Overview
This lesson plan blends a campaign-style rhetorical voice with classical pedagogy, Arthurian poetic motifs, and the epic framework of Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene. It traces the evolution from Arthurian romance into Renaissance epic, using a speaking voice reminiscent of a polished campaign oratory (in the spirit of Ally McBeal’s sharp, persuasive style) to engage students in close reading, analysis, and creative composition. The unit is designed for an advanced high school or introductory college audience, with attention to ethical persuasion, literary form, and historical context. It also provides primary and secondary sources and guidance on citation practices.
Learning Objectives
- Analyze how rhetoric and persuasion function in political and legal-themed speech, drawing parallels to literary argument in Renaissance epic.
- Identify Arthurian motifs in poetry and map them onto Spenser’s Faerie Queene, focusing on virtue, quest, and the interplay of public performance and private conscience.
- Examine Spenser’s allegory, meter, and diction; understand the Spenserian stanza and its ethical dimensions.
- Differentiate primary and secondary sources, practice citation, and construct a literature-informed argument with evidence.
- Produce a short creative piece that emulates a campaign speech or legal oration within the Faerie Queene framework, showing mastery of voice and rhetoric.
Unit Outline
- Session 1: Introduction to Rhetoric and Pedagogy
- Discuss classic principles of rhetoric (ethos, pathos, logos) and how a public-facing voice can shape interpretation of poetry.
- Introduce the idea of a “campaign voice” as a performance of persuasion, and contrast with close reading’s demand for textual fidelity.
- Reading: excerpts from a modern public speech (e.g., a brief legal-ethos oriented speech) to model persuasion techniques.
- Session 2: Arthurian Motifs in Poetry
- Survey Arthurian elements (quest, chivalry, virtue, temptation) in medieval and early modern poetry.
- Close reading of a short Arthurian poem or excerpt (e.g., Malory or an allusive Chaucer passage) and note the ethical aims.
- Session 3: Spenser’s Faerie Queene – Structure and Allegory
- Introduce Spenserian stanza, allegory, and the poem’s political and moral aims.
- Read Book I (The Redcrosse Knight) excerpts; discuss virtuous conduct and symbolic figures.
- Session 4: The Faerie Queene and Public Voice
- Analyze how Spenser encodes social and political values in allegory and verse texture.
- Explore how a campaign-style voice can interpret or misinterpret allegory for modern audiences.
- Session 5: Creative Synthesis
- Students craft a short piece in which a character presents a campaign or legal argument that intersects with Faerie Queene imagery (e.g., a courtroom scene featuring a knight or allegorical figure).
- Peer review focusing on rhetoric, accuracy to the source, and clarity of allegorical meaning.
- Session 6: Research and Citations
- Work with primary and secondary sources; discuss the roles of manuscript evidence, editorial context, and scholarly interpretation.
- Practice citation and annotation using MLA/Chicago-style guidelines.
Core Texts and Context
To ground the unit, use a mix of primary texts and scholarly work. The following list separates primary materials (the texts actually produced during the periods) from secondary materials (modern scholarly interpretations and teaching aids). The selected items emphasize rhetoric, poetry, and allegory, with attention to Arthurian influence and Spenser’s craft.
Primary Texts
- The Faerie Queene (books I–III for overview; Book I is most essential for initial allegory and the Redcrosse Knight). Consider excerpts illustrating virtue, temptation, and moral conflict.
- Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur (selected tales of Arthur, knightly virtue and fall, chivalric code).
- Geoffrey Chaucer, selections from The Canterbury Tales (characterization through