As an addendum to my e-mail of a minute ago--Bill's cartoons are
wonderful and the one about the elephant patient is one I will use
next class as an addendum before we start Spenser's love poetry. Bill
isn't Redcrosse sort of pre-saved? Una tells him he's chosen. I agree
he never makes it to the New Jerusalem (it isn't time, yet) or marries
Una (too much work to do). Anne.
On Oct 29, 2008, at 8:45 PM, William Oram wrote:
> I spend two weeks on it in our thirteen-week survey course, so
> there's time to do all of Book I. Like Michael and some others I
> spend most of my time showing them how to read allegory, and I often
> begin with cartoons as a convention-driven picture-language (I used
> to use some wonderful old Herblock cartoons from the sixties with
> the personified bomb, and one, very relevant now, of an elephant
> lying dolefully on a couch staring at the ceiling and speaking to a
> man with a Freudian beard who is taking notes saying "Nobody loves
> me anymore.") But I don't think you can teach the allegory of Book
> I without attention to religion--or to what happens to Redcrosse.
> So I do teach it as concerned with salvation--though he never quite
> gets there. Bill
>
>
>
> William Oram
> [log in to unmask]
> 413-585-3322
>
>>>> Linda Vecchi <[log in to unmask]> 10/29/08 12:12 PM >>>
> When I teach our survey course (at second year, here) I teach Book
> I, although
> time rarely allows for us to read the entire book. I found that by
> focusing on
> Redcrosse, I could devise a reasonably coherent narrative/thematic
> thread and
> have our discussion of FQ connect thematically to the other 'heroic
> tales' we
> had studied during the term (Beowulf, Sir Gawain, Faustus). My
> students seemed
> able to handle the text well. In my senior seminar course I have
> taught Books 1
> and/or 3.
>
> Since our public school system suspended denominantional schools
> (Catholic,
> Protestant and Evangelical) only about 15 years ago, most of my
> students can
> relate to (and some even take umbrage at) the religious context of
> the work.
> In the years closely following 9/11, I also had some heated
> discussions about
> Spenser's (and Elizabethan England's) attitudes toward Muslim/Islamic
> characters.
>
>
> Quoting Marianne F Micros <[log in to unmask]>:
>
>> Sadly, I don't think it is much taught at all. Our first-year
>> course is a
>> 12-week one with little time! I'm wondering how many people drop
>> Spenser. I
>> teach some of the sonnets in the first year but work in books of
>> the FQ
>> (usually 3 or 5) in other courses.
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Jean Goodrich <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Sent: Wed, 29 Oct 2008 09:13:57 -0400 (EDT)
>> Subject: Re: Book I in survey courses
>>
>> Besides demonstrating a more sophisticated use of allegory than what
>> students will have seen in *Everyman* or *Second Shepherd's*, I
>> stress
>> Spenser's method of instructing the reader how to read as well as the
>> disconnect between *seeming* and *being*. This allows us to look at
>> Redcrosse as in process of becoming Holiness, and not necessarily
>> there yet.
>>
>> I've also found an increasing lack of familiarity with the religious
>> background, including things as basic as differences between
>> Catholicism and
>> Protestantism. Students will get the Una/Redcrosse/Archimago
>> confrontation,
>> and love the Seven Deadlies, but they'll completely miss the
>> significance of
>> Abessa/Corceca/Kirkrapine and the repeated occurrences of Pride
>> beyond
>> Lucifera.
>>
>> Jean Goodrich
>> University of Arizona
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 5:48 AM, Michael Saenger
>> <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
>>
>>> I spend most of my time on Book I as an exploration of how
>>> allegory works.
>>>
>>> Michael
>>>
>>>
>>> Quoting James Broaddus <[log in to unmask]>:
>>>
>>> How is Book I presently discussed in undergraduate survey courses?
>>> Back
>> in
>>>> my day, of course, it was discussed as the story of a fall and
>>>> consequent
>>>> redemption. Is it still so discussed in those courses?
>>>>
>>>> Jim Broaddus
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Retired, Ind. State.Univ.
>>>> 2487 KY 3245
>>>> Brodhead, KY 40409
>>>>
>>>>
>>
>
>
> Dr. Linda Vecchi
> Department of English
> Memorial University of Newfoundland
> St. John's, NL A1C 5S7
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