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Teaching Spenser As Fantasy Literature; or, How to Lure Unsuspecting Undergraduates into a Spenser Course

Teaching Spenser As Fantasy Literature; or, How to Lure Unsuspecting Undergraduates into a... Symposium Teach The Faerie Queene in a Week? Spenser in Today’s Curriculum “Clowdily Enwrapped in Allegorical Deuices”: The Joys and Perils of Teaching Spenser’s Epic Sheila T. Cavanagh My introduction to Edmund Spenser came in my sophomore year in college during a survey class, when my professor announced: “If you’ve read one page of The Faerie Queene, you’ve read more than enough.” Since I had never heard of the epic, let alone read a word of it, I had no reason to doubt this proffered wisdom. That same semester, however, I encountered Spenser again, albeit vicariously, from a very different perspective. A group of my friends were enrolled in the senior honors seminar, which was focused on a single author. To their horror, they discovered that they would be spending the semester working on Spenser’s writings. Why they were appalled, I can- not remember, but I do recall that they spent countless meal hours complain- ing about the fate they believed awaited them. The professor listened to their objections and offered a compromise, which they accepted: they agreed to read and discuss The Faerie Queene for three weeks. At the end of that time they were free to request http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Pedagogy Duke University Press

Teaching Spenser As Fantasy Literature; or, How to Lure Unsuspecting Undergraduates into a Spenser Course

Pedagogy , Volume 3 (2) – Apr 1, 2003

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Copyright
© 2003 Duke University Press
ISSN
1531-4200
eISSN
1533-6255
DOI
10.1215/15314200-3-2-191
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Symposium Teach The Faerie Queene in a Week? Spenser in Today’s Curriculum “Clowdily Enwrapped in Allegorical Deuices”: The Joys and Perils of Teaching Spenser’s Epic Sheila T. Cavanagh My introduction to Edmund Spenser came in my sophomore year in college during a survey class, when my professor announced: “If you’ve read one page of The Faerie Queene, you’ve read more than enough.” Since I had never heard of the epic, let alone read a word of it, I had no reason to doubt this proffered wisdom. That same semester, however, I encountered Spenser again, albeit vicariously, from a very different perspective. A group of my friends were enrolled in the senior honors seminar, which was focused on a single author. To their horror, they discovered that they would be spending the semester working on Spenser’s writings. Why they were appalled, I can- not remember, but I do recall that they spent countless meal hours complain- ing about the fate they believed awaited them. The professor listened to their objections and offered a compromise, which they accepted: they agreed to read and discuss The Faerie Queene for three weeks. At the end of that time they were free to request

Journal

PedagogyDuke University Press

Published: Apr 1, 2003

References