After the first class reading in translated Old English, we'll be in Middle English for a while, that fusion of Norman French and Old English. Give me a call or make an appointment for a short conference. Literature for this period nearly always was intended to be read, and much of it is dramatic, containing or implying a plot and one or more personae who populate it. Even short lyrics often manage this in miniature. If something's going on, you have to take part in it emotionally and you have to make your reading match the events in speed, pitch, and other aspects of delivery.
Intent reveals the persona's emotional makeup.
You have to exercise judgment, looking for an insight which gets beneath the literal surface of what you've read, and you have to think about what we're up to in English 211. Give me some lead time, and some choice of times to do it, and we can have a great conversation about literature, the course, the major, and your life. If you've taken English 215 but want to brush up on your interpretive theory and method, or if you haven't yet taken it and want to learn how to operate the tools of our trade, go to the English 215 web site for Spring 2001, a course team-taught by Mary Marchand and Arnie Sanders.