoughts are clear to a clearly on paper.
out and makes sense to the understandable. degree.
reader.

VOCABULARY The poem is filled with The poem includes many The poem includes some The poem lacks description and
descriptive vocabulary that descriptive elements and is descriptive words and does not allow the reader to
appeals to the reader. appealing. phrases. visualize the poem.
References for Weeks 6 & 7
Cordner, M. (2020, July 13). The renaissance period:1550-1660. Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com/art/English-literature/The-Renaissance-period-1550-1660
The Folger. Shakespeare’s works. Retrieved from https://www.folger.edu/shakespeares-works
Snell, M. (2019, September 11). Love poems of the English renaissance. Retrieved from
https://www.thoughtco.com/renaissance-love-poems-1788871
Shakespeare Online (2020). Shakespearean sonnet basics: Iambic pentameter and the english
sonnet style. Retrieved from http://www.shakespeare-
online.com/sonnets/sonnetstyle.html

Images
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-
LmEdSsvtQU4/VDquOVx1QyI/AAAAAAAABC8/LYY8Cruh7Ck/s1600/Books-
Womersley_1-2.jpg
https://42796r1ctbz645bo223zkcdl-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/04/Sir_Philip_Sidney_Bolton_Portrait.jpg
https://www.history.com/.image/ar_1:1%2Cc_fill%2Ccs_srgb%2Cfl_progressive%2Cq_auto:go
od%2Cw_1200/MTU3ODc5MDg3NTExNDQ2ODU3/shakespeare-hero.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/dd/e5/3b/dde53b665d93608fdff5c46b812c6467.png
Weeks 7 & 8: The Restoration Era and Period of
Enlightenment
“Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisioned by the enemy, don't we
consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we're partisans of
liberty, then it's our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!”
― J.R.R. Tolkien

At the end of the lesson, the students are expected to

At the end of the lesson, the students are expected to
 analyze the central theme and literary conventions that appear through the reading
 material
define linguistics
selected;
 create a blog; and
 demonstrate belief on the importance of Literature.

Before we begin…
Let’s review some of the influences that made an impact on the English literature. In the
boxes below, write the effects of these influences. Send your work to your professor through
Messenger.

ENGLISH
LITERATURE
 READ

Restoration and 18th Century Literature

The term Restoration literature is often taken to mean the literature of those who belonged,
or aspired to belong, to the restored court culture of Charles II’s reign—the “mob of gentlemen
who wrote with ease,” as Alexander Pope later put it. This identification was to allow Pope’s
contemporaries to look back on the Restoration as an age of excess and licentiousness. Yet Puritans
and republicans had not disappeared. With the Act of Uniformity (1662) and the Test Act (1673),
those Protestants not conforming with the Church of England (“Dissenters”) were excluded from
most public offices. However, they still formed an important body of opinion within the nation.
They were also to make a distinctive contribution to the nation’s intellectual life throughout the
following century.

Major genres and major authors of the period

A comparable preference for an unembellished and perspicuous use of language is apparent

in much of the non-theological literature of the age. Thomas Sprat, in his propagandizing History
of the Royal Society of London (1667), and with the needs of scientific discovery in mind, also
advocated “a close, naked natural way of speaking, positive expressions, clear senses, a native
easiness.” Sprat’s work and a series of books by Joseph Glanvill, beginning with The Vanity of
Dogmatizing (1661), argued the case for an experimental approach to natural phenomena against
both the old scholastic philosophy and general conservative prejudice. That a real struggle was
involved can be seen from the invariably disparaging attitude of contemporary satires to the
labours of the Royal Society’s enthusiasts (see, for instance, Butler’s “The Elephant in the Moon,”
probably written in 1670–71, and Thomas Shadwell’s The Virtuoso, 1676)—a tradition to be
sustained later by Pope and Jonathan Swift.

However, evidence of substantial achievement for the new generation of explorers was
being published throughout the period, in, for example, Robert Boyle’s Sceptical
 Chymist (1661), Robert Hooke’s Micrographia (1665), John Ray’s Historia
Plantarum (in three volumes, 1686–1704), and, above all, Isaac
Newton’s Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687). Newton’s
great work, composed in Latin, was written for fellow mathematicians rather
than for gentlemen virtuosi. Only a select few were able to follow his workings
(though his later Opticks [1704] was aimed at a much wider readership). Yet
his theories were popularized by a small regiment of Newtonians, and by the
early 18th century he had become a hero of his culture.

The Age of Reason

The Enlightenment's emphasis on reason shaped philosophical, political and scientific discourse
from the late 17th to the early 19th century. The great Age of Reason is defined as the period of
rigorous scientific, political and philosophical discourse that characterized European society
during the ‘long’ 18th century: from the late 17th century to the ending of the Napoleonic Wars in
1815. Centuries of custom and tradition were brushed aside in favor of exploration, individualism,
tolerance and scientific endeavor, which, in tandem with developments in industry and politics,
witnessed the emergence of the ‘modern world’.

The Emergence of Reason

The roots of the Enlightenment can be found in the turmoil of the English Civil Wars. With the re-
establishment of a largely unchanged autocratic monarchy, first with the restoration of Charles
II in 1660 and then the ascendancy of James II in 1685, leading political thinkers began to
reappraise how society and politics could (and should) be better structured. Movements for
political change resulted in the Glorious Revolution of 1688/89, when William and Mary were
installed on the throne as part of the new Protestant settlement.

The ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome were revered by enlightened thinkers, who viewed
these communities as potential models for how modern society could be organized. Many
commentators of the late 17th century were eager to achieve a clean break from what they saw as
centuries of political tyranny, in favor of personal freedoms and happiness centered on the
individual. Chief among these thinkers was philosopher and physician John Locke, whose Two
Treatises of Government (published in 1689) advocated a separation of church and state, religious
toleration, the right to property ownership and a contractual obligation on governments to
recognize the innate ‘rights’ of the people.

Locke believed that reason and human consciousness were the gateways to contentment and
liberty, and he demolished the notion that human knowledge was somehow pre-programmed and
mystical. Locke’s ideas reflected the earlier but equally influential works of Thomas Hobbes,
which similarly advocated new social contracts between the state and civil society as the key to
unlocking personal happiness for all.

Concurrent movements for political change also emerged in France during the early years of the
18th century. The writings of Denis Diderot, for example, linked reason with the maintenance of
virtue and its ability to check potentially destructive human passions. Similarly, the profoundly
influential works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued that man was born free and rational, but was
enslaved by the constraints imposed on society by governments. True political sovereignty, he
argued, always remained in the hands of the people if the rule of law was properly maintained by
a democratically endorsed government: a radical political philosophy that came to influence
revolutionary movements in France and America later in the century.

Scientific Revolution

These new enlightened views of the world were also encapsulated in the explosion of scientific
endeavor that occurred during the 18th century. With the rapid expansion of print culture from
around 1700, and increasing levels of literacy, details of experimentation and discovery were
eagerly consumed by the reading public.

This growth of ‘natural philosophy’ (the term ‘science’ was only coined later in the 18th century)
was underpinned by the application of rational thought and reason to scientific enquiry; first
espoused by Francis Bacon in the early 1600s, this approach built on the earlier work
of Copernicus and Galileo dating from the medieval period. Scientific experimentation (with
instrumentation) was used to shed new light on nature and to challenge superstitious interpretations
of the living world, much of which had been deduced from uncritical readings of historical texts.

18th Century and its Literature

Novels
Defoe

Such ambitious debates on society and human nature ran

parallel with the explorations of a literary form finding new
popularity with a large audience, the novel. Daniel Defoe came
to sustained prose fiction late in a career of quite various, often
disputatious writing. The variety of interests that he had pursued
in all his occasional work (much of which is not attributed to him
with any certainty) left its mark on his more-lasting
achievements. His distinction, though earned in other fields of
writing than the polemical, is constantly underpinned by the
generous range of his curiosity. Only someone of his catholic
interests could have sustained, for instance, the superb Tour
Thro’ the Whole Island of Great Britain (1724–27). This is a vivid county-by-county review and
celebration of the state of the nation, which combines an antiquarian’s enthusiasm with a passion
for trade and commercial progress. He brought the same diversity of enthusiasms into play in
writing his novels. The first of these, Robinson Crusoe (1719), an immediate success at home and
on the Continent, is a unique fictional blending of the traditions of Puritan spiritual autobiography
with an insistent scrutiny of the nature of man as social creature and an extraordinary ability to
invent a sustaining modern myth. A Journal of the Plague Year (1722) displays enticing powers
of self-projection into a situation of which Defoe can only have had experience through the
narrations of others, and both Moll Flanders (1722) and Roxana (1724) lure the reader into
puzzling relationships with narrators the degree of whose own self-awareness is repeatedly and
provocatively placed in doubt.

Richardson

The enthusiasm prompted by Defoe’s best novels demonstrated the growing readership for
innovative prose narrative. Samuel Richardson, a prosperous London printer, was the next
major author to respond to the challenge. His Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded (1740, with a less-
happy sequel in 1741), using (like all Richardson’s novels) the epistolary form, tells a story of an
employer’s attempted seduction of a young servant woman, her subsequent victimization, and her
eventual reward in virtuous marriage with the penitent exploiter. Its moral tone is self-consciously
rigorous and proved highly controversial. It was a publishing sensation, not only selling in large
numbers but also provoking parodies and imitations, attacks and eulogies. As well as being
popular, it was the first such work of prose fiction to aspire to respectability, indeed moral
seriousness. For contemporaries, the so-called “rise of the novel” began here.

The strength of Pamela was its exploitation of what

Richardson was to call “writing to the moment”: the
capturing in the texture of her letters the fluctuations of the
heroine’s consciousness as she faces her ordeal. Pamela
herself is the writer of almost all the letters, and the
technical limitations of the epistolary form are strongly
felt, though Richardson’s ingenuity works hard
to mitigate them. But Pamela’s frank speaking about the
abuses of masculine and gentry power sounds the skeptical
note more radically developed in Richardson’s
masterpiece, Clarissa; or, The History of a Young
Lady (1747–48), which has a just claim to being considered
the greatest of all English tragic novels.

Clarissa uses multiple narrators and develops a

profoundly suggestive interplay of opposed voices. At its
center is the taxing soul debate and eventually mortal combat between the aggressive, brilliantly
improvisatorial libertine Lovelace and the beleaguered Clarissa, maltreated and abandoned by her
family but sternly loyal to her own inner sense of probity. The tragic consummation that grows
from this involves an astonishingly ruthless testing of the psychological natures of the two leading
characters. Even in its own day, Clarissa was widely accepted as having demonstrated the potential
profundity, moral or psychological, of the novel. It was admired and imitated throughout Europe.
After such intensities, Richardson’s final novel, The History of Sir Charles Grandison (1753–54),
is perhaps inevitably a less ambitious, cooler work, but its blending of serious moral discussion
and a comic ending ensured it an influence on his successors, especially Jane Austen.

Fielding

Henry Fielding turned to novel writing after a successful period as a dramatist, during
which his most popular work had been in burlesque forms. Sir Robert Walpole’s Licensing Act
of 1737, introduced to restrict political satire on the stage, pushed Fielding to look to
other genres. He also turned to journalism, of which he wrote a great deal, much of it political.
His entry into prose fiction had something in common with the burlesque mode of much of his
drama.

An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela

Andrews (1741), a travesty of
Richardson’s Pamela, transforms the latter’s
heroine into a predatory fortune hunter who cold-
bloodedly lures her booby master into matrimony.
Fielding continued his quarrel with Richardson
in The History of the Adventures of Joseph
Andrews (1742), which also uses Pamela as a
starting point but which, developing a momentum
of its own, soon outgrows any narrow parodic
intent. His hostility to Richardson’s
sexual ethic notwithstanding, Fielding was happy
to build, with a calm and smiling sophistication, on
the growing respect for the novel to which
his antagonist had so substantially contributed.
In Joseph Andrews and The History of Tom Jones,
a Foundling (1749), Fielding openly brought to
bear upon his chosen form a battery of devices
from more traditionally reputable modes
(including epic poetry, painting, and the drama).
This is accompanied by a flamboyant development
of authorial presence.

Fielding the narrator buttonholes the reader repeatedly, airs critical and ethical questions
for the reader’s delectation, and urbanely discusses the artifice upon which his fiction depends. In
the deeply original Tom Jones especially, this assists in developing a distinctive atmosphere of
self-confident magnanimity and candid optimism. His fiction, however, can also cope with a
darker range of experience. The Life of Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great (1743), for instance, uses
a mock-heroic idiom to explore a derisive parallel between the criminal underworld
and England’s political elite, and Amelia (1751) probes with sombre precision images of captivity
and situations of taxing moral paradox.

Smollett

Tobias Smollett had no desire to rival Fielding as a formal

innovator, and today he seems the less audacious innovator.
His novels consequently tend to be rather ragged
assemblings of disparate incidents. But, although uneven in
performance, all of them include extended passages of real
force and idiosyncrasy. His freest writing is expended on
grotesque portraiture in which the human is reduced to
fiercely energetic automatism. Smollett can also be a
stunning reporter of the contemporary scene, whether the
subject be a naval battle or the gathering of the decrepit at a
spa. His touch is least happy when, complying too facilely
with the gathering cult of sensibility, he indulges in rote-
learned displays of emotionalism and good-heartedness. His
most sustainably invigorating work can perhaps be found
in The Adventures of Roderick Random (1748), The
Adventures of Peregrine Pickle (1751), and (an altogether
more interesting encounter with the dialects of sensibility) The Expedition of Humphry
Clinker (1771). The last was his only epistolary novel and perhaps the outstanding use of this form
for comic purposes.

Sterne

An experiment of a radical and seminal kind is Laurence

Sterne’s Tristram Shandy (1759–67), which, drawing on a
tradition of learned wit from Erasmus and Rabelais to Burton
and Swift, provides a brilliant comic critique of the progress of
the English novel to date. It was published in five separate
installments over the course of some eight years and has an
open-endedness all its own. The part-by-part publication also
enabled Sterne to manipulate public responses and even to
make the reception of one volume the subject matter for satire
in a later volume. The focus of attention is shifted from the
fortunes of the hero himself to the nature of his
family, environment, and heredity, and dealings within that
family offer repeated images of human unrelatedness and
disconnection. Tristram, the narrator, is isolated in his own
privacy and doubts how much, if anything, he can know certainly even about himself. Sterne is
explicit about the influence of Lockean psychology on his writing, and the book, fascinated with
the fictive energies of the imagination, is filled with characters reinventing or mythologizing the
conditions of their own lives. It also draws zestful stimulus from a concern with the limitations of
language, both verbal and visual, and teases an intricate drama out of Tristram’s imagining of, and
playing to, the reader’s likely responses. Sterne’s A Sentimental Journey Through France and
Italy (1768) similarly defies conventional expectations of what a travel book might be. An
apparently random collection of scattered experiences, it mingles affecting vignettes with episodes
in a heartier, comic mode, but coherence of imagination is secured by the delicate insistence with
which Sterne ponders how the impulses of sentimental and erotic feeling are psychologically
interdependent. It was a powerful influence on later, less-ironic sentimental writing. In Sterne’s
wake it was common for works of fiction to include the declaration “A Sentimental Novel” on
their title pages.

Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility

Sense and Sensibility is a novel by Jane Austen that was published anonymously in three
volumes in 1811 and that became a classic. The satirical, comic work offers a vivid depiction of
19th-century middle-class life as it follows the romantic relationships of Elinor and Marianne
Dashwood.
Sense and Sensibility tells the story of the impoverished Dashwood family, focusing on the
sisters Elinor and Marianne, personifications of good sense (common sense) and sensibility
(emotionality), respectively. They become destitute upon the death of their father, who leaves his
home, Norland Park, to their half-brother, John. Although instructed to take care of his sisters,
John is dissuaded of his duty by his greedy wife, Fanny. The family—which, in addition to Elinor
and Marianne, includes their mother and a younger sister—moves to Barton Cottage
in Devonshire. There the open and enthusiastic Marianne meets Colonel Brandon, a staid and
settled bachelor 20 years her senior. Although he expresses an interest in Marianne, she
discourages his attention and instead becomes infatuated with the attractive John Willoughby, who
seems to be a romantic lover but is in reality an unscrupulous fortune hunter. He deserts Marianne
for an heiress, and she eventually makes a sensible marriage with Colonel Brandon.
During this time, Marianne’s elder sister, the prudent and discreet Elinor, and Edward
Ferrars, Fanny’s brother, have formed an attachment. However, she is outwardly reserved about
her affections, especially after learning that he has been secretly engaged to Lucy Steele for several
years. Although Edward loves Elinor, he is determined to honour his commitment to Lucy. When
the engagement is revealed, Edward is disowned, and Colonel Brandon offers him a living as a
clergyman. Later Elinor is told that Mr. Ferrars has married. Believing that the Mr. Ferrars in
question is Edward, she is both shocked and relieved to discover that Lucy has wed Edward’s
brother, Robert. Edward arrives at Barton Cottage and proposes to Elinor, who accepts.
Poems
Thomas Gray

Born in 1716 in London, Thomas Gray was a poet and professor who perhaps most well-
is known for the poem Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard that was inspired by the sudden
passing of his poet friend Richard West. Gray was from a large family of 12 but was the only one
to survive, his father suffered from mental illness, and he spent most of his youth with his mother.
Gray attended Eton, was a devout scholar who wasn’t interested in sport but found a deep
joy in studying science and botany in particular. 1734 saw him in Cambridge, although he didn’t
much care for the studies, preferring to spend his time reading and playing music. It was there that
he made friends with Horace Walpole who would later help him get published.
After the death of his friend and poet Richard West,
Gray began to write poetry in earnest, and he would spend a
good deal of the rest of his life living the life of a scholar at
Cambridge, his head buried in a book. He was often
regarded in that respect as one of the highest intellectuals in
the country. Although not particularly productive, he was
offered, and turned down, the post of poet laureate in 1757.
Because of the morose nature of some of his poetry,
Gray, along with other poets, including Cowper and
Goldsmith, became known as one of the Graveyard Poets or
Boneyard Boys. He started writing Elegy Written in a
Country Churchyard in 1742 but left it unfinished for a
number of years before completing it in 1750. When it was
published a year later it was instantly successful and has
been one of the staples of poetry classic collections ever since.
Exploring death and what happens after, Elegy was a precursor of the Gothic era and
follows a poet narrator who is sitting in a graveyard, initially describing the surroundings and then
turning to deeper thoughts of mortality and the inevitable fate that we all face. The influence of
Gray’s work, particularly Elegy, can be seen both in the 19th Century and well into more modern
times.
Although he is best remembered for that poem alone, Gray actually considered The
Progress of Poesy and The Bard amongst his best work. Throughout his life, he liked to travel
through the British countryside exploring its ancient history and bringing it to life in his poetry.
When he toured the English lakes he produced his descriptions in the collection The Poems of Mr
Gray in 1775. Scholars have wondered over the last two hundred years or so why Gray never
actually wrote more works, even though he was considered the premier poet of the time amongst
his contemporaries.
 In 1768, Gray’s scholastic endeavors led to him being offered the post of professor of
modern history at Cambridge, a position that he held for just three years. In 1771, he fell ill whilst
at a dinner at the college and died a week later at the age of 30. He was buried in the graveyard at
Stoke Poges where he first began to write the Elegy.
Works
 Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard  On the Death of Richard West

 Hymn to Adversity  The Bard

 Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton  The Curse Upon Edward

College

 Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat  The Fatal Sisters: An Ode

 Ode on the Pleasure Arising from  The Progress of Poesy: A Pindaric Ode
Vicissitude

 Ode on the Spring

Essays on Criticism by Alexander Pope (selection)

Tis hard to say, if greater want of skill

Appear in writing or in judging ill;
But, of the two, less dang'rous is th' offence
To tire our patience, than mislead our sense.
Some few in that, but numbers err in this,
Ten censure wrong for one who writes amiss;
A fool might once himself alone expose,
Now one in verse makes many more in prose.

'Tis with our judgments as our watches, none

Go just alike, yet each believes his own.
In poets as true genius is but rare,
True taste as seldom is the critic's share;
Both must alike from Heav'n derive their light,
These born to judge, as well as those to write.
Let such teach others who themselves excel,
And censure freely who have written well.
Authors are partial to their wit, 'tis true,
But are not critics to their judgment too?
Yet if we look more closely we shall find
Most have the seeds of judgment in their mind;
Nature affords at least a glimm'ring light;
The lines, tho' touch'd but faintly, are drawn right.
But as the slightest sketch, if justly trac'd,
Is by ill colouring but the more disgrac'd,
So by false learning is good sense defac'd;
Some are bewilder'd in the maze of schools,
And some made coxcombs Nature meant but fools.
In search of wit these lose their common sense,
And then turn critics in their own defence:
Each burns alike, who can, or cannot write,
Or with a rival's, or an eunuch's spite.
All fools have still an itching to deride,
And fain would be upon the laughing side.
If Mævius scribble in Apollo's spite,
There are, who judge still worse than he can write…

Additional Material:
Watch and listen to this video clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4Jzp4Ywuek

Be ready for the synchronous discussion on _____________

at _______________.
 REFLECT
Answer the following questions:

1. What does the term Restoration literature means?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

2. How did enlightenment started?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

3. What is Pamela all about?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

4. What is the novel Sense and Sensibility all about?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
 RESPOND

Task 1: Blog Writing

Macro Skills: viewing, reading and writing Mode of Submission (Options)
Date of Submission: ________________ Online: See the instructions below
Offline: See the instructions below
Watch/read any particular news article. Understand what the article talks about and try to
question what that article means for the society in general.
Online: Upload your blogs on Facebook
Offline: Write your synthesis in the module. Include a design related to the topic.

__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
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 RESPOND

Task 2: Blog Writing

Macro Skills: viewing and writing Mode of Submission (Options)
Date of Submission: ________________ Online: See the instructions below
Offline: See the instructions below
Watch the British period film Sense and Sensibility (1995), and explain how the narrative is
about using good sense but not losing yourself to sensibility.
Online: Upload your blogs on Facebook
Offline: Write your synthesis in the module. Include a design related to the topic.

__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
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 Essay Rubric
Criteria 1 2 3 4
Thesis and/or problem Introduction states the Introductory paragraph Well-developed
is vague or unclear. thesis but does not contains some introductory paragraph
Background details are adequately explain the background contains detailed
a seemingly random background of the information and states background
Introduction collection of problem. The problem the problem, but does information, a clear
information, unclear, or is stated, but lacks not explain using explanation or
not related to the topic. detail. details. States the definition of the
thesis of the paper. problem, and a thesis
statement.
Conclusion does not Conclusion Conclusion Conclusion
adequately summarize summarizes main summarizes main summarizes the main
the main points. No topics, but is topics. Some topics without
suggestions for change repetitive. No suggestions for change repeating previous
Conclusion or opinions are suggestions for change are evident. sentences; writer's
included. and/or opinions are opinions and
included. suggestions for change
are logical and well
thought out.
Less than three main Three or more main Three or more main Three or more main
points, with poor points, but all lack points are present but points are well
development of ideas. development. may lack detail and developed with
Refutation missing or Refutation paragraph development in one or supporting details.
vague. missing and/or vague. two. Refutation Refutation paragraph
Main points
paragraph acknowledges the
acknowledges the opposing view, and
opposing view, but summarizes their main
doesn't summarize points.
points.
Lacks sources and/or All sources are All source material is All source material is
sources are not accurately used. All sources are used and smoothly
accurately documented. documented, but many accurately integrated into the text.
Incorrect format is are not in the desired documented, but a few All sources are
used. format on the Works are not in the desired accurately documented
Use of sources
Sources are not Cited page. Some format on the Works and in the desired
relevant nor reliable. sources are relevant Cited page. format on the Works
and reliable. Most sources are Cited page.
relevant and reliable. All sources are
relevant and reliable.
Work contains multiple Work contains Sentence structure is Punctuation and
incorrect sentence structural weaknesses generally correct. capitalization are
structures. There are and grammatical Some awkward correct.
Mechanics four or more errors in errors. There are three sentences do appear.
punctuation and/or or four errors in There are one or two
capitalization. punctuation and/or errors in punctuation
capitalization.
References for Week 7 & 8
White, M. (2018, June 21). The enlightenment. Retrieved from https://www.bl.uk/restoration-
18th-century-literature/articles/the-enlightenment
Cordner, M. (2019). The Restoration. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/art/English-
literature/The-Restoration
Cregan-Reid, V. (2020, January 10). Sense and Sensibility. Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sense-and-Sensibility
Thomas Gray Poems. Retrieved from https://mypoeticside.com/poets/thomas-gray-poems

Images
https://cdn.britannica.com/s:700x500/09/3009-004-752A3B7E/Title-page-Isaac-Newton-De-
Philosophiae-Naturalis.jpg
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/mediaLib/318/785/bhc2648.jpg
https://alchetron.com/cdn/samuel-richardson-ea71544f-5535-4b7c-bbb6-f63faf3ed5c-resize-
750.jpeg
https://prabook.com/web/show-photo.jpg?id=1575504
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Tobias_Smollett_c_1770.jpg
https://cdn.britannica.com/67/19567-004-34362006/Laurence-Sterne-Joshua-Reynolds-detail-oil-
painting-1760.jpg
https://mypoeticside.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Thomas-Gray.jpg
Week 9: The Romantic Period

Before we Begin…
Establish your prior knowledge regarding the word “romance” by accomplishing the
KWLA Graphic Organizer. Submit your work to your professor through Messenger.

What I know What I would want to know

What I learned What affected me

 READ

A Landscape of English Poetry

The most notable feature of the poetry of the time is the new role of individual thought and
personal feeling. Where the main trend of 18th-century poetics had been to praise the general, to
see the poet as a spokesman of society addressing a cultivated and homogeneous audience and
having as his end the conveyance of “truth,” the Romantics found the source of poetry in the
particular, unique experience. Blake’s marginal comment on Sir Joshua
Reynolds’s Discourses expresses the position with characteristic vehemence: “To Generalize is to
be an Idiot. To Particularize is the alone Distinction of Merit.” The poet was seen as an individual
distinguished from his fellows by the intensity of his perceptions, taking as his basic subject matter
the workings of his own mind. Poetry was regarded as conveying its own truth; sincerity was
the criterion by which it was to be judged.
The emphasis on feeling—seen perhaps at its finest in the poems of Robert Burns—was in some
ways a continuation of the earlier “cult of sensibility”; and it is worth remembering that Alexander
Pope praised his father as having known no language but the language of the heart. But feeling
had begun to receive particular emphasis and is found in most of the Romantic definitions of
poetry. Wordsworth called poetry “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling,” and in
1833 John Stuart Mill defined poetry as “feeling itself, employing thought only as the medium of
its utterance.” It followed that the best poetry was that in which the greatest intensity of feeling
was expressed, and hence a new importance was attached to the lyric. Another key quality of
Romantic writing was its shift from the mimetic, or imitative, assumptions of the Neoclassical era
to a new stress on imagination.
The poets of this period accordingly placed great emphasis on the workings of the
unconscious mind, on dreams and reveries, on the supernatural, and on the childlike or primitive
view of the world, this last being regarded as valuable because its clarity and intensity had not
been overlaid by the restrictions of civilized “reason.” Rousseau’s sentimental conception of the
“noble savage” was often invoked, and often by those who were ignorant that the phrase is
Dryden’s or that the type was adumbrated in the “poor Indian” of Pope’s An Essay on Man. A
further sign of the diminished stress placed on judgment is the Romantic attitude to form: if poetry
must be spontaneous, sincere, intense, it should be fashioned primarily according to the dictates of
the creative imagination. Wordsworth advised a young poet, “You feel strongly; trust to those
feelings, and your poem will take its shape and proportions as a tree does from the vital principle
that actuates it.” This organic view of poetry is opposed to the classical theory of “genres,” each
with its own linguistic decorum; and it led to the feeling that poetic sublimity was unattainable
except in short passages.
Hand in hand with the new conception of poetry and the insistence on a new subject matter went
a demand for new ways of writing. Wordsworth and his followers, particularly Keats, found the
prevailing poetic diction of the late 18th century stale and stilted, or “gaudy and inane,” and totally
unsuited to the expression of their perceptions. It could not be, for them, the language of feeling,
and Wordsworth accordingly sought to bring the language of poetry back to that of common
speech. Wordsworth’s own diction, however, often differs from his theory. Nevertheless, when he
published his preface to Lyrical Ballads in 1800, the time was ripe for a change: the flexible diction
of earlier 18th-century poetry had hardened into a merely conventional language.

Early Romantic Period of Poems and Prose

Useful as it is to trace the common elements in Romantic poetry, there was little conformity
among the poets themselves. It is misleading to read the poetry of the first Romantics as if it had
been written primarily to express their feelings. Their concern was rather to change
the intellectual climate of the age.
William Blake
William Blake had been dissatisfied since boyhood
with the current state of poetry and what he considered the
irreligious drabness of contemporary thought. His early
development of a protective shield of mocking humor with
which to face a world in which science had become trifling
and art inconsequential is visible in the satirical An Island
in the Moon (written c. 1784–85); he then took the bolder
step of setting aside sophistication in the visionary Songs
of Innocence (1789). His desire for renewal encouraged
him to view the outbreak of the French Revolution as a
momentous event.
In works such as The Marriage of Heaven and
Hell (1790–93) and Songs of Experience (1794), he
attacked the hypocrisies of the age and the impersonal
cruelties resulting from the dominance of analytic reason
in contemporary thought. As it became clear that the ideals of the Revolution were not likely to be
realized in his time, he renewed his efforts to revise his contemporaries’ view of the universe and
to construct a new mythology centered not in the God of the Bible but in Urizen, a repressive figure
of reason and law whom he believed to be the deity actually worshipped by his contemporaries.
The story of Urizen’s rise was set out in The First Book of Urizen (1794) and then, more
ambitiously, in the unfinished manuscript Vala (later redrafted as The Four Zoas), written from
about 1796 to about 1807.
Blake developed these ideas in the visionary narratives of Milton (1804–08)
and Jerusalem (1804–20). Here, still using his own mythological characters, he portrayed the
imaginative artist as the hero of society and suggested the possibility of redemption from the fallen
(or Urizenic) condition.

William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge

William Wordsworth (on the left) and Samuel Taylor

Coleridge (below), were also exploring
the implications of the French Revolution.
Wordsworth, who lived in France in 1791–92 and
fathered an illegitimate child there, was distressed
when, soon after his return, Britain declared war on the
republic, dividing his allegiance. For the rest of his
career, he was to brood on those events, trying to
develop a view of humanity that would be faithful to
his twin sense of the pathos of individual human fates
and the unrealized potentialities in humanity as a
whole. The first factor emerges in his early manuscript
poems “The Ruined Cottage” and “The Pedlar” (both
to form part of the later Excursion); the second was
developed from 1797, when he and his sister, Dorothy,
with whom he was living in the west of England, were
in close contact with Coleridge.
Stirred simultaneously by Dorothy’s immediacy of feeling, manifested everywhere in
her Journals (written 1798–1803, published 1897), and by Coleridge’s imaginative and speculative
genius, he produced the poems collected in Lyrical Ballads (1798). The volume began with
Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” continued with poems displaying delight in the
powers of nature and the humane instincts of ordinary people, and concluded with the meditative
“Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey,” Wordsworth’s attempt to set out his mature
faith in nature and humanity.
 His investigation of the relationship between nature and the human mind continued in the
long autobiographical poem addressed to Coleridge and later titled The Prelude (1798–99 in two
books; 1804 in five books; 1805 in 13 books; revised continuously and published posthumously,
1850). Here he traced the value for a poet of having been a child “fostered alike by beauty and by
fear” by an upbringing in sublime surroundings. The Prelude constitutes the most significant
English expression of the Romantic discovery of the self as a topic for art and literature. The poem
also makes much of the work of memory, a theme explored as well in the “Ode: Intimations of
Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood.” In poems such as “Michael” and “The
Brothers,” by contrast, written for the second
volume of Lyrical Ballads (1800), Wordsworth
dwelt on the pathos and potentialities of ordinary
lives.
Coleridge’s poetic development during
these years paralleled Wordsworth’s. Having
briefly brought together images of nature and th e
mind in “The Eolian Harp” (1796), he devoted
himself to more-public concerns in poems of
political and social prophecy, such as “Religious
Musings” and “The Destiny of Nations.”
Becoming disillusioned in 1798 with his earlier
politics, however, and encouraged by Wordsworth,
he turned back to the relationship between nature
and the human mind. Poems such as “This Lime-
Tree Bower My Prison,” “The Nightingale,” and
“Frost at Midnight” (now sometimes called the
“conversation poems” but collected by Coleridge
himself as “Meditative Poems in Blank Verse”) combine sensitive descriptions of nature with
subtlety of psychological comment. “Kubla Khan” (1797 or 1798, published 1816), a poem that
Coleridge said came to him in “a kind of Reverie,” represented a new kind of exotic writing, which
he also exploited in the supernaturalism of “The Ancient Mariner” and the unfinished “Christabel.”
After his visit to Germany in 1798–99, he renewed attention to the links between the subtler forces
in nature and the human psyche; this attention bore fruit in letters, notebooks, literary criticism,
theology, and philosophy. Simultaneously, his poetic output became sporadic. “Dejection: An
Ode” (1802), another meditative poem, which first took shape as a verse letter to Sara Hutchinson,
Wordsworth’s sister-in-law, memorably describes the suspension of his “shaping spirit of
Imagination.”
The work of both poets was directed back to national affairs during these years by the rise
of Napoleon. In 1802 Wordsworth dedicated a number of sonnets to the patriotic cause. The death
in 1805 of his brother John, who was a captain in the merchant navy, was a grim reminder that,
while he had been living in retirement as a poet, others had been willing to sacrifice themselves.
From this time the theme of duty was to be prominent in his poetry. His political essay Concerning
the Relations of Great Britain, Spain and Portugal…as Affected by the Convention of
Cintra (1809) agreed with Coleridge’s periodical The Friend (1809–10) in deploring the decline
of principle among statesmen. When The Excursion appeared in 1814 (the time of Napoleon’s first
exile), Wordsworth announced the poem as the central section of a longer projected work, The
Recluse, “a philosophical Poem, containing views of Man, Nature, and Society.” The plan was not
fulfilled, however, and The Excursion was left to stand in its own right as a poem of moral and
religious consolation for those who had been disappointed by the failure of French revolutionary
ideals.

Other Writers and Their Works

Elizabeth Barret Browning
Poetry
 The Battle of Marathon: A Poem (1820)
 An Essay on Mind, with Other Poems (1826)
 Miscellaneous Poems (1833)
 The Seraphim and Other Poems (1838)
 Poems (1844)
 A Drama of Exile: and other Poems (1845)
 Poems: New Edition (1850)
 The Poems of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1850)
 Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850)
 Casa Guidi Windows: A Poem (1851)
 Poems: Third Edition (1853)
 Two Poems (1854)
 Poems: Fourth Edition (1856)
 Aurora Leigh (1857)
 Napoleon III in Italy, and Other Poems (1860)
 Poems before Congress (1860)
 Last Poems (1862)
 The Complete Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1900)
 Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Hitherto Unpublished Poems and Stories (1914)
 New Poems by Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1914)
Prose
 "Queen Annelida and False Arcite;" "The Complaint of Annelida to False Arcite," (1841)
 A New Spirit of the Age (1844)
 "The Daughters of Pandarus" from the Odyssey (1846)
 The Greek Christian Poets and the English Poets (1863)
 Psyche Apocalyptè: A Lyrical Drama (1876)
 Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning Addressed to Richard Hengist Horne (1877)
  The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1897)
 The Poet's Enchiridion (1914)
 Letters to Robert Browning and Other Correspondents by Elizabeth Barrett
Browning (1916)
 Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Letters to Her Sister, 1846-1859 (1929)
 Letters from Elizabeth Barrett to B. R. Haydon (1939)
 Twenty Unpublished Letters of Elizabeth Barrett to Hugh Stuart Boyd (1950)
 New Letters from Mrs. Browning to Isa Blagden (1951)
 The Unpublished Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Mary Russell Mitford (1954)
 Unpublished Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Hugh Stuart Boyd (1955)
 Letters of the Brownings to George Barrett (1958)
 Diary by E. B. B.: The Unpublished Diary of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1831-
1832 (1969)
 The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1845-1846 (1969)
 Invisible Friends (1972)
 Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Letters to Mrs. David Ogilvy, 1849-1861 (1973)
Anthology
 Prometheus Bound (1833)

John Keats
Poetry
 The Poems of John Keats (1970)
 Collections: The Poetical Works of Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats (1831)
 Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems (1820)
 Endymion: A Poetic Romance (1818)
 Poems (1817)
Prose
 Letters of John Keats: A New Selection (1970)
 The Letters of John Keats (1958)
 Life, Letters, and Literary Remains of John Keats (1848)
Drama
 Otho The Great: A Dramatic Fragment (1819)
 King Stephen: A Dramatic Fragment (1819)
Additional Material:
Watch and listen to this video clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqQKwJvFGYI

Be ready for the synchronous discussion on _____________

at _______________.
 REFLECT
Answer the following questions:

1. How can you describe Romantic poets?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

2. How did Wordsworth describe poetry?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

3. What did Blake’s emphasized in his works?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

4. What did Wordsworth and Coleridge explored in their writings?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
 RESPOND

Task 1: Blog Writing

Macro Skills: reading and writing Mode of Submission (Options)
Date of Submission: ________________ Online: See the instructions below
Offline: See the instructions below
Choose one poem from the selections of Elizabeth Barrett Browning to read and analyze. Write
your analysis regarding its relevance to the Romantic period.
Online: Upload your blogs on Facebook
Offline: Write your synthesis in the module. Include a design related to the topic.

__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
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 RESPOND

Task 2: Poem Writing

Macro Skills: writing Mode of Submission (Options)
Date of Submission: ________________ Online: See the instructions below
Offline: See the instructions below
Compose your own poem that follows the tradition of Romantic poets. You may use one poem
from this lesson as your reference.
Online: Upload your blogs on Facebook
Offline: Write your synthesis in the module. Include a design related to the topic.

__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
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 Essay Rubric
Criteria 1 2 3 4
Thesis and/or Introduction states Introductory Well-developed
problem is vague the thesis but does paragraph introductory
or unclear. not adequately contains some paragraph
Background details explain the background contains detailed
are a seemingly background of the information and background
Introduction
random collection problem. The states the information, a
of information, problem is stated, problem, but does clear explanation
unclear, or not but lacks detail. not explain using or definition of the
related to the details. States the problem, and a
topic. thesis of the paper. thesis statement.
Conclusion does Conclusion Conclusion Conclusion
not adequately summarizes main summarizes main summarizes the
summarize the topics, but is topics. Some main topics
main points. No repetitive. No suggestions for without repeating
suggestions for suggestions for change are previous
Conclusion change or opinions change and/or evident. sentences; writer's
are included. opinions are opinions and
included. suggestions for
change are logical
and well thought
out.
Less than three Three or more Three or more Three or more main
main points, with main points, but all main points are points are well
poor development lack development. present but may developed with
of ideas. Refutation lack detail and supporting details.
Refutation missing paragraph missing development in Refutation
or vague. and/or vague. one or two. paragraph
Main points
Refutation acknowledges the
paragraph opposing view,
acknowledges the and summarizes
opposing view, but their main points.
doesn't summarize
points.
Lacks sources All sources are All source material All source material
and/or sources are accurately is used. All sources is used and
not accurately documented, but are accurately smoothly
documented. many are not in documented, but integrated into the
Incorrect format is the desired format a few are not in text. All sources are
used. on the Works Cited the desired format accurately
Use of sources Sources are not page. Some on the Works Cited documented and
relevant nor sources are page. in the desired
reliable. relevant and Most sources are format on the
reliable. relevant and Works Cited page.
reliable. All sources are
relevant and
reliable.
Work contains Work contains Sentence structure Punctuation and
multiple incorrect structural is generally capitalization are
Mechanics sentence weaknesses and correct. Some correct.
structures. There grammatical awkward
are four or more errors. There are sentences do
errors in three or four errors appear. There are
punctuation in punctuation one or two errors in
and/or and/or punctuation
capitalization. capitalization.
References for Week 9
Davies, H.A. (2019, February 4). The romantic period. Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com/art/English-literature/The-Romantic-period#ref12979
Elizabeth barret browning. Retrieved from https://poets.org/poet/elizabeth-barrett-browning
John keats. Retrieved from https://poets.org/poet/john-keats

Images
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/William_Blake_by_Thomas_Phillips.jpg
https://i0.wp.com/www.brainpickings.org/wp-
content/uploads/2013/04/williamwordsworth1.jpg?resize=680%2C822&ssl=1
https://www.onthisday.com/images/people/samuel-taylor-coleridge-medium.jpg
Week 10: The Victorian Age

Before we Begin…
List three ideas that comes into your mind whenever you hear the words “Victorian Era.”
Submit your work to your professor through Messenger.

>

>

>
 READ

Victorian era of literature marked the transition between the romantic period and the start
of the modernistic period, thus it can be said that the literature of this time contains elements from
the two. For example, in Victorian poetry, “Alfred Lord Tennyson held the poet laureateship for
over forty years,” and the Browning couple (Robert and Elizabeth Barrett) wrote each other
romantic poems.
Apart from this, Victorian literature is also designated by common themes. First, it tackles
with issues of the society (realism). Second, it seemed to deviate from the belief that there is art
for art’s sake. Third, there is a heavy influence of science in this era.
Nonetheless, even though Victorian period seemed to gear towards practical and
materialistic, the literature of the Victorian age also portrayed idealistic lifestyle, where poets and
writers endeavored for “truth, justice, love, brotherhood were emphasized by poets, essayists and
novelists of the age” (Victorian Era Website, n.d.).
In such a way, these qualities can be observed through the Pre-Raphaelites, who aimed to
return painting to a style of truthfulness and simplicity; and Aestheticism and Decadence, wherein
art and literature is encouraged to oppose the predomination of science and defy society’ hostility
to any work deemed to be useless as it does not teach morale. Simply put, the movement intends
to make art and literature for the sake of creating it (Burgess, 2020).

The Victorian Novel

Several major figures of English Romanticism lived on into this period. Coleridge died in
1834, De Quincey in 1859. Wordsworth succeeded Southey as poet laureate in 1843 and held the
post until his own death seven years later. Posthumous publication caused some striking
chronological anomalies. Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “A Defence of Poetry” was not published until
1840. Keats’s letters appeared in 1848 and Wordsworth’s Prelude in 1850.
 Despite this persistence, critics of the 1830s felt that there had been a break in the English
literary tradition, which they identified with the death of Byron in 1824. The deaths of Austen in
1817 and Scott in 1832 should perhaps have been seen as even more significant, for the new literary
era has, with justification, been seen as the age of the novel. More than 60,000 works of prose
fiction were published in Victorian Britain by as many as 7,000 novelists. The three-volume format
(or “three-decker”) was the standard mode of first publication; it was a form created for sale to and
circulation by lending libraries. It was challenged in the 1830s by the advent of serialization in
magazines and by the publication of novels in 32-page monthly parts. But only in the 1890s did
the three-decker finally yield to the modern single-volume format.

Late Victorian fiction may express doubts and uncertainties, but in aesthetic terms it
displays a new sophistication and self-confidence. The expatriate American novelist Henry
James wrote in 1884 that until recently the English novel had “had no air of having a theory,
a conviction, a consciousness of itself behind it.” Its acquisition of these things was due in no small
part to Mary Ann Evans, better known as George Eliot. Initially a critic and translator, she was
influenced, after the loss of her Christian faith, by the ideas of Ludwig Feuerbach and Auguste
Comte. Her advanced intellectual interests combined with her sophisticated sense of the novel
form to shape her remarkable fiction. Her early novels—Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the
Floss (1860), and Silas Marner (1861)—are closely observed studies of English rural life that
offer, at the same time, complex contemporary ideas and a subtle tracing of moral issues. Her
masterpiece, Middlemarch (1871–72), is an unprecedentedly full study of the life of a provincial
town, focused on the thwarted idealism of her two principal characters. George Eliot is a realist,
but her realism involves a scientific analysis of the interior processes of social and personal
existence.

Her fellow realist Anthony Trollope published his first novel

in 1847 but only established his distinctive manner with The
Warden (1855), the first of a series of six novels set in the fictional
county of Barsetshire and completed in 1867. This sequence was
followed by a further series, the six-volume Palliser group (1864–80),
set in the world of British parliamentary politics. Trollope published
an astonishing total of 47 novels, and his Autobiography (1883) is a
uniquely candid account of the working life of a Victorian writer.

The third major novelist of the 1870s was George Meredith,

who also worked as a poet, a journalist, and a publisher’s reader. His
prose style is eccentric and his achievement uneven. His greatest work
of fiction, The Egoist (1879), however, is an incisive comic novel that
embodies the distinctive theory of the corrective and therapeutic powers of laughter expressed in
his lecture “The Idea of Comedy” (1877).

In the 1880s the three-volume novel, with its panoramic vistas and proliferating subplots, began
to give way to more narrowly focused one-volume novels. At the same time, a gap started to open
between popular fiction and the “literary” or “art” novel. The flowering of realist fiction was also
accompanied, perhaps inevitably, by a revival of its opposite, the romance. The 1860s had
produced a new subgenre, the sensation novel, seen at its best in the work of Wilkie Collins. Gothic
novels and romances by Sheridan Le Fanu, Robert Louis Stevenson, William Morris, and Oscar
Wilde; utopian fiction by Morris and Samuel Butler; and the early science fiction of H.G.
Wells make it possible to speak of a full-scale romance revival.

Realism continued to flourish, however, sometimes encouraged by the example of

European realist and naturalist novelists. Both George Moore and George Gissing were influenced
by Émile Zola, though both also reacted against him. The 1890s saw intense concern with the
social role of women, reflected in the New Woman fiction of Grant
Allen (The Woman Who Did, 1895), Sarah Grand (The Heavenly
Twins, 1893), and George Egerton (Keynotes, 1893). The heroines
of such texts breach conventional assumptions by
supporting woman suffrage, smoking, adopting “rational” dress,
and rejecting traditional double standards in sexual behavior.

The greatest novelist of this generation, however,

was Thomas Hardy. His first published novel, Desperate
Remedies, appeared in 1871 and was followed by 13 more before
he abandoned prose to publish (in the 20th century) only poetry.
His major fiction consists of the tragic novels of rural life, Th e
Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1891),
and Jude the Obscure (1895). In these novels his brilliant
evocation of the landscape and people of his fictional Wessex is
combined with a sophisticated sense of the “ache of modernism.”

Prominent Figures
Emily Dickinson
Dickinson's poetry was heavily influenced by the
Metaphysical poets of seventeenth-century England, as well
as her reading of the Book of Revelation and her upbringing
in a Puritan New England town, which encouraged a
Calvinist, orthodox, and conservative approach to
Christianity.
She admired the poetry of Robert and Elizabeth
Barrett Browning, as well as John Keats. Though she was
dissuaded from reading the verse of her contemporary Walt
Whitman by rumors of its disgracefulness, the two poets are
now connected by the distinguished place they hold as the
founders of a uniquely American poetic voice. While Dickinson was extremely prolific as a poet
and regularly enclosed poems in letters to friends, she was not publicly recognized during her
lifetime. The first volume of her work was published posthumously in 1890 and the last in 1955.
She died in Amherst in 1886.
Poetry

 The Gorgeous Nothings: Emily Dickinson's Envelope Poems (New Direction, 2013)
 Final Harvest: Emily Dickinson's Poems (Little, Brown, 1962)
 The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (Little, Brown, 1960)
 Bolts of Melody: New Poems of Emily Dickinson (Harper & Brothers, 1945)
 Unpublished Poems of Emily Dickinson (Little, Brown, 1935)
 Further Poems of Emily Dickinson: Withheld from Publication by Her Sister
Lavinia (Little, Brown, 1929)
 The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (Little, Brown, 1924)
 The Single Hound: Poems of a Lifetime (Little, Brown, 1914)
 Poems: Third Series (Roberts Brothers, 1896)
 Poems: Second Series (Roberts Brothers, 1892)
 Poems (Roberts Brothers, 1890)
Prose
 Emily Dickinson Face to Face: Unpublished Letters with Notes and
Reminiscences (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1932)
 Letters of Emily Dickinson (Roberts Brothers, 1894)

Dante Gabriel and Christina Rossetti

Siblings Dante Gabriel Rossetti and
Christina Rossetti both lived during the Victorian
era and wrote poetry which epitomizes the Pre-
Raphaelite movement. Although they were related,
these two poets were drastically different, and their
differences are evident in their poetry. Dante
Gabriel was infatuated with beautiful women and
many of his poems express sexual desire, while
Christina was intensely devoted to God and many
of her poems provide moral instruction. However,
these poets both make femme fatales the subjects of
their poems “Body’s Beauty,” “The Card-Dealer,”
“The World,” and “Babylon the Great.” This paper
analyzes the different ways in which Dante Gabriel
Rossetti uses the image of a dangerous, eroticized
woman to symbolize the threat that the power of
female beauty poses to a man's life, while Christina Rossetti uses this image to symbolize the threat
that worldly desires pose to a person's eternal life.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti Poetry

 Aspecta Medusa
 Autumn Song
 The Cloud Confines
 The House of Life: 19. Silent Noon
 The House of Life: 22. Heart's Haven
 The House of Life: 36. Life-in-Love
 The House of Life: 41. Through Death to Love
 The House of Life 53: Without Her
 The House of Life: 66. The Heart of the Night
 The House of Life: 71. The Choice, I
 The House of Life: 72. The Choice, II
 The House of Life: 73. The Choice, III
 The House of Life: 97. A Superscription
 Insomnia
 Jenny
 Love-Lily
 Love's Nocturn
 Mary's Girlhood
 My Sister's Sleep
 The Portrait
 Sister Helen
 The Stream's Secret
 Sudden Light
 The Woodspurge

Christina Rossetti

Poetry
 Goblin Market, and Other Poems (Macmillan and Co., 1862)
 Prince's Progress and Other Poems (Macmillan and Co., 1866)
 Sing-Song: A Nursery-Rhyme Book (George Routledge & Sons, 1872)
 A Pageant and Other Poems (Macmillan, 1881)
 The Face of the Deep: A Devotional Commentary on The
 Apocalypse (Macmillan and Co., 1892)
 Verses (E & J. B. Young & Co., 1893)
 New Poems (Macmillan, 1896)
 The Poetical Works of Christina Georgina Rossetti. With Memoir and Notes &
Comments. (Macmillan and Co., 1904)
 Selected Poems (Macmillan, 1970)
  Complete Poems (E.P. Dutton & Company, 1979)
 Complete Poems of Christina Rossetti: A Variorum Edition (LSU Press, 1990)
Prose
 Commonplace and Other Short Stories (F. S. Ellis, 1870)
 Seek and Find (Pott, Young, & Co., 1879)
 Called to be Saints: The Minor Festivals (The Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge, 1881)
 Selected Prose of Christina Rossetti (Macmillan, 1998)
Letters
 The Family Letters of Christina Georgina Rossetti (C. Scribner's, 1908)
 Letters of Christina Rossetti: 1843-1873 (University of Virginia Press, 1997)
 Letters of Christina Rossetti: 1874-1881 (University of Virginia Press, 1999)

Additional Material:
Watch and listen to this video clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBG6-BtCnxQ

Be ready for the synchronous discussion on _____________

at _______________.
 REFLECT
Answer the following questions:

1. What are the common themes in Victorian literature?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

2. What did critics of the 1830s persisted to argue?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

3. What is the quality of late Victorian fiction?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

4. What influenced Dickinson’s poems?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
 RESPOND

Task 1: Short Story Writing

Macro Skills: writing Mode of Submission (Options)
Date of Submission: ________________ Online: See the instructions below
Offline: See the instructions below
Compose your own short story involving Victorian setting and characters. You may use one
short story/novel from this lesson as your reference.
Online: Upload your blogs on Facebook
Offline: Write your story in the module.

__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
 Short Story Assessment Rubric

Needs Fair Good Very Score

work good
1. Content:
 Originality of ideas
 Appropriateness of setting
 Development of characters and plot 1-5 6-10 11-15 16-20
 Other points of interest, e.g. use of dialogue,
point of view, irony, symbolism, theme

2. Organization:
 Plot structure, e.g. orientation, complication,
climax, resolution
 Coherence and cohesion of ideas
1-5 6-10 11-15 16-20
 Paragraphing
 Other points of interest, e.g. flashback, story
within a story, transitions, twist

3. Language and style:

 Range and appropriateness of vocabulary
 Range and accuracy of grammar structures
 Accuracy of spelling, capitalization, punctuation
 Appropriateness of tone and register
 Use of narrative writing techniques, e.g. varying 1-5 6-10 11-15 16-20
short and long sentences, appealing to the five
senses, withholding details to create suspense
 Use of literary devices, e.g. alliteration,
onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor, personification

Total:

/60

Comments:
References for Week 10
Burgess, A. (2020, February 03). A Brief Overview of British Literary Periods. Retrieved April
24, 2020, from thoughtco.com/british-literary-periods-739034
Victorian Era Literature Characteristics. Retrieved from http://victorian-era.org/victorian-era-
literature-characteristics.html
Butler, M.H. (2019). The post-romantic and Victorian eras. Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com/art/English-literature/The-post-Romantic-and-Victorian-
eras#ref12996
Emily Dickinson. Retrieved from https://poets.org/poet/emily-dickinson
Kirsch, C.A. (2018). The poetry of Christina rossetti and dante Gabriel rossetti: Same femme,
different fate. Retrieved from https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/student_scholarship/591/
Dante Gabriel rossetti. Retrieved from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/dante-gabriel-
rossetti#:~:text=In%201847%20and%201848%20Rossetti,which%20he%20eventually%20beca
me%20expert.
Christina rossetti. Retrieved from https://poets.org/poet/christina-rossetti

Images
https://i.gr-
assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388555550l/267123.jpg
https://images-na.ssl-images-
amazon.com/images/I/51xDYhexeRL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
https://api.poets.org/sites/default/files/styles/poem_a_day_portrait/public/images/biographies/15
5_EmilyDickinsonSmall.jpg?itok=e6UDH-P2
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/8f/f9/e5/8ff9e54a1bc038c79c7fb3b927b06295.jpg
Week 11: The 20th Century England

Before we begin…
Establish your impression of 20th Century. Draw those impressions in the box provided
below. Send your work to your professor through Messenger.
 READ

Contemporary English Period

The 20th century opened with great hope but also with
some apprehension, for the new century marked the final approach
to a new millennium. For many, humankind was entering upon an
unprecedented era. H.G. Wells’s utopian studies, the aptly
titled Anticipations of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific
Progress upon Human Life and Thought (1901) and A Modern
Utopia (1905), both captured and qualified this optimistic mood and
gave expression to a common conviction that science and
technology would transform the world in the century ahead. To
achieve such transformation, outmoded institutions and ideals had
to be replaced by ones more suited to the growth and liberation of
the human spirit. The death of Queen Victoria in 1901 and the
accession of Edward VII seemed to confirm that a franker,
less inhibited era had begun.
Irish drama flowered in the early 20th cent., largely under the aegis of the Abbey Theatre in
Dublin (see Irish literary renaissance ). John Millington Synge , William Butler Yeats , and
Sean O'Casey all wrote on Irish themes—mythical in Yeats's poetic drama, political in O'Casey's
realistic plays. Also Irish, George Bernard Shaw wrote biting dramas that reflect all aspects of
British society. In fact, many of the towering figures of 20th-century English literature were not
English; Shaw, Yeats, Joyce, O'Casey, and Beckett were Irish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, T. S.
Eliot was born an American, and Conrad was Polish.
Poetry in the early 20th cent. was typified by the conventional romanticism of such poets
as John Masefield , Alfred Noyes , and Walter de la Mare and by the experiments of the imagists ,
notably Hilda Doolittle (H. D.), Richard Aldington , Herbert Read , and D. H. Lawrence . The
finest poet of the period was Yeats, whose poetry fused romantic vision with contemporary
political and aesthetic concerns. Though the 19th-century tradition of the novel lived on in the
work of Arnold Bennett , William Henry Hudson , and John Galsworthy , new writers like
Henry James , H. G. Wells , and Joseph Conrad expressed the skepticism and alienation that were
to become features of post-Victorian sensibility.
World War I shook England to the core. As social mores were shaken, so too were artistic
conventions. The work of war poets like Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen , the latter killed in
the war (as were Rupert Brooke and Isaac Rosenberg ), was particularly influential. Ford
Madox Ford 's landmark tetralogy, Parade's End, is perhaps the finest depiction of the war and its
effects. The new era called for new forms, typified by the work of Gerard Manley Hopkins, first
published in 1918, and of T. S. Eliot , whose long poem The Waste Land (1922) was a watershed
in both American and English literary history. Its difficulty, formal invention, and bleak
antiromanticism were to influence poets for decades.
Equally important was the novel Ulysses, also published in 1922, by the expatriate
Irishman James Joyce . Although his books were controversial because of their freedom of
language and content, Joyce's revolutions in narrative form, the treatment of time, and nearly all
other techniques of the novel made him a master to be studied, but only intermittently copied.
Though more conventional in form, the novels of D. H. Lawrence were equally challenging to
convention; he was the first to champion both the primitive and the supercivilized urges of men
and women.
Sensitivity and psychological subtlety mark the superb novels of Virginia Woolf , who,
like Dorothy Richardson , experimented with the interior forms of narration. Woolf was the center
of the brilliant Bloomsbury group , which included the novelist E. M. Forster , the biographer
Lytton Strachey , and many important English intellectuals of the early 20th cent.
Aldous Huxley and Evelyn Waugh satirized the group and the period, while
Katharine Mansfield and Elizabeth Bowen captured their flavor in fiction.
Moved by the Great Depression, the rise of fascism, and English policies of appeasement,
many writers and intellectuals sought solutions in the politics of the left—or the right.
Wyndham Lewis satirized what he thought was the total dissolution of culture in Apes of
Gods (1930). George Orwell fought with the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War. The experience
left him profoundly disillusioned with Communism, a feeling he eloquently expressed in such
works as Animal Farm (1946) and Nineteen Eighty-four (1949). The poets W. H. Auden ,
Christopher Isherwood , Stephen Spender , and C. Day Lewis all proclaimed their leftist respective
political commitments, but the pressing demands of World War II superseded these long-term
ideals.
Postmodernism
Postmodernism broadly refers to a socio-cultural and literary theory, and a shift in
perspective that has manifested in a variety of disciplines including the social sciences, art,
architecture, literature, fashion, communications, and technology. It is generally agreed that the
postmodern shift in perception began sometime back in the late 1950s, and is probably still
continuing. Postmodernism can be associated with the power shifts and dehumanization of the
post-Second World War era and the onslaught of consumer capitalism.

The very term Postmodernism implies a relation to Modernism. Modernism was an earlier
aesthetic movement which was in vogue in the early decades of the twentieth century. It has often
been said that Postmodernism is at once a continuation of and a break away from the Modernist
stance.

Postmodernism shares many of the features of Modernism. Both schools reject the rigid
boundaries between high and low art. Postmodernism even goes a. step further and deliberately
mixes low art with high art, the past with the future, or one genre with another. Such mixing of
different, incongruous elements illustrates Postmodernism’s use of lighthearted parody, which was
also used by Modernism. Both these schools also employed pastiche, which is the imitation of
another’s style. Parody and pastiche serve to highlight the self-reflexivity of Modernist and
Postmodernist works, which means that parody and pastiche serve to remind the reader that the
work is not “real” but fictional, constructed. Modernist and Postmodernist works are also
fragmented and do not easily, directly convey a solid meaning. That is, these works are consciously
ambiguous and give way to multiple interpretations. The individual or subject depicted in these
works is often decentred, without a central meaning or goal in life, and dehumanized, often losing
individual characteristics and becoming merely the representative of an age or civilization,
like Tiresias in The Waste Land.

In short, Modernism and Postmodernism give voice to

the insecurities, disorientation and fragmentation of the 20th
century western world. The western world, in the 20th
century, began to experience this deep sense of security
because it progressively lost its colonies in the Third World,
worn apart by two major World Wars and found its
intellectual and social foundations shaking under the impact
of new social theories an developments such as Marxism and
Postcolonial global migrations, new technologies and the
power shift from Europe to the United States. Though both
Modernism and Postmodernism employ fragmentation,
discontinuity and decenteredness in theme and technique, the
basic dissimilarity between the two schools is hidden in this
very aspect.

Modernism projects the fragmentation and

decenteredness of contemporary world as tragic. It laments
the loss of the unity and center of life and suggests that works
of art can provide the unity, coherence, continuity and meaning that is lost in modern life.
Thus Eliot laments that the modern world is an infertile wasteland, and the fragmentation,
incoherence, of this world is effected in the structure of the poem. However, The Waste Land tries
to recapture the lost meaning and organic unity by turning to Eastern cultures, and in the use of
Tiresias as protagonist

In Postmodernism, fragmentation and disorientation is no longer tragic. Postmodernism on

the other hand celebrates fragmentation. It considers fragmentation and decenteredness as the only
possible way of existence, and does not try to escape from these conditions.

The Postmodernist disbelief in coherence and unity points to another basic distinction
between Modernism and Postmodernism. Modernism believes that coherence and unity is
possible, thus emphasizing the importance of rationality and order. The basic assumption of
Modernism seems to be that more rationality leads to more order, which leads a society to function
better. To establish the primacy of Order, Modernism constantly creates the concept of Disorder
in its depiction of the Other—which includes the non-white, non-male, non-heterosexual, non-
adult, non-rational and so on. In other words, to establish the superiority of Order, Modernism
creates the impression- that all marginal, peripheral, communities such as the non-white, non-male
etc. are contaminated by Disorder. Postmodernism, however, goes to the other extreme. It does not
say that some parts of the society illustrate Order, and that other parts illustrate Disorder.
Postmodernism, in its criticism of the binary opposition, cynically even suggests that everything
is Disorder.

Prominent Figures and Selections

James Joyce

A towering figure in the modernist literary period, James

Joyce is considered the most prominent English-speaking writer
of the first half of the twentieth century. While he wrote in a
number of genres, including drama and lyric poetry, Joyce's
reputation rests primarily on his prose works. Joyce's novels,
including A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916)
and Ulysses (1922), are widely considered ground-breaking
works of fiction which not only fundamentally redefined the
novel as a genre, but pushed the limits of the English language
itself. Joyce is among the most widely-read and studied figures
in the history of English literature, and is often considered as
significant a talent as John Milton and William Shakespeare.
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw is an Irish comic dramatist, literary critic, and socialist propagandist,
winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925.
Shaw’s initial literary work earned him less than 10 shillings a year.
A fragment posthumously published as An Unfinished Novel in 1958
(but written 1887–88) was his final false start in fiction.
Despite his failure as a novelist in the 1880s, Shaw found
himself during this decade. He became a vegetarian, a socialist, a
spellbinding orator, a polemicist, and tentatively a playwright. He
became the force behind the newly founded (1884) Fabian Society, a
middle-class socialist group that aimed at the transformation of
English society not through revolution but through “permeation” (in
Sidney Webb’s term) of the country’s intellectual and political life.
Shaw involved himself in every aspect of its activities, most visibly
as editor of one of the classics of British socialism, Fabian Essays in
Socialism (1889), to which he also contributed two sections.

Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) is recognized as

one of the most innovative writers of the 20th century.
Perhaps best known as the author of Mrs.
Dalloway (1925) and To the Lighthouse (1927), she was
also a prolific writer of essays, diaries, letters and
biographies. Both in style and subject matter, Woolf’s
work captures the fast-changing world in which she was
working, from transformations in gender roles, sexuality
and class to technologies such as cars, airplanes and
cinema. Influenced by seminal writers and artists of the
period such as Marcel Proust, Igor Stravinsky and the
Post-Impressionists, Woolf’s work explores the key
motifs of modernism, including the subconscious, time,
perception, the city and the impact of war. Her ‘stream
of consciousness’ technique enabled her to portray the
interior lives of her characters and to depict the montage-
like imprint of memory.

Woolf’s work often explored her fascination

with the marginal and overlooked: of ‘an ordinary mind on an ordinary day’, as she put in her
essay ‘Modern Fiction’ (1919/25).
Additional Material:
Watch and listen to this video clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8EfyhIv72I&t=492s

Be ready for the synchronous discussion on _____________

at _______________.
 REFLECT
Answer the following questions:

1. How can you describe the literature of the 20th Century?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

2. What is modernism?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

3. What is postmodernism?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

4. Why is it that James Joyce is considered as a towering figure in the 20 th century?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
 RESPOND

Task 1: Short Story Writing

Macro Skills: writing Mode of Submission (Options)
Date of Submission: ________________ Online: See the instructions below
Offline: See the instructions below
Compose your own short story around a character with many flaws, but those same flaws are
what made him/her special, unique and/or beautiful. You may use one short story/novel from this lesson
as your reference.
Online: Upload your blogs on Facebook
Offline: Write your story in the module.

__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
 Short Story Assessment Rubric

Needs Fair Good Very Score

work good
2. Content:
 Originality of ideas
 Appropriateness of setting
 Development of characters and plot 1-5 6-10 11-15 16-20
 Other points of interest, e.g. use of dialogue,
point of view, irony, symbolism, theme

3. Organization:
 Plot structure, e.g. orientation, complication,
climax, resolution
 Coherence and cohesion of ideas
1-5 6-10 11-15 16-20
 Paragraphing
 Other points of interest, e.g. flashback, story
within a story, transitions, twist

4. Language and style:

 Range and appropriateness of vocabulary
 Range and accuracy of grammar structures
 Accuracy of spelling, capitalization, punctuation
 Appropriateness of tone and register
 Use of narrative writing techniques, e.g. varying 1-5 6-10 11-15 16-20
short and long sentences, appealing to the five
senses, withholding details to create suspense
 Use of literary devices, e.g. alliteration,
onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor, personification

Total:

/60

Comments:
References for Week 11
Beadle, R. (2019). The 20th century. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/art/English-
literature/The-20th-century
English literature: The early twentieth century. Retrieved from
https://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/arts/english-lit/20th-century-plus/english-
literature/the-early-twentieth-century
Mambrol, N. (2016). Postmodernism. Retrieved from
https://literariness.org/2016/03/31/postmodernism/
"James Joyce - Introduction" Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism Ed. Thomas J. Schoenberg.
Vol. 159. Gale Cengage 2005 eNotes.com 16 Jul, 2020 http://www.enotes.com/topics/james-
joyce/critical-essays/joyce-james-79780#critical-essays-joyce-james-79780-introduction
Stewart, J. (2019). George Bernard shaw. Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Bernard-Shaw
The British Library. Virginia woolf. Retrieved from https://www.bl.uk/people/virginia-woolf

Images
https://images-na.ssl-images-
amazon.com/images/I/41BT4E7JJFL._SX328_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-
QSnUvoNPr2k/WoULYkk3oJI/AAAAAAAAANY/qu3vRhc8sKwqsuUgIQA2WYDcnv9cFBPp
QCLcBGAs/s1600/xxlarge.jpg
https://cdn.britannica.com/96/137696-050-508B1E26/James-Joyce.jpg
https://www.nobelprize.org/images/shaw-12939-portrait-medium.jpg
https://cdn.britannica.com/82/138382-050-2E8FCB26/Virginia-Woolf.jpg
Week 12: The Modern Period

Before we begin…
Establish your own goals for learning the modern period of English literature by
accomplishing the Goal Organizer: 5W’s and H worksheet below. Send your work to your
professor through Messenger.
 READ

English Literature in the Information Age

With the advent of the digital age starting from the early 90s, the growth of English
Literature in terms of reading and hearing is no more confined to the libraries and class rooms. It
is very appropriate to quote here, Grafton’s (2007) prescient words: For now and for the
foreseeable future, any serious reader will have to know how to travel down two very different
roads simultaneously. No one should avoid the broad, smooth, and open road that leads through
the screen…The narrow path still leads, as it must, to crowded public rooms where the sunlight
gleams on varnished tables, and knowledge is embodied in millions of dusty, crumbling, smelly,
irreplaceable documents and books. The advantage of digitization of the books of English
Literature is that it helps in creating a society that is well informed and knowledgeable. As Mims
(2011) writes “It is undeniable that e-books have a democratizing effect on learning. They are
inherently amenable to the frictionless dissemination of information.”

A visit to the popular web-site ‘Amazon’ would reveal how e-books are priced very much
lower than the printed books. The prohibitive costs of acquiring and preserving the printed book
are reduced manifold if one prefers to purchase an e-book from ‘Kindle’ of Amazon. Of course
the preservation of e-books though theoretically can be in centuries, but the fact remains that with
the pace of the revolutionary changes happening in the digital world, preservation for prolonged
periods becomes doubtful with the rate of obsolescence of the hardware and the software. But on
an instantaneous basis, the breadth and depth of literary e-books available for ownership, at the
lowest price is breath-taking, in terms of acquisition cost and the acquisition speed.

Thus the digitization of literature and the impact it has had on the reading community has
become a core area of research. In this paper, the author does not delve into the evolving or evolved
e-literature, but wishes to look into how the digitizing of literature has made an impact on the
reading and accessing of English literature.
Sunrise on the Veld by Doris Lessing

The story is about a boy who is filled with excitement and thinks he controls, possesses
and humbles everything around him, even his family. At the end, he faces the truth that living
things must die. The story explores the feeling of invincibility that young people always have. It
also shows the feeling of fear and grief that most humans feel when they must face the reality of
suffering and death. When the boy witnesses the death of a small helpless duck, he realizes that he
cannot control everything in life. The boy is fifteen years old. His age is significant as Lessing
wants to show that the boy is about to be an adult and so he feels powerful, but throughout his
journey in the African bush, he
will see a duck being eaten by the
ants and he will learn how to be
responsible for his actions. As for
the story, the boy wakes up early
in the morning without an alarm
clock. He feels he can control
himself and his environment. He
feels invincible and full of life.
Afterwards, he got dressed in the
cold, then he crept through the
house not wake his parents. He
took his gun and his dogs and
went outdoors. He began to run
madly with joy as he feels he is in
the heyday of his youth. He thinks
he can “contain the world and make of it what I want.”

While in his state of liveliness, he heard painful cries of a creature. The boy went to
investigate the source of the cries. He saw a buck in the grass dying and covered with ants. He was
filled with terror and pity. The duck fell and the boy realized he could not do anything for the
animal. He found out that he could not control this. He says, “I can’t stop it. I can’t stop it. There
is nothing I can do.” In fact, the boy suffered and became sick. However, he shouted at the ants
saying, “Go away! I am not for you—not just yet at any rate. Go away.” He thought the ants were
afraid of him and went away. The boy still believes that he has control over things in his life.

The boy went to examine the skeleton of the duck. His mind started to compare between
its current state and when the duck was a live and running like him in the veld and sniffing cold
morning air. The boy thought that some rival might have broken the light, lively leg of the duck.
His feelings were a mixture of sadness, wondering and discovering new things in life. He became
face to face with death and knew it happens to all living creatures. He also realized that there are
things in this world that no one can control. He became aware of the knowledge of fatality for the
first time. At the end, he says, “yes, yes, this is what living is.” In truth, the story is about the
insignificance of life and the inevitability of death.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

In the midst of a raging war, a plane evacuating a group of schoolboys from Britain is shot
down over a deserted tropical island. Two of the boys, Ralph and Piggy, discover a conch shell on
the beach, and Piggy realizes it could be used as a horn to summon the other boys. Once assembled,
the boys set about electing a leader and devising a way to be rescued. They choose Ralph as their
leader, and Ralph appoints another boy, Jack, to be in charge of the boys who will hunt food for
the entire group.
Ralph, Jack, and another boy, Simon, set off on an expedition to explore the island. When
they return, Ralph declares that they must light a signal fire to attract the attention of passing ships.
The boys succeed in igniting some dead wood by focusing sunlight through the lenses of Piggy’s
eyeglasses. However, the boys pay more attention to playing than to monitoring the fire, and the
flames quickly engulf the forest. A large swath of dead wood burns out of control, and one of the
youngest boys in the group disappears, presumably having burned to death.
At first, the boys enjoy their life without grown-ups and spend much of their time splashing
in the water and playing games. Ralph, however, complains that they should be maintaining the
signal fire and building huts for shelter. The hunters fail in their attempt to catch a wild pig, but
their leader, Jack, becomes increasingly preoccupied with the act of hunting.
When a ship passes by on the horizon one day, Ralph and Piggy notice, to their horror that
the signal fire— which had been the hunters’ responsibility to maintain— has burned out. Furious,
Ralph accosts Jack, but the hunter has just returned with his first kill, and all the hunters seem
gripped with a strange frenzy, reenacting the chase in a kind of wild dance. Piggy criticizes Jack,
who hits Piggy across the face. Ralph blows the conch shell and reprimands the boys in a speech
intended to restore order. At the meeting, it quickly becomes clear that some of the boys have
started to become afraid. The littlest boys, known as “littluns,” have been troubled by nightmares
from the beginning, and more and more boys now believe that there is some sort of beast or
monster lurking on the island. The older boys try to convince the others at the meeting to think
rationally, asking where such a monster could possibly hide during the daytime. One of the littluns
suggests that it hides in the sea—a proposition that terrifies the entire group.
Not long after the meeting, some military planes engage in a battle high above the island.
The boys, asleep below, do not notice the flashing lights and explosions in the clouds. A parachutist
drifts to earth on the signal-fire mountain, dead. Sam and Eric, the twins responsible for watching
the fire at night, are asleep and do not see the parachutist land. When the twins wake up, they see
the enormous silhouette of his parachute and hear the strange flapping noises it makes. Thinking
the island beast is at hand, they rush back to the camp in terror and report that the beast has attacked
them.
The boys organize a hunting expedition to search for the monster. Jack and Ralph, who are
increasingly at odds, travel up the mountain. They see the silhouette of the parachute from a
distance and think that it looks like a huge, deformed ape. The group holds a meeting at which
Jack and Ralph tell the others of the sighting. Jack says that Ralph is a coward and that he should
be removed from office, but the other boys refuse to vote Ralph out of power. Jack angrily runs
away down the beach, calling all the hunters to join him. Ralph rallies the remaining boys to build
a new signal fire, this time on the beach rather than on the mountain. They obey, but before they
have finished the task, most of them have slipped away to join Jack.
Jack declares himself the leader of the new tribe of hunters and organizes a hunt and a
violent, ritual slaughter of a sow to solemnize the occasion. The hunters then decapitate the sow
and place its head on a sharpened stake in the jungle as an offering to the beast. Later, encountering
the bloody, fly-covered head, Simon has a terrible vision, during which it seems to him that the
head is speaking. The voice, which he imagines as belonging to the Lord of the Flies, says that
Simon will never escape him, for he exists within all men. Simon faints. When he wakes up, he
goes to the mountain, where he sees the dead parachutist. Understanding then that the beast does
not exist externally but rather within each individual boy, Simon travels to the beach to tell the
others what he has seen. But the others are in the midst of a chaotic revelry—even Ralph and Piggy
have joined Jack’s feast—and when they see Simon’s
shadowy figure emerge from the jungle, they fall upon
him and kill him with their bare hands and teeth.
The following morning, Ralph and Piggy discuss
what they have done. Jack’s hunters attack them and their
few followers and steal Piggy’s glasses in the process.
Ralph’s group travels to Jack’s stronghold in an attempt to
make Jack see reason, but Jack orders Sam and Eric tied
up and fights with Ralph. In the ensuing battle, one boy,
Roger, rolls a boulder down the mountain, killing Piggy
and shattering the conch shell. Ralph barely manages to
escape a torrent of spears.
Ralph hides for the rest of the night and the
following day, while the others hunt him like an animal.
Jack has the other boys ignite the forest in order to smoke
Ralph out of his hiding place. Ralph stays in the forest,
where he discovers and destroys the sow’s head, but
eventually, he is forced out onto the beach, where he
knows the other boys will soon arrive to kill him. Ralph
collapses in exhaustion, but when he looks up, he sees a
British naval officer standing over him. The officer’s ship noticed the fire raging in the jungle. The
other boys reach the beach and stop in their tracks at the sight of the officer. Amazed at the
spectacle of this group of bloodthirsty, savage children, the officer asks Ralph to explain. Ralph is
overwhelmed by the knowledge that he is safe but, thinking about what has happened on the island,
he begins to weep. The other boys begin to sob as well. The officer turns his back so that the boys
may regain their composure.

Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence

The first part of the novel focuses on

Mrs. Morel and her unhappy marriage to a
drinking miner. She has many arguments
with her husband, some of which have
painful results: on separate occasions, she is
locked out of the house and hit in the head
with a drawer. Estranged from her husband,
Mrs. Morel takes comfort in her four
children, especially her sons. Her oldest
son, William, is her favorite, and she is very
upset when he takes a job in London and
moves away from the family. When
William sickens and dies a few years later,
she is crushed, not even noticing the rest of
her children until she almost loses Paul, her
second son, as well. From that point on,
Paul becomes the focus of her life, and the
two seem to live for each other.
Paul falls in love with Miriam
Leivers, who lives on a farm not too far
from the Morel family. They carry on a very
intimate, but purely platonic, relationship for many years. Mrs. Morel does not approve of Miriam,
and this may be the main reason that Paul does not marry her. He constantly wavers in his feelings
toward her.
Paul meets Clara Dawes, a suffragette who is separated from her husband, through Miriam.
As he becomes closer with Clara and they begin to discuss his relationship with Miriam, she tells
him that he should consider consummating their love and he returns to Miriam to see how she
feels.
 Paul and Miriam sleep together and are briefly happy, but shortly afterward Paul decides
that he does not want to marry Miriam, and so he breaks off with her. She still feels that his soul
belongs to her, and, in part agrees reluctantly. He realizes that he loves his mother most, however.
After breaking off his relationship with Miriam, Paul begins to spend more time with Clara
and they begin an extremely passionate affair. However, she does not want to divorce her husband
Baxter, and so they can never be married. Paul’s mother falls ill and he devotes much of his time
to caring for her. When she finally dies, he is broken-hearted and, after a final plea from Miriam,
goes off alone at the end of the novel.

Additional Material:
Watch and listen to this video clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvjzcF0Iigw

Be ready for the synchronous discussion on _____________

at _______________.
 REFLECT
Answer the following questions:

1. What would likely happen to literature in the Age of Information?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

2. What are the main advantages of using technology with literature?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

3. What do you think would be disadvantages?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

4. What do you think is the message that Doris Lessing would like to convey in her Sunrise
on the Veld?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
 RESPOND

Task 1: Blog Writing

Macro Skills: reading and writing Mode of Submission (Options)
Date of Submission: ________________ Online: See the instructions below
Offline: See the instructions below
Read and analyze the summary of Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Write your short
literary analysis regarding its relevance to the Romantic period.
Online: Upload your blogs on Facebook
Offline: Write your synthesis in the module. Include a design related to the topic.

__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
 RESPOND

Task 2: Blog Writing

Macro Skills: reading and writing Mode of Submission (Options)
Date of Submission: ________________ Online: See the instructions below
Offline: See the instructions below
Read and analyze the summary of Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence. Write your short literary
analysis regarding its relevance to the Romantic period.
Online: Upload your blogs on Facebook
Offline: Write your synthesis in the module. Include a design related to the topic.

__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
 Essay Rubric
Criteria 1 2 3 4
Thesis and/or Introduction states Introductory Well-developed
problem is vague the thesis but does paragraph introductory
or unclear. not adequately contains some paragraph
Background details explain the background contains detailed
are a seemingly background of the information and background
Introduction
random collection problem. The states the information, a
of information, problem is stated, problem, but does clear explanation
unclear, or not but lacks detail. not explain using or definition of the
related to the details. States the problem, and a
topic. thesis of the paper. thesis statement.
Conclusion does Conclusion Conclusion Conclusion
not adequately summarizes main summarizes main summarizes the
summarize the topics, but is topics. Some main topics
main points. No repetitive. No suggestions for without repeating
suggestions for suggestions for change are previous
Conclusion change or opinions change and/or evident. sentences; writer's
are included. opinions are opinions and
included. suggestions for
change are logical
and well thought
out.
Less than three Three or more Three or more Three or more main
main points, with main points, but all main points are points are well
poor development lack development. present but may developed with
of ideas. Refutation lack detail and supporting details.
Refutation missing paragraph missing development in Refutation
or vague. and/or vague. one or two. paragraph
Main points
Refutation acknowledges the
paragraph opposing view,
acknowledges the and summarizes
opposing view, but their main points.
doesn't summarize
points.
Lacks sources All sources are All source material All source material
and/or sources are accurately is used. All sources is used and
not accurately documented, but are accurately smoothly
documented. many are not in documented, but integrated into the
Incorrect format is the desired format a few are not in text. All sources are
used. on the Works Cited the desired format accurately
Use of sources Sources are not page. Some on the Works Cited documented and
relevant nor sources are page. in the desired
reliable. relevant and Most sources are format on the
reliable. relevant and Works Cited page.
reliable. All sources are
relevant and
reliable.
Work contains Work contains Sentence structure Punctuation and
multiple incorrect structural is generally capitalization are
Mechanics sentence weaknesses and correct. Some correct.
structures. There grammatical awkward
are four or more errors. There are sentences do
 errors in three or four errors appear. There are
punctuation in punctuation one or two errors in
and/or and/or punctuation
capitalization. capitalization.

References for Week 12

Fernandez & Fernandez (2016). English literature in the digital age. Retrieved from
https://cyrilfblogs.weebly.com/english-literature-in-the-digital-era/english-literature-in-the-
digital-era
Hassan, E. (2016). A sunrise on the veld by doris lessing: Summary and elements. Retrieved
from https://www.ehabhassan.com/2016/07/a-sunrise-on-the-veld-summary-elements.html
Lord of the flies: William golding. Retrieved from
https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/flies/summary/
Sons and lovers: D.h. Lawrence. Retrieved from
https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/sonsandlovers/summary/

Images
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_36-dzpaRao/U6QrJgNiMSI/AAAAAAAAAGg/-
xfRsnUDYEA/s1600/sunrise+2.jpg
https://www.scholastic.com/content5/media/products/87/9780399501487_mres.jpg
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/519nI-gTIlL.jpg
Week 13: Introduction to American Literature

Before we Begin…
Establish your prior knowledge regarding American Literature by accomplishing the
KWLA Graphic Organizer. Submit your work to your professor through Messenger.

What I know What I would want to know

What I learned What affected me

 READ

American Literature
American literature is termed as the body of literary works written, created and produced
using the English language in the United States of America. Similar to other countries’ literature
it was shaped by its historical background.
However, America has not always been a country on its own because for almost a hundred
years it was just a group of colonies scattered across the now known North American eastern
seaboard. European colonizers eventually settled and took over these colonies, but after a
successful rebellion, America became a nation. These people eventually expanded their influence
to other territories, resulting in America being one of the most powerful nations across the globe.
Furthermore, as the fields of sciences and technology evolved along with the populace’s way of
thinking, people lives inevitably changed. These developments in their society ultimately lead to
shape their own brand of literature.

Colonial and Pre-Revolutionary Era

The history of American literature begins with the arrival of English-speaking Europeans
in what would become the United States. At first American literature was naturally a colonial
literature, by authors who were Englishmen and who thought and wrote as such. John Smith, a
soldier of fortune, is credited with initiating American literature. His chief books included A True
Relation of…Virginia…(1608) and The Generall Historie of Virginia, New England, and the
Summer Isles (1624). Although these volumes often glorified their author, they were avowedly
written to explain colonizing opportunities to Englishmen. In time, each colony was similarly
described: Daniel Denton’s Brief Description of New York (1670), William Penn’s Brief Account
of the Province of Pennsylvania (1682), and Thomas Ashe’s Carolina (1682) were only a few of
many works praising America as a land of economic promise.
 Such writers acknowledged British allegiance, but
others stressed the differences of opinion that spurred the
colonists to leave their homeland. More important, they
argued questions of government involving the relationship
between church and state. The attitude that most authors
attacked was jauntily set forth by Nathaniel
Ward of Massachusetts Bay in The Simple Cobler of
Aggawam in America (1647). Ward amusingly defended the
status quo and railed at colonists who sponsored newfangled
notions. A variety of counterarguments to such
a conservative view were published. John
Winthrop’s Journal (written 1630–49) told sympathetically of
the attempt of Massachusetts Bay Colony to form a
theocracy—a state with God at its head and with its laws
based upon the Bible. Later defenders of the theocratic ideal
were Increase Mather and his son Cotton. William
Bradford’s History of Plymouth Plantation (through 1646)
showed how his pilgrim Separatists broke completely with Anglicanism. Even more radical than
Bradford was Roger Williams, who, in a series of controversial pamphlets, advocated not only the
separation of church and state but also the vesting of power in the people and the tolerance of
different religious beliefs.
The utilitarian writings of the 17th century included biographies, treatises, accounts of
voyages, and sermons. There were few achievements in drama or fiction, since there was a
widespread prejudice against these forms. Bad but popular poetry appeared in the Bay Psalm
Book of 1640 and in Michael Wigglesworth’s summary in doggerel verse of Calvinistic belief, The
Day of Doom (1662). There was some poetry, at least, of a higher order. Anne Bradstreet of
Massachusetts wrote some lyrics published in The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in
America (1650), which movingly conveyed her feelings concerning religion and her family.
Ranked still higher by modern critics is a poet whose works were not discovered and published
until 1939: Edward Taylor, an English-born minister and physician who lived in Boston and
Westfield, Massachusetts. Less touched by gloom than the typical Puritan, Taylor wrote lyrics that
showed his delight in Christian belief and experience.
All 17th-century American writings were in the manner of British writings of the same
period. John Smith wrote in the tradition of geographic literature, Bradford echoed the cadences of
the King James Bible, while the Mathers and Roger Williams wrote bejeweled prose typical of the
day. Anne Bradstreet’s poetic style derived from a long line of British poets, including Spenser
and Sidney, while Taylor was in the tradition of such Metaphysical poets as George
Herbert and John Donne. Both the content and form of the literature of this first century in America
were thus markedly English.
On the other hand, in the early years of the 18th century, some writers, such as Cotton
Mather, carried on the older traditions. His huge history and biography of Puritan New
England, Magnalia Christi Americana, in 1702, and his vigorous Manuductio ad Ministerium, or
introduction to the ministry, in 1726, were defenses of ancient Puritan convictions. Jonathan
Edwards, initiator of the Great Awakening, a religious revival that stirred the eastern seacoast for
many years, eloquently defended his burning belief in Calvinistic doctrine—of the concept that
man, born totally depraved, could attain virtue and salvation only through God’s grace—in his
powerful sermons and most notably in the philosophical treatise Freedom of Will (1754). He
supported his claims by relating them to a complex metaphysical system and by reasoning
brilliantly in clear and often beautiful prose.
But Mather and Edwards were defending a doomed cause. Liberal New England ministers
such as John Wise and Jonathan Mayhew moved toward a less rigid religion. Samuel
Sewall heralded other changes in his amusing Diary, covering the years 1673–1729. Though
sincerely religious, he showed in daily records how commercial life in New England replaced rigid
Puritanism with more worldly attitudes. The Journal of Mme Sara Kemble Knight comically
detailed a journey that lady took to New York in 1704. She wrote vividly of what she saw and
commented upon it from the standpoint of an orthodox believer, but a quality of levity in her witty
writings showed that she was much less fervent than the Pilgrim founders had been. In the
South, William Byrd of Virginia, an aristocratic plantation owner, contrasted sharply with
gloomier predecessors. His record of a surveying trip in 1728, The History of the Dividing Line,
and his account of a visit to his frontier properties in 1733, A Journey to the Land of Eden, were
his chief works. Years in England, on the Continent, and among the gentry of the South had created
gaiety and grace of expression, and, although a devout Anglican, Byrd was as playful as the
Restoration wits whose works he clearly admired.

Literary Characteristics
Narrative Focus
Colonial American literature is characterized by the narrative,
which was used extensively during this period. Most of the literary
works of this genre are composed of letters, journals, biographies and
memoirs. An example is Mary Rowlandson’s narrative account “The
Sovereignty and Goodness of God: Being a Narrative of the Captivity
and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson." This narrative gives an
insider’s story of a colonist being captured by Native Americans and
describes the heavy hostility between the Native Americans and
colonists. Rowland’s story is categorized as an autobiography and
captivity narrative.
Religion and Poetry
Religion is prominent in colonial American literature and can be found mostly in Puritan
writings. The Puritans wrote about the religious foundations of many of their settlements,
especially the exodus from Britain, and employed the constant theme that God should be
worshiped. They also used texts that prepared them for worship. This literature helped spread the
message of God, suggesting that “life was a test” and the soul would face damnation if that test
was failed. Ambition and hard work were continuously stressed. Many of the Puritan works were
written in poetry form. Anne Bradstreet’s poetry, the “Bay Psalm Book,” and Pastor Edward
Taylor’s “Preparatory Mediations” are good examples of religious texts of the era. It was this type
of writing that led to the Puritanism and Great Awakening movements. Non-Puritan writers also
used religion to show the religious tension between the colonial settlers and Native Americans.

The Enlightenment
In the 18th century, the Enlightenment showed a great shift in colonial American literature
from a religious foundation to scientific reasoning applied to human nature, society, culture and
political awareness. Many texts were written in pamphlet or narrative form and challenged the role
of God and religious life, seeking to replace them with reason. Rational thought and science were
the new themes. “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin” and the pamphlet “Common Sense”
by Thomas Paine explored many of these new ideas. Similar texts also led the way to more
awareness of social, economic and scientific issues. The American Revolution played a large part
in this shifting of ideas.

Additional Material:
Watch and listen to this video clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pm_y5ZGbRzc

Be ready for the synchronous discussion on _____________

at _______________.
 REFLECT
Answer the following questions:

1. What is American Literature?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

2. What is the primary characteristic of Colonial American Period?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

3. Why is religion prominent in Colonial American Period?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

4. How sis Enlightenment affected American literature?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
 RESPOND

Task 1: Blog Writing

Macro Skills: viewing, reading and writing Mode of Submission (Options)
Date of Submission: ________________ Online: See the instructions below
Offline: See the instructions below
Watch Disney’s Pocahontas and compare how it relates and differ to the actual historical
background of America.
Online: Upload your blogs on Facebook
Offline: Write your synthesis in the module. Include a design related to the topic.

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 Essay Rubric
Criteria 1 2 3 4
Thesis and/or Introduction states Introductory Well-developed
problem is vague the thesis but does paragraph introductory
or unclear. not adequately contains some paragraph
Background details explain the background contains detailed
are a seemingly background of the information and background
Introduction
random collection problem. The states the information, a
of information, problem is stated, problem, but does clear explanation
unclear, or not but lacks detail. not explain using or definition of the
related to the details. States the problem, and a
topic. thesis of the paper. thesis statement.
Conclusion does Conclusion Conclusion Conclusion
not adequately summarizes main summarizes main summarizes the
summarize the topics, but is topics. Some main topics
main points. No repetitive. No suggestions for without repeating
suggestions for suggestions for change are previous
Conclusion change or opinions change and/or evident. sentences; writer's
are included. opinions are opinions and
included. suggestions for
change are logical
and well thought
out.
Less than three Three or more Three or more Three or more main
main points, with main points, but all main points are points are well
poor development lack development. present but may developed with
of ideas. Refutation lack detail and supporting details.
Refutation missing paragraph missing development in Refutation
or vague. and/or vague. one or two. paragraph
Main points
Refutation acknowledges the
paragraph opposing view,
acknowledges the and summarizes
opposing view, but their main points.
doesn't summarize
points.
Lacks sources All sources are All source material All source material
and/or sources are accurately is used. All sources is used and
not accurately documented, but are accurately smoothly
documented. many are not in documented, but integrated into the
Incorrect format is the desired format a few are not in text. All sources are
used. on the Works Cited the desired format accurately
Use of sources Sources are not page. Some on the Works Cited documented and
relevant nor sources are page. in the desired
reliable. relevant and Most sources are format on the
reliable. relevant and Works Cited page.
reliable. All sources are
relevant and
reliable.
Work contains Work contains Sentence structure Punctuation and
multiple incorrect structural is generally capitalization are
sentence weaknesses and correct. Some correct.
structures. There grammatical awkward
Mechanics are four or more errors. There are sentences do
errors in three or four errors appear. There are
punctuation in punctuation one or two errors in
and/or and/or punctuation
capitalization. capitalization.
References for Week 13
Dickstein, M., et al. (2018, Decembe5 5). American Literature. Retrieved May 1, 2020,
from https://www.britannica.com/art/American-literature/The-17th-century
Giles, J. (2018). American literature. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/art/American-
literature
Knight, V. (2017). Characteristics of colonial literature. Retrieved from
https://penandthepad.com/characteristics-colonial-american-literature-7866574.html

Images
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Generall_Historie_of_Virginia.jpg
https://bam-
cdn.madmobile.com/?cache=1&u=https://covers3.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/1/53/495/119/
1534951199_b.jpg
Weeks 14: The War of Independence and After

Before we begin…
Let’s review some of the influences that made an impact on the Colonial American
literature. In the boxes below, write the effects of these influences. Send your work to your
professor through Messenger.

COLONIAL AMERICAN
LITERATURE
 READ

The Revolutionary Period and After

During the Revolutionary Era in American history enlightenment thinkers and
individualists were common. This era was when the United States declared independence from
Great Britain. This is when the American Revolutionary War was fought. This is when men made
great speeches of loyalty and freedom and when religions expanded. But this was also the time of
rights and civil liberties being abused. This was a time of British imperialism and expansion, but
also of their control over society. The Americans fought these wrongdoings by writing a very
powerful and influential document that changed the entire course of American history. This
document is The Declaration of Independence.
The Declaration of Independence carries with it some very important lessons and themes.
The main idea of the document is independence and freedom. The
author, Thomas Jefferson, uses formal diction, examples of such
are: "impel them to separation", "unalienable rights", "absolute
despotism", "relinquish", "Naturalization of Foreigners",
"petitioned for redress", and "unwarrantable jurisdiction." These
words and phrases give the feeling of formality and legality; these
emotions apply for both diction and tone. The author's style is
legal and formal, but also historical and informative. This is due to
the fact that the original document was intended for the King and
high society of Great Britain, we know this because of the
document's mention of the king and the history surrounding the
documents. The reason behind this document was to alert the King
of the problems in the colonies, the wrongs he had committed
against them, and to declare themselves independent.
The idea and issues brought up in the declaration influenced
the years to come greatly. The idea of freedom was one of the most important thing that kept the
soldiers going. It was important to keep the ideals of freedom and individualism in mind so that
they never lost hope. Without these ideas the United States of America may not be the way it is
now...or might not even be here at all, this land could just be an extension of England. This
document was very powerful and still is because it addresses key ideas in the topics of rights and
civil liberties. This document is what freed us so that we can now live the lives we have. The
Declaration of Independence is most likely the most influential and important document in the
course of American History. This is what makes U.S. history and American Literature...without it
both would be nonexistent.

Americans shifted their lifestyle beyond those of Puritan influences and religious themes,
wherein they developed their own distinct writing styles during this period. It is because of this
that the previously religion-dominant writings of it precursor also shifted into that of themes
involving sciences, the natural world, innovation and liberty. Consequently, these themes:

“…described everyday life in New England and, in the process, depicted aspects
of the fledgling American character. The colonists who would form a new nation
were firm believers in the power of reason; they were ambitious, inquisitive,
optimistic, practical, politically astute, and self-reliant” (Encyclopedia Online,
2020).

Continuing these themes related to freedom, satire became one of the most widely used
form of literature in this era. Satires are forms of literature (plays, essays, and poems) that pokes
fun at human vices and foolishness. In this case, matters involving the English-American
relationship. Among such are:
1. The Adulateur by Mercy Otis Warren
2. The Fall of British Tyranny by John Leacock
3. Edict by the King of Prussia by Benjamin Franklin
4. M’Fingal by John Trumbull

Notable Works
1. Common Sense (1776) by Thomas Paine
2. A Narrative of Colonel Ethan Allen’s Captivity (1779) by Ethan Allen
3. History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution (1805)
by Mercy Otis Warren
4. Thomas Jefferson authored the original Declaration of Independence
5. The Articles of Confederation
6. The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay
7. The Constitution of the United States

In short, true to its central themes, the Revolutionary Period talks about the people’s voice
for equality, freedom and America’s separation from its British colonizers (Appleby, 2006, as cited
in Cleveland HS US History Class)
Early National Period (1775-1828)
Though this period overlapped with its predecessor, the Early National Period marked the
start of literature that can be considered as truly American, wherein authors, wrote in the English
style and language, but the “settings, themes, and characters were authentically American.”
According to Burgess (2019), it was a time when the United States was becoming an
independent nation from its colonizers, and as such, this era also marked notable first woks,
namely:
1. The Contrast (1787) by Rayall Tyler – first comedy written for the stage
2. The Power of Sympathy (1789) by William Hill

The Puritans in the American Wilderness

Puritanism, a religious reform movement in the late 16th and 17th centuries that sought to
“purify” the Church of England of remnants of the Roman Catholic “popery” that the Puritans
claimed had been retained after the religious settlement reached early in the reign of
Queen Elizabeth I. Puritans became noted in the 17th century for a spirit of moral and religious
earnestness that informed their whole way of life, and they sought through church reform to make
their lifestyle the pattern for the whole nation. Their efforts to transform the nation contributed
both to civil war in England and to the founding of colonies in America as working models of the
Puritan way of life.

The Puritan ideal of realizing the Holy Commonwealth by the establishment of

a covenanted community was carried to the American colony of Virginia by Thomas Dale, but the
greatest opportunity came in New England. The original pattern of church organization in
the Massachusetts Bay colony was a “middle way” between presbyterianism and Separatism, yet
in 1648 four New England Puritan colonies jointly adopted the Cambridge Platform, establishing
a congregational form of church government.

William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation

Of Plymouth Plantation is a firsthand

account of both the events leading up to the voyage
of the Mayflower and the first twenty-five years of
settlement in Plymouth, Massachusetts. It was
written as a journal by William Bradford, a
passenger on the Mayflower who also served
multiple terms as Plymouth's governor. He appears
in Of Plymouth Plantation both as a narrator and as
a character in the story's events, which are told in
retrospect. In 1920, the manuscript was rendered
into Modern English by Harold Paget and first
published under the title Bradford’s History of the
Plymouth Settlement 1608–1650. An unabridged
republication of this text, which retains part of
Paget’s introduction, was first published in 2006 by
Dover Publications, Inc.

Bradford begins with an overview of the

religious persecution the Pilgrims faced in English.
The Pilgrims, along with other Calvinist sects,
frequently clashed with the hierarchical Anglican
Church and eventually relocated to the city of Leyden between 1607 and 1608. In the
Netherlands, and under the leadership of their pastor John Robinson, the Pilgrims were able to
practice their religion freely. They soon discovered, however, that it was difficult to make a
living in Leyden and consequently decided to settle in America.

The process of obtaining a land patent and financial backers proved long and difficult,
but a group of Pilgrims finally set sail in the fall of 1621. They arrived at Cape Cod in November
and quickly settled on a location for settlement before the weather worsened. Nevertheless, the
first winter proved extremely difficult for the Pilgrims; in fact, more than half died in an outbreak
of disease. Thanks in part to help from Squanto—a Native American who acted as an interpreter
and provided the Pilgrims with advice on farming—the remaining Pilgrims managed to make it
through the first few years of settlement. They were frequently the victims of famine, however,
as well as of dishonest dealings on the part of their investors, and it was not until they started to
farm according to a system of private ownership that they truly began to succeed.

As the years went on, the Pilgrims worked to pay off their debt to the investors by sending
them animal skins and other goods; eventually, the Pilgrims were able to join together with a
group of English businessmen to purchase their business from their financial backers. They also
built up a trading network within New England, expanding their land holdings and forging
relationships with various tribes. As more settlers came to the region, tensions began to mount
between the Pilgrims and other groups. Some would-be colonists—like those sent by an investor
named Thomas Weston—threatened the survival of Plymouth through their behavior, which not
only risked corrupting the moral purity of Plymouth, but also turned some Native Americans
against the colonists in general. Others—like the Dutch—competed with the Pilgrims for
territory or trading rights. The Pilgrims also faced difficulties with their new business partners,
in part as a result of double-dealing by Isaac Allerton, the representative they sent to negotiate
with them.

By the early 1630s, many of the settlers had grown wealthy enough to expand their
farming, which meant acquiring land farther away from the original settlement. This weakened
Plymouth's sense of Christian community, and the population loss contributed to an overall
decline in the colony's power relative to other settlements in the region. Plymouth was forced to
cede some of its territory to Massachusetts Bay settlers who had infringed on their patent.
Despite these disagreements, Plymouth eventually entered into a loose confederacy with three
other colonies in the region: Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Haven. This alliance
extended only to military matters and formed largely in response to repeated conflicts with local
tribes—particularly the Pequot, whom the Bay colonists all but wiped out in a brief but brutal
war.

Bradford's account ends in 1646 on an ambiguous note. The Pilgrims have finally
succeeded in paying off their debts to their investors and business partners, and they appear to
be safe from war with either Native Americans or other colonists. However, many of the colony's
founders have passed away, and the population continues to disperse throughout the broader
New England area. Bradford closes his account with a list of the passengers who came over on
the Mayflower, perhaps out of a sense of nostalgia for a bygone era.

Anne Bradstreet
Anne Bradstreet was the first woman to be
recognized as an accomplished New World Poet.
Her volume of poetry The Tenth Muse Lately
Sprung Up in America ... received considerable
favorable attention when it was first published in
London in 1650. Eight years after it appeared it
was listed by William London in his Catalogue of
the Most Vendible Books in England, and George
III is reported to have had the volume in his
library. Bradstreet's work has endured, and she is
still considered to be one of the most important
early American poets.
Poems
 The Author to Her Book
 Before the Birth of One of Her Children
 By Night when Others Soundly Slept
 Contemplations
 A Dialogue between Old England and New
 The Four Ages of Man
 In Honour of that High and Mighty Princess, Queen Elizabeth
 In Reference to her Children, 23 June 1659
 A Letter to her Husband, absent upon Publick employment
 Prologue
 To Her Father with Some Verses
 To My Dear and Loving Husband
 Verses upon the Burning of our House, July 10th, 1666

Additional Material:
Watch and listen to this video clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcVjJa6bbAA&t=258s

Be ready for the synchronous discussion on _____________

at _______________.
 REFLECT
Answer the following questions:

1. How can you describe the American Revolutionary Era?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

2. What is Early National Period?

________________________________________________________________________
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________________________________________________________________________

3. What is William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation’s main idea?

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________________________________________________________________________

4. Who is Anne Bradstreet?

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________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
 RESPOND

Task 1: Blog Writing

Macro Skills: reading and writing Mode of Submission (Options)
Date of Submission: ________________ Online: See the instructions below
Offline: See the instructions below
Read any article/journal/book regarding American Revolution. Understand what the article
talks about and discuss the people’s (Americans’) sentiments that brought about the fight for freedom
Online: Upload your blogs on Facebook
Offline: Write your synthesis in the module. Include a design related to the topic.

__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
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 Essay Rubric
Criteria 1 2 3 4
Thesis and/or problem Introduction states the Introductory paragraph Well-developed
is vague or unclear. thesis but does not contains some introductory paragraph
Background details are adequately explain the background contains detailed
a seemingly random background of the information and states background
Introduction collection of problem. The problem the problem, but does information, a clear
information, unclear, or is stated, but lacks not explain using explanation or
not related to the topic. detail. details. States the definition of the
thesis of the paper. problem, and a thesis
statement.
Conclusion does not Conclusion Conclusion Conclusion
adequately summarize summarizes main summarizes main summarizes the main
the main points. No topics, but is topics. Some topics without
suggestions for change repetitive. No suggestions for change repeating previous
Conclusion or opinions are suggestions for change are evident. sentences; writer's
included. and/or opinions are opinions and
included. suggestions for change
are logical and well
thought out.
Less than three main Three or more main Three or more main Three or more main
points, with poor points, but all lack points are present but points are well
development of ideas. development. may lack detail and developed with
Refutation missing or Refutation paragraph development in one or supporting details.
vague. missing and/or vague. two. Refutation Refutation paragraph
Main points
paragraph acknowledges the
acknowledges the opposing view, and
opposing view, but summarizes their main
doesn't summarize points.
points.
Lacks sources and/or All sources are All source material is All source material is
sources are not accurately used. All sources are used and smoothly
accurately documented. documented, but many accurately integrated into the text.
Incorrect format is are not in the desired documented, but a few All sources are
used. format on the Works are not in the desired accurately documented
Use of sources
Sources are not Cited page. Some format on the Works and in the desired
relevant nor reliable. sources are relevant Cited page. format on the Works
and reliable. Most sources are Cited page.
relevant and reliable. All sources are
relevant and reliable.
Work contains multiple Work contains Sentence structure is Punctuation and
incorrect sentence structural weaknesses generally correct. capitalization are
structures. There are and grammatical Some awkward correct.
Mechanics four or more errors in errors. There are three sentences do appear.
punctuation and/or or four errors in There are one or two
capitalization. punctuation and/or errors in punctuation
capitalization.
References for Week 14

The American Vision: Modern Times. Joyce Appleby, Ph.D. McGrawHill, New York, 2006
Luebering, J.E. (n.d.). Periods of American Literature. Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com/list/periods-of-american-literature
Giles, J.R. et al. (2018, December 5). The 17th Century. Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com/art/American-literature/The-17th-century
Luebering, J.E. (n.d.). Periods of American Literature. Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com/list/periods-of-american-literature
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. (2012). American Literature: Colonial Literature.
Retrieved from https://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/arts/english-lit/american/american-
literature/colonial-literature
Literature and the Arts in the Revolutionary Era." American Revolution Reference Library.
Retrieved April 28, 2020 from
Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/educational-magazines/literature-and-
arts-revolutionary-era
Cleveland HS (n.d.). 1775-1783 Revolutionary Era. Retrieved from
http://clevelandhs.org/ourpages/webdesign4/sackett/literature.html
Burgess, A. (2019, July 9). American Literary Periods. Retrieved from
https://www.thoughtco.com/american-literary-periods-741872
Ramirez, L. (2014, April 21). The Early National Period. Retrieved from
https://prezi.com/nhzlyx0dpmee/the-early-national-period-1775-1828/
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2019). Puritanism. Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Puritanism#ref340954
Of Plymouth plantation, 1620-1647 summary and study guide. Retrieved from
https://www.supersummary.com/plymouth-plantation-1620-1647/summary/
Poetry Foundation. Anne bradstreet. Retrieved from
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/anne-bradstreet

Images
http://clevelandhs.org/ourpages/webdesign4/sackett/images2/Decl.of%20ind2.jpg
https://www.philcooke.com/wp-content/uploads/Puritans5-T-e1509461752855.jpeg
https://i.gr-
assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1481254032l/33295842._SX318_.
jpg
https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/thumbs/anne-bradstreet-7.jpg
Week 15: 18th Century and the Enlightenment in America

Before we begin…
Establish your own goals for learning American Enlightenment by accomplishing the
Goal Organizer: 5W’s and H worksheet below. Send your work to your professor through
Messenger.
 READ

The Rise of Novels in 18th Century

In the years toward the close of the 18th century, both dramas and novels of some historical
importance were produced. Though theatrical groups had long been active in America, the first
American comedy presented professionally was Royall Tyler’s Contrast (1787). This drama was
full of echoes of Goldsmith and Sheridan, but it contained a Yankee character (the predecessor of
many such in years to follow) who brought something native to the stage.
William Hill Brown wrote the first American novel, The Power of Sympathy (1789), which
showed authors how to overcome ancient prejudices against this form by following the sentimental
novel form invented by Samuel Richardson. A flood of sentimental novels followed to the end of
the 19th century. Hugh Henry Brackenridge succeeded Cervantes’s Don Quixote and Henry
Fielding with some popular success in Modern Chivalry (1792–1815), an amusing satire
on democracy and an interesting portrayal of frontier life. Gothic thrillers were to some extent
nationalized in Charles Brockden Brown’s Wieland (1798), Arthur Mervyn (1799–1800),
and Edgar Huntly (1799).

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography is both an important historical document and
Franklin's major literary work. It was not only the first autobiography to achieve widespread
popularity, but after two hundred years remains one of the most enduringly popular examples of
the genre ever written. As such, it provides not only the story of Franklin’s own remarkably
influential career, but maps out a strategy for self-made success in the context of emerging
American nationhood. The Autobiography is a major source for exploring Franklin’s ideas on
wealth and virtue as well as his motivations in pursuing a long life of active civic participation. It
is also uniquely useful as the story of a successful working printer in eighteenth-century North
America, revealing much about the art and business of the printer's trade that is not documented
with such coherence elsewhere.
Written over the course of several decades
and never completed, Franklin's Autobiography is
divided into four distinct sections that differ both
in tone and in focus—though Franklin always
intended the work to stand as a whole. As outlined
by editors J. A. Leo Lemay and P. M. Zall, Part
One was penned while Franklin was in England
in July-August of 1771. This is also when
Franklin most likely drew up his outline for the
entire work. By the summer of 1782, both
documents had been seen by a friend, Abel James,
who wrote to Franklin urging him to resume the
project. Franklin drafted Part Two in 1784 while
living in France. Part Three, dating from 1788-89,
was composed when a Franklin now in his
eighties had, after a long and distinguished
international career, returned home to settle his
affairs. This is also when he added most of his
revisions. The shortest section, Part Four, was written when Franklin was in poor health in the last
few months of his life.
Part One of Franklin's memoir is addressed as a letter to Franklin's son William, perhaps
as a literary conceit—and although the two would later become estranged over the events of the
American Revolution, Franklin still preserved this aspect of the work. In fact, Revolutionary
affairs figure little in the memoir. The four Autobiography sections completed by Franklin in his
lifetime examine the earlier and formative periods of his life: his childhood and youth, his
apprenticeship and flight to Philadelphia, his accomplishments as a printer and then as a scientist,
and his civic involvements as a resident of Pennsylvania. Due to public interest in Franklin's later
political accomplishments, most early printed editions of the Autobiography include added text
written by others, which rounds out the story of Franklin's years as a national and international
diplomat.

Thomas Paine’s Common Sense

On January 9, 1776, writer Thomas Paine publishes his pamphlet “Common Sense,” setting
forth his arguments in favor of American independence. Although little used today, pamphlets
were an important medium for the spread of ideas in the 16th through 19th centuries.
 Originally published anonymously,
“Common Sense” advocated independence for the
American colonies from Britain and is considered
one of the most influential pamphlets in American
history. Credited with uniting average citizens and
political leaders behind the idea of independence,
“Common Sense” played a remarkable role in
transforming a colonial squabble into
the American Revolution.
At the time Paine wrote “Common Sense,”
most colonists considered themselves to be
aggrieved Britons. Paine fundamentally changed
the tenor of colonists’ argument with the crown
when he wrote the following: “Europe, and not
England, is the parent country of America. This
new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted
lovers of civil and religious liberty from every
part of Europe. Hither they have fled, not from the
tender embraces of the mother, but from the
cruelty of the monster; and it is so far true of
England, that the same tyranny which drove the
first emigrants from home, pursues their
descendants still.”

Additional Material:
Watch and listen to this video clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7LF6pdqFnI

Be ready for the synchronous discussion on _____________

at _______________.
 REFLECT
Answer the following questions:

1. How can you describe Royall Tyler’s Contrast (1787)?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

2. Why is Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography an important historical document and

Franklin's major literary work?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

3. What comprises the Part One of Franklin’s Autobiography?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

4. How can you describe Thomas Paine’s Common Sense?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
 RESPOND

Task 1: Blog Writing

Macro Skills: reading and writing Mode of Submission (Options)
Date of Submission: ________________ Online: See the instructions below
Offline: See the instructions below
Read any article/journal/book regarding any issue in the Philippines about freedom. Understand
what the article talks about and create a pamphlet with your analysis.
Online: Upload your blogs on Facebook
Offline: Write your synthesis in the module. Include a design related to the topic.

__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
 Essay Rubric
Criteria 1 2 3 4
Thesis and/or problem Introduction states the Introductory paragraph Well-developed
is vague or unclear. thesis but does not contains some introductory paragraph
Background details are adequately explain the background contains detailed
a seemingly random background of the information and states background
Introduction collection of problem. The problem the problem, but does information, a clear
information, unclear, or is stated, but lacks not explain using explanation or
not related to the topic. detail. details. States the definition of the
thesis of the paper. problem, and a thesis
statement.
Conclusion does not Conclusion Conclusion Conclusion
adequately summarize summarizes main summarizes main summarizes the main
the main points. No topics, but is topics. Some topics without
suggestions for change repetitive. No suggestions for change repeating previous
Conclusion or opinions are suggestions for change are evident. sentences; writer's
included. and/or opinions are opinions and
included. suggestions for change
are logical and well
thought out.
Less than three main Three or more main Three or more main Three or more main
points, with poor points, but all lack points are present but points are well
development of ideas. development. may lack detail and developed with
Refutation missing or Refutation paragraph development in one or supporting details.
vague. missing and/or vague. two. Refutation Refutation paragraph
Main points
paragraph acknowledges the
acknowledges the opposing view, and
opposing view, but summarizes their main
doesn't summarize points.
points.
Lacks sources and/or All sources are All source material is All source material is
sources are not accurately used. All sources are used and smoothly
accurately documented. documented, but many accurately integrated into the text.
Incorrect format is are not in the desired documented, but a few All sources are
used. format on the Works are not in the desired accurately documented
Use of sources
Sources are not Cited page. Some format on the Works and in the desired
relevant nor reliable. sources are relevant Cited page. format on the Works
and reliable. Most sources are Cited page.
relevant and reliable. All sources are
relevant and reliable.
Work contains multiple Work contains Sentence structure is Punctuation and
incorrect sentence structural weaknesses generally correct. capitalization are
structures. There are and grammatical Some awkward correct.
Mechanics four or more errors in errors. There are three sentences do appear.
punctuation and/or or four errors in There are one or two
capitalization. punctuation and/or errors in punctuation
capitalization.
References for Week 15
Blair, W. (2018). American literature. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/art/American-
literature/The-18th-century
Garfinkel, S. (2016). Benjamin franklin’s: A resource guide. Retrieved from
https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/franklin/autobiography.html
History.com Editors (2020, January 7). Thomas paine publishes “common sense”. Retrieved from
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/thomas-paine-publishes-common-sense

Images
https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/franklin/images/autobiographypage.jpg
https://jjhiii24.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/commonsense2.jpg
Weeks 16 and 17: The 19th and 20th Century America

Before we begin…
Establish your impression of American 20th Century. Draw those impressions in the box
provided below. Send your work to your professor through Messenger.
 READ

Stephen Crane
Stephen Crane was one of America's foremost realistic writers, and his works have been
credited with marking the beginning of modern American Naturalism. His Civil War novel The
Red Badge of Courage (1895) is a classic of American literature that realistically depicts the
psychological complexities of fear and courage on the battlefield. Influenced by William Dean
Howells's theory of realism, Crane utilized his keen observations, as well as personal experiences,
to achieve a narrative vividness and sense of immediacy matched by few American writers before
him. While The Red
Badge of Courage is
acknowledged as his
masterpiece, Crane's
novella Maggie: A Girl
of the Streets (1893) is
also acclaimed as an
important work in the
development of literary
Naturalism, and his
often-anthologized short
stories "The Open Boat,"
"The Blue Hotel," and
"The Bride Comes to
Yellow Sky" are among
the most skillfully crafted
stories in American literature. Crane also authored a single collection of poetry, The Black Riders,
and Other Lines (1895); in a review written at the time of the publication, the reviewer
acknowledges “Mr. Crane is a true poet whose verse, long after the eccentricity of its form has
worn off, fascinates us and forbids us to lay the volume down until the last line has been read.”
Poems
 "Behold, the grave of a wicked man"
 "I saw a man pursuing the horizon"
 In Heaven
 In the Desert
 A Man Said to the Universe
 "Once there came a man"
 Should the Wide World Roll Away
 from War is Kind ["Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind"]
 from War is Kind [“I explain the silvered passing of a ship at night”]

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson—a New England preacher,
essayist, lecturer, poet, and philosopher—was one of the most
influential writers and thinkers of the 19th century in the United
States. Emerson was also the first major American literary and
intellectual figure to widely explore, write seriously about, and
seek to broaden the domestic audience for classical Asian and
Middle Eastern works. He not only gave countless readers their
first exposure to non-Western modes of thinking, metaphysical
concepts, and sacred mythologies; he also shaped the way
subsequent generations of American writers and thinkers
approached the vast cultural resources of Asia and the Middle
East.

Poems
 Brahma
 Concord Hymn
 Days
 Each and All
 Experience
 Fate
 Give All to Love
 Good-Bye
 Hamatreya
  Limits
 Ode, Inscribed to William H. Channing
 Ode to Beauty
 Parks and ponds
 The Past
 The Snow-Storm
 Terminus
 Water

Prose
 from “The Poet”

Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, also called The Adventures of Huckleberry

Finn, novel by Mark Twain, published in the United Kingdom in 1884 and in the United States in
1885. The book’s narrator is Huckleberry Finn, a
youngster whose artless vernacular speech is
admirably adapted to detailed and poetic
descriptions of scenes, vivid representations of
characters, and narrative renditions that are both
broadly comic and subtly ironic.
Huck runs away from his abusive father
and, with his companion, the runaway slave Jim,
makes a long and frequently interrupted voyage
down the Mississippi River on a raft. During the
journey Huck encounters a variety of characters
and types in whom the book memorably portrays
almost every class living on or along the river. As
a result of these experiences, Huck overcomes
conventional racial prejudices and learns to respect
and love Jim. The book’s pages are dotted
with idyllic descriptions of the great river and the
surrounding forests, and Huck’s good nature and
unconscious humor permeate the whole. But a
thread that runs through adventure after adventure
is that of human cruelty, which shows itself both in
the acts of individuals and in their unthinking acceptance of such institutions as slavery. The
natural goodness of Huck is continually contrasted with the effects of a corrupt society.
Together with Twain’s novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn changed the course of children’s literature in the United States as well as
of American literature generally, presenting the first deeply felt portrayal of boyhood. It is a classic
of American realism both for this portrayal and for Twain’s depiction of the pre-Civil War South,
especially through his use of dialect. This realism was the source of controversy that developed
concerning the book in the late 20th century. Despite Huck’s friendship with Jim, the book was
felt to be racist by some who considered the language offensive.

Modernism of 20th Century America

Together with Twain’s novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn changed the course of children’s literature in the United States as well as
of American literature generally, presenting the first deeply felt portrayal of boyhood. It is a classic
of American realism both for this portrayal
America entered the twentieth century optimistically as a wealthy, strong world power.
Although this time period started off with prosperity, it soon became one characterized by two
world wars and a severe economic depression. These events ushered in a new age in American
literature, Modernism, as writers began to attempt to express modern life with their writings.
The Modernist era was an era of boldness and fast-paced living. The culture saw the Harlem
Renaissance and the Roaring Twenties (also known as the Jazz Age). This was a time of flourishing
art and extravagant living that acted as a prequel to the Great Depression. In literature, the era was
characterized by a break away from traditional styles of poetry and other types of writing. Ezra
Pound began the Imagist movement. This poetry abandoned all traditional form and sought to
portray a single image in time. It was during this time that authors began to experiment with
different styles of writing and earned American international acclaim.
Although their works were very different, Modern authors shared a common purpose,
which was to capture the essence of modern life. This purpose is why most modernist literature
was written in a pessimistic way. Most modern works reflected the thoughts and confusion of most
Americans, especially during the Great Depression and the two World Wars. The chaotic literature
revealed the instability of the American people's mindset as they attempted to understand what
was going on around them. There was also a loss of faith and hope in the American people during
this time period and a collapse of morality and values. Furthermore, this loss of values led to a
confused sense of identity and place in the world, as is iterated in T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of
J. Alfred Prufrock."
The literature of the era was often times fragmented to cause confusion and intentionally break the
flow of words in literature. Two major themes of the era were confusion and disillusionment. These
themes and this literary movement as a whole reflected the new mindset of the American people
after the turn of the century. It was because of this mindset and the loss of hope in the American
dream, that the major authors of the time period such as Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Faulkner, Eliot,
and Pound became known as the Lost Generation.

T.S. Eliot
T.S. Eliot, the 1948 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, is one of the giants of modern
literature, highly distinguished as a poet, literary critic, dramatist, and editor and publisher.

Poems
 Aunt Helen
 Cousin Nancy
 from Observations: La Figlia che Piange
 from Observations: Morning at the Window
 from Observations: Mr. Apollinax
 Gerontion
 Honeymoon, Tr. by Barry Goldensohn
 Hysteria
 La Figlia che Piange
 Observations: Conversation Galante
 Portrait of a Lady
 Preludes
 Rhapsody on a Windy Night
 Sweeney among the Nightingales
 The Boston Evening Transcript
 The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
 The Waste Land
 Whispers of Immortality

Proses
 Ezra Pound
 Hamlet
 A Letter from T. S. Eliot
 The Poets' Translation Series I-VI
 Tradition and the Individual Talent

Additional Material:
Watch and listen to this video clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP8GC1QXQ9o

Be ready for the synchronous discussion on _____________

at _______________.
 REFLECT
Answer the following questions:

1. Why is it that Stephen Crane was one of America's foremost realistic writers?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

2. How can you describe Ralph Waldo Emerson in terms of his literary achievements?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

3. How did The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn changed the course of children’s
literature in the United States?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

4. How can you describe Modernism?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
 RESPOND

Task 1: Short Story Writing

Macro Skills: writing Mode of Submission (Options)
Date of Submission: ________________ Online: See the instructions below
Offline: See the instructions below
Compose your own short story involving Modernism themes.
Online: Upload your blogs on Facebook
Offline: Write your story in the module.

__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
 Short Story Assessment Rubric

Needs Fair Good Very Score

work good
3. Content:
 Originality of ideas
 Appropriateness of setting
 Development of characters and plot 1-5 6-10 11-15 16-20
 Other points of interest, e.g. use of dialogue,
point of view, irony, symbolism, theme

4. Organization:
 Plot structure, e.g. orientation, complication,
climax, resolution
 Coherence and cohesion of ideas
1-5 6-10 11-15 16-20
 Paragraphing
 Other points of interest, e.g. flashback, story
within a story, transitions, twist

5. Language and style:

 Range and appropriateness of vocabulary
 Range and accuracy of grammar structures
 Accuracy of spelling, capitalization, punctuation
 Appropriateness of tone and register
 Use of narrative writing techniques, e.g. varying 1-5 6-10 11-15 16-20
short and long sentences, appealing to the five
senses, withholding details to create suspense
 Use of literary devices, e.g. alliteration,
onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor, personification

Total:

/60

Comments:
References for Weeks 16 & 17
Stephen crane. Retrieved from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/stephen-crane
Ralph waldo emerson. Retrieved from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/ralph-waldo-
emerson
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2019). The adventures of huckleberry fin. Retrieved
from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Adventures-of-Huckleberry-Finn-novel-by-Twain
Sylar, J. (n.d.). The modernist period. Retrieved from
http://jordansylaramericanliterature.weebly.com/the-modernist-period.html
T.s. eliot. Retrieved from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/t-s-eliot

Images
https://media.poetryfoundation.org/uploads/media/default/0001/01/58c9913940f6d560707634f0
0ddc7d167bb452ca.jpeg
https://www.thoughtco.com/thmb/G8DgFfTL_E9PLB257ETn6-
COAEY=/768x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/51160371-
56a7beab5f9b58b7d0ed7286.jpg
https://cdn2.penguin.com.au/covers/original/9780099572978.jpg
Week 18: Performance Task

Task 1: Literary Portfolio

Macro Skills: reading and writing Mode of Submission (Options)
Date of Submission: ________________ Online: See the instructions below
Offline: See the instructions below

Compile all of your written tasks that you have written over the course of this module.
Online: Create a blog website containing all of your written works. One written work is equivalent to one
article/page of your blog/website. Make it sure that each article contains:
1. By line (your name, e.g. Article Title by First Name Middle Initial Surname).
Offline: Write/Compile your written work in a short clear book. It must contain the following:

1. Title page containing your name, year and section.

2. Table of contents
3. Border and designs
 (Electronic) Writing Portfolio Suggested Assessment Rubric
Superior (4) Satisfactory (3) Needs Unsatisfactory (1)
Improvement (2)
Content Fully responds to Sufficiently responds Does not respond or Does not respond to
all criteria of the to most criteria of the incompletely most criteria of the
assignment assignment responds to some assignment
criteria of the
Clearly identifies Identifies and Does not identify or
assignment
and fully develops main develop most
develops all ideas/themes, but Does not identify or ideas/themes
ideas/themes some may lack develop some main
Provides few details
clarity or depth ideas/themes
Provides logical, and little support or
valid and specific Generally provides Provides support but support that is
details and logical and valid may not be logical or illogical or invalid
support details and support valid; some details
Omits relevant
may be missing
Effectively uses Effectively uses most information; outside
all relevant relevant information, Frequently omits sources
information, including outside relevant information; inappropriate or
including outside sources outside sources may missing
sources be inappropriate or
For the most part, Draws
missing
Draws clear and draws clear and unclear/inappropriat
appropriate appropriate Draws mostly e conclusions or
conclusions conclusions unclear or omits conclusions
inappropriate entirely
conclusions
Organiza- Clearly and Consistently Frequently does not Does not organize
tion consistently organizes ideas, but organizes ideas; ideas
organizes ideas structure may be structure is formulaic
Conveys little or no
formulaic or or unsophisticated
Maintains focus or sense of
unsophisticated
consistent focus Sometimes lacks purpose
and sense of Generally maintains focus or sense of
For the most part,
purpose focus purpose
does not structure or
Effectively For the most part, Often does not order paragraphs
structures and effectively structures structure or order
Does not link ideas
orders paragraphs and orders paragraphs
paragraphs
Links ideas with
smooth and For the most part,
effectively links
 effective ideas, but transitions Links some ideas,
transitions may be unclear or but transitions are
ineffective missing or unclear
Style Shows clear For the most part, Is inconsistent in Shows little
awareness of shows awareness of showing awareness awareness of
purpose and purpose and audience of purpose and purpose and
audience audience audience
Uses effective and
Uses varied sentence Uses little variety in Uses no variety in
sophisticated and structure sentence structure; sentence structure;
varied sentence some syntax errors syntax errors
Uses vocabulary and
structure may be present frequently present
style that are mostly
Uses vocabulary appropriate to the Uses vocabulary or Uses vocabulary or
and style that are audience; some style that are style that are
appropriate to the words may be used frequently inappropriate to the
audience incorrectly inappropriate to the audience; words are
audience; words are consistently used
often used incorrectly
incorrectly
Mechanics Makes virtually Makes few grammar, Makes occasional Makes frequent
no grammar, punctuation, or grammar, grammar,
punctuation, or spelling errors; these punctuation, or punctuation, or
spelling errors are not distracting to spelling errors; these spelling errors;
the reader may be distracting to these are distracting
Uses correct
the reader to the reader
citation format to Identifies and
document documents most Sometimes uses Uses incorrect or no
references and sources appropriately correct citation citation format to
sources format to document document
references and references and
sources sources