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 2019/20a: Love, Labor, & Loss: Romance and Gender in Early British Literature: This course introduces students to British poetry, drama, and prose from the middle ages through the eighteenth century—a wide swath of historical territory, indeed. To ground our discussions, we will explore texts that deal with themes of romance, love, courtship, sex, and marriage. From the bawdy farce of Chaucer’s “The Miller’s Tale” to the murderous tragedy of Shakespeare’s Othello, our attention will focus on both careful close reading—attending to formal nuances of genre and style—as well as ideologies of gender, sexuality, race, religion, and nationality. Canonical authors may include Spenser, Sidney, Donne, Milton, Pope, Dryden, Swift, and Richardson, to be read alongside female writers such as Aphra Behn, Anne Finch, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, and Mary Wollstonecraft. Talia Vestri.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS