Lit in English to 1660

This course will introduce you to some of the significant
works and writers of English literature through the the Restoration Period
(1660-1700), with particular attention to the linguistic, historical, cultural,
and biographical contexts of this older literature as well as its most
important literary modes and forms: 
epic, lyric and narrative poetry, drama. Writers will include the
Beowulf and Pearl poets, Chaucer, Christopher Marlowe, Spenser, Shakespeare,
Ben Jonson, John Donne, and John Milton. Lectures on the works and their
contexts will be combined with discussion of questions posed by this instructor
and class members, both in class and electronically. Some work will be done in
small groups as well, and each group will report on an important medieval,
sixteenth-, or seventeenth-century writer or work that is not part of the
required reading–for example, Majorie Kempe, Thomas More’s UTOPIA, or Thomas
Hobbes’s LEVIATHAN.  

Attendance                              5%

Electronic class discussion     10%

Group report                            5%

Medieval exam                        15%

Sixteenth-century
exam           15%

First comparison paper            15%

Second comparison
paper       15%

Final
exam                                20%

Extra Credit                              Up to an additional
5 course grade                                                      points


Course requirements

  • Attendance
    (5%)
  • Electronic
    class discussion (10%)
  • Group
    Report (10%)
  • Three
    exams (medieval, 16thC, 17thC) 
    (45%)
  • Two
    comparison papers (30%)
  • Extra
    credit projects (up to 5 extra course grade points)


Required Text:  Norton Anthology of English Literature,
Volume 1