Have fun with the course, Michael. It will surely be a homecoming for you, back to the roots of English literature. I would sometimes start with the first speech in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness": "And this also has been one of the dark places of the earth," followed later by a line from Vergil's first Eclogue, translated to say that Britain was cut off from the whole world. I also liked to start with Caedmon rhythmic "hymn," beating my hand to the stresses. From Beuwulf to Sir Gawain and the Red Cross Knight, you can't go wrong. You may remember hearing Frye say that he knew exactly where "Star Wars" was going because it was all in "The Faerie Queene."
That was a great way to do it! I WILL start with Caedmon's hymn, because of course it gives us the vertical axis with middengeard. And in the history of the language part of my old English Language course, I did read it to them, as well as the opening of Beowulf, in the original. I did have a year of Old English in grad school. You're right about all the wonderful material. I will probably skimp a bit on the 18th century (don't tell my 18th century colleague Ana). Outside of Gulliver's Travels, the material is not going to excite many students, and in fact doesn't always excite me. The Norrie remark is amusing--he's of course exactly right. You have so many anecdotes of that sort. I wonder if you shouldn't contemplate a memoir of some sort--or your own Substack newsletter. All the best.
Have fun with the course, Michael. It will surely be a homecoming for you, back to the roots of English literature. I would sometimes start with the first speech in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness": "And this also has been one of the dark places of the earth," followed later by a line from Vergil's first Eclogue, translated to say that Britain was cut off from the whole world. I also liked to start with Caedmon rhythmic "hymn," beating my hand to the stresses. From Beuwulf to Sir Gawain and the Red Cross Knight, you can't go wrong. You may remember hearing Frye say that he knew exactly where "Star Wars" was going because it was all in "The Faerie Queene."
That was a great way to do it! I WILL start with Caedmon's hymn, because of course it gives us the vertical axis with middengeard. And in the history of the language part of my old English Language course, I did read it to them, as well as the opening of Beowulf, in the original. I did have a year of Old English in grad school. You're right about all the wonderful material. I will probably skimp a bit on the 18th century (don't tell my 18th century colleague Ana). Outside of Gulliver's Travels, the material is not going to excite many students, and in fact doesn't always excite me. The Norrie remark is amusing--he's of course exactly right. You have so many anecdotes of that sort. I wonder if you shouldn't contemplate a memoir of some sort--or your own Substack newsletter. All the best.