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