A Survey of British Literature: Beowulf and Beyond
Begin with very birth of the English language and journey through the 20th Century. Beowulf, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, the Romantics, Dickens, T.S. Eliot, Yeats, Tolkien, and many more poets, authors, and philosophers will be our guides. We will dive into a treasure trove of poetry, plays, novels, short stories, and essays. We will practice reading a text closely and analytically, discuss our ideas, and learn how to write critical essays.
Oh, and we will also laugh, cry (maybe), and just have a great time.
Classes will meet Wednesdays from 10:30 to 11:55.
Titles and Authors we will cover this year:
Anglo Saxon Literature Beowulf
Middle English Literature Excerpts from The Canterbury Tales - Chaucer Works by Julian of Norwich Works by Sir Thomas Malory
16th Century Literature Excerpts from The English Bible Works by Elizabeth I Excerpts from The Fairie Queen - Edmund Spenser Sonnets - Shakespeare Macbeth
Early 17th Century Literature Holy Sonnets - John Donne Works from Ben Jonson Works from George Herbert Works from Robert Herrick Works from Katherine Philips Works from Andrew Marvell Excerpts from Areopagitica and Paradise Lost - John Milton
The Restoration and the 18th Century Works by John Dryden Excerpts from Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift Works by Alexander Pope Works by Samuel Johnson Works by Thomas Gray Excerpts from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (former slave) - Olaudah Equiano
The Romantic Period "The Rights of Woman" - Anna Letitia Barbauld Excerpts from Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience - William Blake Works by Robert Burns "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" - Mary Wollstonecraft Excerpts from The Lyrical Ballads and Sonnets - William Wordsworth "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and "Kubla Khan" - Samuel Taylor Coleridge Works by Lord Byron Works by Percy Bysshe Shelley Works by John Keats
The Victorian Age Works by Elizabeth Barrett Browning "The Lady of Shalott," "The Charge of the Light Brigade," "Crossing the Bar" - Alfred, Lord Tennyson Works by Robert Browning Works by Matthew Arnold Works by Christina Rossetti The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson Works by Rudyard Kipling Works by Charles Dickins
The 20th Century Works by Thomas Hardy "The Second Coming" - William Butler Yeats "Modern Fiction" - Virginia Woolf Works by James Joyce "The Horse Dealer's Daughter," "Why the Novel Matters" - D.H. Lawrence "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," "The Waste Land," "The Hollow Men" - T.S. Eliot Works by W.H. Auden "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" - Dylan Thomas Animal Farm - George Orwell