Honors Literature 11

Students will become familiar with the main examples of literature of the Middle Ages; identify and examine the inter-relationship between the Greek epic (The Iliad and The Odyssey), the Roman epic (The Aeneid) and the Catholic epic (The Divine Comedy); identify the Christian virtue of chivalry and its role in Medieval society; identify the Christian virtue of courtesy and its role in Medieval society; identify the Christian metaphor of the spiritual quest to attain salvation; further the study and imitation of these genres: epic, tragedy, comedy, and rhetoric; learn to interpret and distinguish the fourfold senses of theological writings: the literal, the allegorical, the moral, and the eschatological; and trace the effect of the Christian world on the development of the literature of the Middle Ages.

Students taking this course for Kolbe Honors (H) credit will have eight papers, a mid-term, and final exam each semester.  Additionally, core students should expect to have daily reading and minor weekly written assignments or quizzes.

Assignment due-dates and some grades are established by the parent.  To receive honors credit with Kolbe Academy, students must submit a number of designated assignments to Kolbe Academy for grading, usually exams and select papers.  The parent- and Kolbe-established grades are averaged to produce the final grade for the honors course. Alternatively, a student may enroll in the Self-Paced Plus© grading assistance program to receive additional grading assistance by a Kolbe Academy faculty or staff member on designated assignments in the course.  In this case, parents may still submit grades for the student to be averaged in with the required Kolbe-graded honors assignments, or they may use the teacher-graded materials only to receive credit.

• Beowulf, anonymous, translated by David Wright
• Song of Roland, anonymous, translated by Dorothy Sayers
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, anonymous, translated by J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Divine Comedy: Hell, Dante Alighieri, translated by Dorothy Sayers
• The Divine Comedy: Purgatory, Dante Alighieri, translated by Dorothy Sayers
• The Divine Comedy: Paradise, Dante Alighieri, translated by Dorothy Sayers
• The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer, Geoffrey. translated by Nevill Coghill
• Richard III, William Shakespeare, edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine
• Macbeth, William Shakespeare, edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine
• The Tempest, William Shakespeare, edited by Peter Holland
• Hamlet, William Shakespeare, edited by A.R. Braunmuller
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare, edited by Russ McDonald
• Paradise Lost & Paradise Regained, John Milton, edited by Christopher Ricks

Optional physical copies available for purchase for the following under the Literature 11 “Optional Material” section in the Kolbe Bookstore (digital copies are provided with the self-paced course):

• The Dream of the Rood Poem & Study Guide, Kolbe Academy Publishing
• Beowulf Study Guide Study Guide, Kolbe Academy Publishing
• Song of Roland Study Guide Study Guide, Kolbe Academy Publishing
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Study Guide Study Guide, Kolbe Academy Publishing
• The Divine Comedies Study Guide Study Guide, Kolbe Academy Publishing
• The Canterbury Tales Study Guide Study Guide, Kolbe Academy Publishing
• Medieval Shakespeare Study Guide Study Guide, Kolbe Academy Publishing
• Paradise LostStudy Guide Study Guide, Kolbe Academy Publishing

Note that this is the digital version of the homeschool course plan, which is found in the course’s associated Parent Group.  This course plan is built into the Schoology course for the student. 

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