Fall 2005

E 316K • Masterworks of Literature: British (32770-32835)

Course Description

This course is intended to provide an overview of British literature from the Anglo-Saxons to the present. During the semester we will examine briefly the historical and intellectual contexts of the works on the reading list and compare the ways in which particular ideas and genres appear in various literary periods. The course is also intended to offer students experience in reading literary works closely and informedly.

Grading Policy

Five quizzes 20%
Two tests 20% each
Final 20%
Discussion section work 20%

Texts

Dream of the Rood, Battle of Maldon
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Shakespeare, Henry IV, part 1
Milton, Paradise Lost, Books I, II, IX, and XII
Lillo, The London Merchant
Pope, The Rape of the Lock
Swift, selections from Gulliver's Travels
Johnson, the Preface to Shakespeare
Wordsworth, Preface to The Lyrical Ballads
Keats, selected poems
Shelley, Mary, Frankenstein
Tennyson, selected poems
Browning, selected poems
Eliot, selected poems and essays
Beckett, Happy Days

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