Diego Velazquez, “Democritus”
English 331
Satire
Spring 2003
Charles Knight
Office: MW 4:30-5:30
Syllabus
January 27 Introduction to Satire
January 29 Introduction to Aristophanes and Old Comedy. Handout on The Frogs.
February 3 Aristophanes, The Frogs, trs. Richmond Lattimore, in Four Plays, trs. William Arrowsmith (Meridian).
February 5 The Frogs.
February 10 Horace, Satires, Book 1, Satires 4, 6, and 10; Book 1, Satire 1, trs. Rudd, in Horace, Satires and Epistles (Penguin); Juvenal, Satire 1, trs. Green, in Satires (Penguin). Chronology of Satirists and History.
February 12 Horace, Satires, Book 1, Satires 1 and 9; Book 2, Satire 6; Juvenal, Satire 3.
February 17 President’s Day Holiday.
February 19 Horace, Satires, Book 2, Satires 3 and 7; Juvenal, Satire 10.
February 24 Lucian, “Zeus the Opera Star” (136-70), “A Voyage to the Underworld” (175-93), “Charon” (217-38), in Selected Satires, trs. Casson (Norton). Notes on Menippean Satire.
February 26 Lucian, “A True Story” (15-57). Notes on reading irony.
March 3 Lucian, “The Death of Peregrinus” (364-82), “Philosophies for Sale” (313-33), “The Fisherman” (334-63).
March 5 Introduction to Swift, Pope, and Gay. Paper 1 due. See Guide to Writing Papers. Handout on Satire and History (1660-1745).
March 10 Jonathan Swift, A Tale of a Tub, ed. Angus Ross and David Woolley, in A Tale of a Tub and Other Works (Oxford), pp. 1-34.
March 12 A Tale of a Tub, through Section VII (pp. 34-72). See Notes on A Tale of a Tub
March 24 A Tale of a Tub, through “The Conclusion” (pp. 72-103).
March 26 Alexander Pope, “The Rape of the Lock.”
March 31 Pope, “Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot.”
April 2 Pope, “The Dunciad, Book IV” (photocopy)
April 7 John Gay, The Beggar’s Opera (Penguin).
April 9 The Beggar’s Opera.
April 14 Bertolt Brecht, The Threepenny Opera, trs. Ralph Manheim and John Willett (Arcade).
April 16 The Threepenny Opera.
April 21 Patriots Day Holiday
April 23 George Gordon, Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto 1 (Penguin). Paper 2 due (on Pope, Swift, Gay, or Brecht).
April 28 Byron, Don Juan, Cantos 7, 8, and 9 (stanzas 1-21).
April 30 Evelyn Waugh, Decline and Fall (Little, Brown). Waugh web page.
May 5 Decline and Fall.
May 7 Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49 (Harper Perennial), chs. 1 and 2. Picture by Remedios Varo. Pynchon web page.
May 12 The Crying of Lot 49, chs 3-5.
May 14 The Crying of Lot 49. ch. 6. Paper 3 due. (on Byron, Waugh, or Pynchon)
The Final Examination is due by 6:00 p.m., May 21.