Let me add one more testimonial--which can only indirectly address
Theresa Krier's new question. Teaching Spenser at a small church-related
college in Appalachia has been a very positive experience for me and
apparently for most students in the Brit lit survey. Makes me envy those who
teach the entire epic, not just Bk 1 + fragments. After experiencing The FQ
as a broad-based cultural epic (quite distinct from those of Homer, Virgil,
Dante, the Beowulf-poet, Milton), many students select Spenser's poem (esp.
Bk 1) for a term paper project. I can't exactly say why, but have imagined
several rather simplistic reasons.
Careful study (& sensual experience) of the intricacies of Bk 1, or
any series of its episodes, attracts many students because of their deeply
moral & religious upbringing in mountain hamlets or in provincial (or even,
for some few, highly urbane) towns & cities: here is a poem that takes
seriously many levels of moral & ultimately theological meaning, including
some that are immediately, gratifyingly apparent, while others appear only
after long study & reflection.
Many students become engaged in questioning not only the meaning of
each allegorical event but why they occur in this sequence. Why an initial
confrontation with Error, followed by one with Hypocrisy? What exactly
happens in the downhill slide of the first half of Bk 1 & in the uphill
grind of the final half? How is the sequence involving the House of Pride
inverted by that of the House of Holiness? They sense, at the heart of each
sequence, the serious manifestation of epiphany or the obstruction and loss
of such vision.
All are delighted to translate episodes into their own life &
culture--the narrow lonely path, full of sacrifices, that leads to studious
Contemplation vs. the much travelled interstate leading to the Vegas-style
nouveau "prodigy house" of aspiring lotto winners.
Many, like myself, are awed at the allegory's size & complexity, a
"Summa Poetica" on human nature that matches the scope of Aquinas's
theological treatise; Jim Nohrnberg's extraordinary study notwithstanding, I
don't think anyone has managed to lick this particular bear into a cub,
mainly because the poem is only half completed--the Legends of Justice &
Courtesy failing to provide closure on the scope of Spenser's vision of "the
human form divine" (to borrow Blake's suggestive term). Gaining a sense of
Spenser's effort to define the full perfection ("the 12 virtues") and seeing
how this meshing of poetic/fictive & moral/theological form embodies
organizing principles of great beauty (drawn from Plato, Aristotle, Cicero,
Augustine, & the rest)--is a source of deep fascination for those who use
literary fictions to solve the riddle of things generally. Even Milton, one
of Spenser's most devoted readers, did not comprehend the full scope and
complexity of his poem--i.e., the "many mansions" within its allegory.
-----Original Message-----
From: Theresa Krier [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Saturday, April 15, 2000 9:38 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Spenser students
As a follow-up to the wonderful testimonies about students' warm responses
to Spenser (which I've also experienced), I would love to hear how people
actually get undergrads _into_ Spenser courses in the first place. This
seems increasingly difficult to do, though I think it's long been a problem
because majors in surveys of the Brit Lit I type often have bad experiences
with him, or the ways he's taught--or not taught at all. Thanks!
Theresa M. Krier
Dept. of English
Bryan 219
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA 22904
804/245-5036
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