ENGL 222 - Early British Literature

Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
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. Robert DeMaria (a); PasqualeToscano (b).

Topic for 2024/25b: From Heroism to the Self. When did storytelling shift focus from the derring-do of heroes to something like “the self”—a more recognizable central figure? This question guides our panoramic introduction to English literature, from the rousing combat of Beowulf to the contemplative wit of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, noting relevant sociopolitical factors along the way. We watch the medieval romances of knights and ladies yield to the thrilling grandiosity of Renaissance epic—in Shakespeare’s theater and Milton’s verse—before ending with Restoration and eighteenth-century experiments in putting a more relatable protagonist at the center of their novelistic stage. (Though relatable to whom?) We also see, however, that no narrative of literary history can adequately describe the complexities of the texts themselves—or the complicated narratives of race, gender, sexuality, ability (and more) they engage. After all, ancient epic persists into “modernity” and conflicted inner lives—Chaucer’s Wife of Bath or Margery Kempe’s autobiographical portrait—crop up in apparently “medieval” texts. Which is to say that in this course, we learn from old ways of structuring English literature while devising new ones of our own. Pasquale Toscano.

This course satisfies the pre-1800 requirement for the English major.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS