College English Classes: Post 2-Literature from 1660-1800.

Last week, I started a new, short series of posts focusing on the reading lists for my college English classes at Michigan State. This whole idea began with a conversation I had with Eva on Twitter. In my first post, I talked about the first English class I took as an English major when I was in my second semester at school.

Going into my sophomore year, I had to take a few prerequisites as well as a few other "fun" English classes to get to my credit limit. One of the basic requirements was taking 3 of the 5 offered "310" classes. Each one of the 5 classes focused on a certain time limit and would cover a broad span of literature. The first one, 310A, was focused on all literature before 1660. Since my Intro to English class covered a lot of Ancient Greek pieces, I decided that 310A was not for me, and enrolled in 310B.

For some reason when I enrolled, there was only one section. There were multiple sections for the other class options, but one, lowly little time period for this class. But, I thought the time period sounded interesting and since I had to take three of the classes anyway, I figured this was the one for me!

Ha.

It turns out that like my professor for my Intro class, the professor for this class also had a nasty reputation. He was the second lowest in the ratings on the MSU teacher ranking site...second only to my Intro teacher. I had awesome luck, didn't I? His name was also scary-Professor Arch.

That first day of class, I was absolutely petrified. He was a tall skinny man with a hook-shaped nose. He stalked up and down the classroom while he talked and stared at everyone so intently. I was flipping out. When we went over the book list, he kept listing books he kept off the list since he had read them with his last class. I can remember those titles (they're written on my syllabus).

• Clarissa by Samuel Richardson
• Paradise Lost by Milton
• Tom Jones by Fielding

And I remember him saying, "Not to worry!" since we were going to read "fun" things too.

Buying books for his class also freaked me out. Many were big and heavy. And scary. And while I was an English major and had read a few classics, I hadn't even heard of most of the people we were reading. And at the time, I had no interest in reading them either.

We started off the semester reading Benjamin Franklin's 1726 Journal (focused on his trip to America), followed closely by his autobiography. Professor Arch was in love with Benjamin Franklin and taught both pieces every semester to this class without fail.

He even brought in his Benjamin Franklin action figure and acted out scenes with it.

I am not kidding.

After Franklin, we read through Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels and A Modest Proposal. Both were my first exposure to satire, but I rather liked them.

We moved on to Alexander Pope's "Essay on Man." I honestly don't remember much about it, but I did find the paper I had to write on it. It is awful. No, I won't share any of it.

The longest part of the semester was focused on Samuel Johnson. The book we had of his work was the Oxford edition (still have mine) and contained all of his major works. We read some of his poetry, but focused on the periodicals he wrote, "The Rambler" and "The Idler." We also read Rasselas, his novel.

The only person Professor Arch loved more than Ben Franklin was Samuel Johnson, let me tell you.

After Johnson came Edmund Burke's A Philosophical Enquiry. It was the hardest thing I ever read and I still don't think I understand it.

We also read Immanuel Kant's "An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?" That is another piece that I can hardly remember! Perhaps it is time for a reread!

The last author we read was Eliza Haywood, and she was probably my favorite. We read Fantomina and Love Letters on All Occasions. She was a saucy writer for her day and I absolutely adored the material we read. She is definitely an author I want to return to.

The last couple weeks of class were spent discussing and presenting topics of interest in the time period to the class. My group's topic was archeology and we rocked our presentation (I found my power point on my computer-so glad I have better power point skills now).

At the time I took the class, I thought that Professor Arch was too hard and difficult. I struggled through his class and the readings. He gave pop quizzes and asked what I thought to be stupid and unimportant questions. I remember how the class reacted when the first question on the first quiz was, "What year was this published?" We all sat there thinking, "Can this guy be serious?" I know better now.

Quite honestly, I didn't have any interest in the material we were talking about in that class. I thought it was too much, but I plunged onward and kept trying. Looking back, I can remember some of the things very fondly. I still regard Swift as a favorite, and the things I learned about him this class helped me teach my seniors satire the last month. I also remember loving Eliza Haywood to the point where I read a few of her other pieces in the book we had that were not assigned.

I also remember rather liking Professor Arch through his scary exterior. He was simply a man who was very passionate about what he taught and the material. At times, he was even funny. He liked to pick on himself for being a nerd and always encouraged us to show our true nerdy selves.

But most of all, I owe Professor Arch for teaching me that learning about literature is not just dissecting the piece in front of you. It is about understanding the historical and culture context of each piece of writing. Knowing those things can help you dissect it. And, as you move forward in time, you can understand and appreciate the gains made based on what came before. I wish I would have realized the importance of this back then. I think my experience in that class would have been far better had I known how important that was. It took me a long time on my own to figure that out-and now this time period and some pieces from it are on my own project list, waiting to be loved. I wish I could take his class again, now, and see how much I gain this time. I bet you it is still a lot!

I'll leave you with some wisdom he said in one of our class periods (this is written at the top of one of my pages of notes and starred);

"Benjamin Franklin had high hopes for humanity. Remember, at all times, to make dear Benny proud."

College English Classes: Post 1-Intro to English.

I was talking with Eva the other night on Twitter (I believe it was Tuesday) when we got on the subject of the classes I took in college for my English degree and what books I read. It got me all excited, remembering when I discovered some of my favorite authors and the wonderful books I got to read.

Since I was double majoring, I did a lot of reading in college, for two reading intensive degrees (English and history). Both majors required TONS of reading, which I was all too happy to comply with. Granted, some things were more interesting than others. And since I was going into teaching, I also got to take some specialized classes in both majors that were a blast (like my young adult lit class).

So, I started thinking back to these old classes, the books I read, and the wonders I learned about. I felt it would make for interesting reflections now (7 years away from that freshman year in college). Perhaps you will get some suggestions from my old reading lists, or can give me more titles and writers to investigate in the future.


The first class I wanted to talk about in this first post was the Introduction to English course that every English major at Michigan State had to take. There was one course that was a prerequisite before this English class (it was a writing intensive class), but I tested out of it. So, the sole English course I took as a freshman in college was Intro to English.

I can remember buying the books before the semester started. We only had two texts, whereas all the other sections of this class had at least 6 or 7. A very big part of me was sad that I wasn't going to read more, and I was stuck with a measly two books. It was a sad beginning for an English major who loved to read.

The two texts we had for class were Homer's The Odyssey (translation by Robert Fagles) and the Norton Guide to Classical Literature. I still own both books and they are sitting on my shelves right this minute. :) My professor also gave us packets with other pieces and translations I'll mention in a minute.

The professor had the lowest ratings of any professor on MSU's teacher rating site. I was not impressed. He had this habit of clenching his teeth together at the end of every sentence and sucking in air through the corners of his mouth to make this loud "swishing-swooshing" sound as the air hit the spit in his mouth. It drove me absolutely insane.

But this professor knew his material. We started the semester discussing The Odyssey. We spent two class periods (4 hours), just talking about the opening stanza. We read at least five other translations before reading the one from our edition (Fagles);

“Sing to me man, Muse, the man of twists and turns
driven time and again off course, once he had plundered
the hallowed heights of Troy.
Many cities of men he saw and learned their minds,
many pains he suffered, heartsick on the open sea,
fighting to save his life and bring his comrades home.
But he could not save them from disaster, hard as he strove—
the recklessness of their own ways destroyed them all,
the blind fools, they devoured the cattle of the Sun
and the Sungod wiped from sight the day of their return.
Launch out on his story, Muse, daughter of Zeus,
start from where you will-Sing for our time too.”

I fell a little bit in love with Homer after reading that intro-a love affair which has yet to stop. As we progressed forward through The Odyssey, we would spend so much time diving into the details of Homer's work-the imagery, the message, and the power of what he wrote. Never in any of my English classes had I felt that kind of passion and respect for a piece of writing. I loved it.

When we finally finished The Odyssey, we spent the rest of the semester reading other Greek pieces. From Norton, we read Antigone, Oedipus Rex, and bits of Sappho's poetry. I was so enthralled by Sappho that I purchased an edition of her poems and devoured it on my own time. He brought us other translations of these works to compare, as well as other bits and pieces from Greek tragedies. We also spent a "fun" class period discussing Greek myths and legends, which my professor waved off as "rubbish."

I should also note there was one class period that we read a bunch of Emily Dickinson poems. You see, my professor was related to her (he told us nearly every class period that he was), so this was a necessity. It had nothing to do with the rest of the class focus.

Where the other classes were reading about the beginnings of the novel, we were discussing the history of the oral tradition and where we had once been. It was an eye-opening class. At the time, I don't think I fully understood what he was trying to do. More than anything else, he was showing us the beginning, and where many things stemmed form. Those nights spent huddled over my copy of The Odyssey (which is battered and highlighted as a result of those nights) were to teach me how our stories were originally remembered. We didn't always write them down, but passed them along by word of mouth.

It was a powerful class and one I am glad to remember. Besides The Odyssey, the only other work I have revisited since then is that of Sappho. Both Oedipus Rex and Antigone are on my project list, but I haven't gotten to them yet. Soon!

You can also probably tell that The Odyssey is what inspired my own journey here. The name for this was inspired by one of my favorite books. I find so much inspiration in Homer's words,

"Launch out on his story, Muse, daughter of Zeus,
start from where you will-Sing for our time too."

When I started this whole thing, I was launching on my own odyssey with inspiration from the muses around me. In fact, that quote is on a paper I keep by my desk. In the moments when I feel like quitting (at anything), reading those words brings me back to my purpose here. And to think, I owe it all to the English professor who had the lowest ratings of his entire department! I wonder what he would say now if he knew?

So here are some questions for you, dear readers. If you were to teach an Intro to English course, which titles would you require your class to read and why? And if you have taken a course like this, what titles did you read? Dig deep and tell me! :)

If you all like this post, I have many other classes and reading lists to talk about (including a young adult lit class where we read 30 titles in a semester). Perhaps I can post one every other week until I run out? Let me know!