Training in writing expository prose. Further instruction in expository writing in conjunction with reading literature. Satisfies the second half of the Reading and Composition requirement.

"“If I profane with my unworthiest hand This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this: My lips, two blushing pilgrims, did ready stand To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.” These are the first words that Romeo speaks to Juliet in Shakespeare’s famous play named for them. Over the centuries that play has become perhaps the most well known and well imitated representation of romantic love in all of literary history, so much so that even today the hopelessly lovesick are often teasingly referred to simply by “Romeo” or “Juliet.” This course, however, proposes to consider Shakespeare’s play not as the beginning of a way of writing about or representing love, but rather as the culmination of a tradition of love poetry that flourished in the age that we call the Renaissance. Why, we will be asking, are the four lines above not lines of dialogue like the rest of the play, but rather the beginning of a sonnet, the most dominant verse form for love poetry, that the characters speak to each other? Or why do these lines contain an abundance of religious imagery, with Juliet forced into the role of religious adoration? To answer these questions, we will read widely in the history of not only love poetry, but also theorizations of love from the Ancient world and beyond. Starting with Plato’s playful yet elegant theorization of love in the Symposium, we will move on to a brief consideration of love poetry in Roman elegy. The vast bulk of our material, however, will be drawn from the Renaissance, first in its Italian iteration (with a slight detour to the south of France with the troubadours) with Dante, Petrarch, and Ficino, and then on to the English, reading poems by Thomas Wyatt, Henry Howard Earl of Surrey, and Philip Sidney. Only then will we turn to Shakespeare, reading both his sonnets and Romeo and Juliet. In addition to cultivating your critical thinking and literary analysis skills, this course will help to strengthen your academic and analytic writing. Becoming a better writer requires practice; as such, you will be required to write several essays of increasing length as the semester progresses, as well as revising your writing heavily. We will also work on improving your writing through shorter assignments such as reflections, responses, and revisions.

Requisites

• Previously passed an R_A course with a letter grade of C- or better. Previously passed an articulated R_A course with a letter grade of C- or better. Score a 4 on the Advanced Placement Exam in English Literature and Composition. Score a 4 or 5 on the Advanced Placement Exam in English Language and Composition. Score of 5, 6, or 7 on the International Baccalaureate Higher Level Examination in English.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills