Prof. Regula Meyer Evitt 
Office: Armstrong 346
Phone: 389-6706 [office]; 471-3469 [home] 
Hours: TTH, 1:30-2:30 p.m.,
E-mail: rmevitt@coloradocollege.edu and by appointment

Course Goals

*Response Paper/Lead Class Discussion–You’ll lead class discussion, grounding the discussion in one of the critical readings assigned for our class meetings during the block. To focus your discussion, you’ll provide your peers with a one-page, single-spaced critical synopsis of the article on the day before you lead discussion.
*Making a Scene–During Week 2, while we’re reading Corpus Christi Cycle Dramas, you’ll work with two to three other students to present a scene from one of the cycle plays. You’ll use the scene you stage to reflect on one or more of the contextual readings from that week
*Web Bibliography project–During Week 3, your research group will prepare to lead discussion for one of the Morality, Conversion, or Saints plays we’ll discuss that week. You’ll create a brief annotated bibliography, scan and/or link the articles you’ve chosen to our course web site, and use your research to lead class discussion on the play your group focuses on
*Critical Paper–You’ll write one critical paper, 7-8 pages. You’ll notice on the Schedule of Meetings and Assignments below that there is no class on the day this assignment is due. This should give you some focused time to write or even to revise an early draft of your paper. Let me know if you’d like to set up a conference time with me to discuss a draft of your paper.

*Grade distribution–Response Paper/Lead Class Discussion [20%]; Making a Scene [20%]; Bibliography/Web-link project [20%]; Critical Paper [40%]
*Attendance–If you miss more than two class meetings, your course grade will drop one letter grade for each subsequent absence. The exceptions to this policy include, of course, serious illness or real emergencies. Please come talk with me if you run into difficulties.
*Late assignments–Late assignments lose one letter grade for each day that they are late (e.g., an A- becomes a B-, a B becomes a C, etc.). During the block you can turn in one assignment late without penalty (this includes all assignments equally). However, you need to arrange for this "freebie late" at least one day in advance. Assignments turned in more than one week late receive a NC. As above, the exceptions to this policy include serious illness or real emergencies. We’ll work out a schedule for completing your course work if necessary.
*Plagiarism–Using sources beyond your primary text[s] without documenting them is intellectual theft. Borrowing work from other students violates Colorado College’s Academic Honor System as well. Plagiarized work receives a grade of "F" and is subject to review by the college honor committee. Please make sure you understand Colorado College’s Academic Honor System; respect the academic integrity it calls for and the community of trust it aims to create.
*Credit/no credit–Let the registrar know immediately if you plan to take the course for credit rather than a grade.

Schedule of Meetings and Assignments (subject to change if needed)

2/25  
Primary reading:
*The Corpus Christi Cycle [Bevington, pp. 242-354]--Focus on: The Creation and the Fall of the Angels (Wakefield) [Bevington, pp. 258-66]; The Killing of Abel (Wakefield) [Bevington, pp. 274-89]; Noah (Wakefield) [Bevington, pp.290-307]
Contextual readings:
*Maris G. Fiondella, "Augustine's Concept of the ‘Letter’ and the Viewer as Subject in Selected Plays from the Towneley Cycle," Early Drama to 1600, ed. Albert H. Tricomi (Binghamton: Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1987) 95-106
*Sylvia Tomasch, "Breaking the Frame: Medieval Art and Drama," Early Drama to 1600, ed. Albert H. Tricomi (Binghamton: Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1987) 81-93.

2/26  
Primary reading:
*The Corpus Christi Cycle [Bevington, pp. 355-459]--Focus on: The Annunciation (Wakefield) [Bevington, pp. 355-67]; The Salutation of Elizabeth (Wakefield) [Bevington, pp. 368-71]; The Second Shepherds' Play (Wakefield)[Bevington, pp. 383-409]
Contextual readings:
*Theresa Coletti, "Purity and Danger: The Paradox of Mary’s Body and the En-gendering of the Infancy Narratives in the English Mystery Cycles," Feminist Approaches to the Body in Literature, ed. Linda Lomperis and Sarah Stanbury (Philadelphia: U of PA, 1993) 65-95
*Leah Sinanoglou, "The Christ Child as Sacrifice: A Medieval Tradition and the Corpus Christi Plays," Speculum 48 (1973): 491-509

2/27  
Primary reading:
*The Corpus Christi Cycle [Bevington, pp. 460-593]--Focus on: The Temptation in the Wilderness and the Woman Taken in Adultery (Chester) [xerox; not in Bevington]; The Woman Taken in Adultery (N-Town) [Bevington, pp. 460-69]
Contextual readings:
*Judith Ferster, "Writing on the Ground: Interpretation in Chester Play XII," Sign, Sentence, Discourse: Language in Medieval Thought and Literature, ed. Julian N. Wasserman and Lois Roney (Syracuse: Syracuse UP, 1989) 179-93
*Christine Brooke-Rose, "Woman as Semiotic Object," Poetics Today 6 (1985): 9-20

2/28  
Primary reading:
*The Corpus Christi Cycle [Bevington, pp. 594-658]--Focus on: The Buffeting (Wakefield) [Bevington, pp. 536-52]; The Crucifixion of Christ (York) [Bevington, pp. 569-79]; The Last Judgement (Wakefield) [Bevington, pp. 637-58)
Contextual readings:
*Peter W. Travis, "The Social Body of the Dramatic Christ in Medieval England," Early Drama to 1600, ed. Albert H. Tricomi (Binghamton: Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1987) 17-36
*Caroline Walker Bynum, "The Body of Christ in the Later Middle Ages: A Reply to Leo Steinberg," Renaissance Quarterly 39 (1986): 399-439
*Elaine Scarry, "The Structure of Torture: The Conversion of Real Pain into the Fiction of Power," The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1985) 27-59