ENGL 8110: The Reception of Biblical and Classical Textuality in the Medieval and Early Modern West
Spring 2017
This course will be an intensive introduction to the reading and interpretation of the bible and classical literature in the medieval and early modern west, using a case study approach to this large topic. For the bible we will use the Book of Genesis and read relevant works deriving from or related to the Genesis tradition: patristic exegesis, medieval exegetes; universal history and encyclopedists; the Latin biblical epics and paraphrases of late antiquity; selected Old English and Middle English verse and late medieval English cycle drama. In the early modern context we are likely to examine early modern biblical commentaries before reading Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice and perhaps some lyric poetry by Herbert and Donne. In terms of classical reception, we will focus on the historiographic and epic traditions, with special attention to the Troy story and the Matter of Alexander the Great. For the early modern portion of the unit we will read Shakespearean works that are indebted to classical literature in various ways: e.g., the non-dramatic poems; plays such as Midsummer Night's Dream; Antony and Cleopatra; Coriolanus, and so forth. The final text of the course, serving to draw our biblical and classical strands together, will be Milton's Paradise Lost. A wide variety of subjects will be introduced and studied, and students can expect to learn about bibles and other works in their manuscript context; biblical apocrypha; biblical exegesis and biblical commentaries; medieval encyclopedias; figural composition and reading; allegory; medieval and early modern school curricula; medieval historiography and related concepts such as universal history and sacred history; euhemerization; medieval moral and allegorical interpretation of the classics; epic; romance; and much else.