This course interweaves a study of some of the significant texts of British literature with a consideration of the the trivium, the "three-fold way" of grammar, logic and rhetoric which served as the basis for the late antique and medieval curriculum. In addition, we practice specifically the sorts of essays and multiple choice questions likely to be found on the AP English Language examination--after the intial grammar study, most weeks will involve either an in-class essay or a multiple choice exam, the latter taken from published exams. Students are expected to write for at least ten minutes a night in a journal, simply for practice; these journal entries may serve later as the basis for papers to be formally submitted.

 

Readings typically include: the Old English Judith, the "Battle of Brunaburh," and some of the Exeter Book Riddles; selections from the Boke of Margery Kempe, the Canterbury Tales and Morte d'Arthur; Queen Elizabeth's speeches at Tilbury and at her last parliament; Macbeth; Bacon, "Of Studies;" Traherne, Centuries of Meditations; Pride and Prejudice; Lamb, "A Dissertation Upon Roast Pig"; and Eliot, "The Lifted Veil."

Grammar: Sentences and their transforms. A systematic study of an informal transformational grammar of English sentences, with an emphasis on verbal elements that can be used in combining sentences. Notice is taken of triadic structure, chiasmus, and some other rhetorical figures. There will be an objective test, and students write a "go for baroque" paper, using as many sentence ornaments as possible to respond to an open topic from an old AP test.

Brief Notes on Logic. The syllogism: categorical, conditional, alternative, disjunctive; mention of the mnemonics for the nineteen modes of the categorical syllogism [Barbara, Celarent, Darii, Baralipton, etc.]. Logical fallacies [argumentum ad hominem, petitio principi, etc.].

Rhetoric I: History of Style. Readings on the development of the English sentence (from G.H. Vallins, The Pattern of English) and on the invention of the paragraph (Virginia M. Burke, "The Paragraph: Dancer in Chains").

Rhetoric II: Contemporary Style. Readings from Eight Modern Essayists, beginning with Orwell, "Politics and the English Language" and "Shooting an Elephant," and Virginia Woolf, "A Sketch of the Past" and "Professions for Women." Rhetorical analysis: diction, figurative language, ornamental figures, style, audience.