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
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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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