Elizabethan 8 - Sir Edmund Spenser - The Danger & Allure of Allegory GW
"I don't like symbolism that hits you over the head. A symbol should not be a cymbal." Edward Albee
The Danger & Allure of Allegory: Edmund Spenser & the Fairie Queen Group Work: I last assigned this group work nearly 10 years before I retired. When you start losing time in your classroom - something has to go - and this was one of the casualties. I regret that because it was my first serious effort to try and dissuade students from something that they have heard in their English classes since grammar school. The importance of symbolism in Literature. The Group Work uses Spenser's "The Faerie Queen" as an example of how allegory can actually detract from a work. Though I hope I do not preach - I do want to expose them to another point of view. There is also an Illuminated Text that I made of one of my favorite Spenser poems - and a poem that will wonderfully plant some seeds in the students' minds for the Shakespeare Sonnets that are to come soon.
Lesson Overview
Though I don't believe in the importance of symbolism in Literature (there are so many other things to talk about that are real and demonstrable) - I do know that other teachers do. I don't want to take away from those teachers - but instead, wish to give another point of view. Before this Group Work, the students would have read the excerpt from The Faerie Queen in their text books - and there is a quiz included below. See my page on Group Work for more on the reasoning of doing this kind of assignment.
Here are some of the ideas and points that the Group Work attempts to cover - see the actual Group Work handout for more.
A comparison with Mark Twain's preface to Huck Finn denying any symbolism to what Spenser does in The Fairie Queen.
A very specific example from The Faerie Queen of allegory - and how that may hurt the reading.
More on Allegory
More on the serpent as an agent of Allegory
Why is a mute beggar twice cursed?
How extended metaphors and Allegories can fail.
an exercise in poem scansion (using Spenser)
The idea of the author as Allegorist and comparing that to the Shaper from Grendel
onedayIwrotehername.wmvAn Illuminated Text of a Spenser Poem
An Illuminated Text that I created of Spenser's poem - "One Day I Wrote Her Name upon the Strand". The ideas in the poem will soon be revisited in Shakespeare's sonnets.
Remote Enhancements
This can all be done remotely of course - I've actually had great success with Group Work remotely - it does take some planning though.
Class Recordings (for registered members)
Audio
Video
Shakespeare Sonnets - Eternal Lines - A Discussion: This lesson - when done right - can be a time for wonder and awe for the teacher and for so much of the class. Because I've decided to write detailed notes for the Power Point Slides - it's also the lesson that's taken me the longest to get on this site. I can only do so much each day - the poems - the meanings - the wonder are just so emotional that it drains me (in a very good way). In any case, this lesson has us go through four of Shakespeare's Sonnets - 18, 30, 29, and 116. For the first three of these we go through them pretty much line by line - and then Sonnet 116 is explicated through a very personal story.
WHAT CAME BEFORE:
Thoughts on the Lesson
I used to have a jar in the front of the room and the students were told if they said the word "symbol" - they'd have to put a dollar in the jar. On a related note - one of my students coming back to visit told me that I had said "Symbolic bars hold no prisoners". Sounds like me.