ENGL 222 - Early British Literature

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

This course offers an introduction to British literary history, beginning with Old and Middle English literature and continuing through the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the establishment of Great Britain, the British Civil War, the Puritan Interregnum, and the Restoration. Topics may include discourses of difference (race, religion, gender, social class); tribal, ethnic, and national identities; exploration and colonization; textual transmission and the rise of print culture; authorship and authority; and the formation and evolution of the British literary canon. Authors, genres, critical and theoretical approaches, historical coverage, and themes may vary from year to year.

Topic for 2021/22a: Early British Literature. Texts may include Spenser’s Fairie Queene, Milton’s Paradise Lost, Sterne’s Tristram Shandy, Wycherly’s The Country Wife, Swift’s A Tale of a Tub, and Shelley’s Frankenstein. Mark Amodio.

This course satisfies one of the two pre-1800 requirements for the English major.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS