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LITR222

Course Summary

The lecture materials and readings for this week are intended to introduce you to the beginnings of English literature and to provide some background of the history and culture of England from the Anglo-Saxon period to the Middle English Period. The literature is intertwined with the culture, so it is important for you to understand what was happening during this time in order for you to understand how literature influenced and affected the culture and vice versa.

Course : LITR222

Title : Pivotal Figures in Early British Literature Length of Course : 8

Credit Hours: 3

Course Scope:

Join us on a journey through a thousand years of British history, beginning in an Anglo-Saxon mead hall with a couple of characters named Beowulf and Grendel and even a dragon. From there we’ll go on a pilgrimage to Canterbury with the Good Wife of Bath, ride alongside Arthur’s knights, sit at Queen Elizabeth’s feet, get up close and personal with Satan, ride a slave-ship to the new world, debate the state of Ireland, and hear some words of wisdom from Samuel Johnson.

It will be quite a ride, so it’s important that you hang on tight.

Week 1: In The Beginning Learning Objectives:

• discuss Anglo-Saxon authors and works.
• discuss cultural environment surrounding texts.
• discuss the use of literary elements, styles, and movements in readings.

Reading(s):

Cademon’s Hymn

The Dream of the Rood

Beowulf

Assignment(s):

Week 1 Discussion

Week 2: Middle English Literature Learning Objectives:

• discuss Middle English authors and works
• discuss cultural environment surrounding texts
• discuss the use of literary elements, styles, and movements in reading

Reading(s):

Canterbury Tales http://sites.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/teachslf/tr-index.htm Assignment(s):

Week 2 Discussion

Week 3: Malory, Elizabeth, & Spenser

Learning Objectives:

• discuss Elizabethan authors and works.
• discuss cultural environment surrounding texts.

• discuss the use of literary elements, styles, and movements in readings. explore the similarities and differences between two texts, then write a compare and contrast essay.

Reading(s):

Morte D’Arthur http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/Mal2Mor.html Morte D’Arthur Books 20 & 21 Vol. 2  Queen Elizabeth

¥ The Faerie Queen Book I

Assignment(s):

Week 3 Discussion Essay 1

Week 4: Metaphysical Poets Learning Objectives:

• discuss Metaphysical authors and works.
• discuss cultural environment surrounding texts.
• discuss the use of literary elements, styles, and movements in readings.

Reading(s):

George Herbert “Redemption” “Easter”

“Easter Wings”

John Donne

“The Flea”

Song (“Go and catch a falling star”)
Song (“Sweetest love, I do not go”)

“Love’s Alchemy”

“The Apparition”

“A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”

Robert Herrick

“The Argument of His Book”

“His Farewell to Sack”

“Corinna’s Going A-Maying”

“To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time”

Andrew Marvell

“To His Coy Mistress” “The Definition of Love”

Assignment(s):

Week 4 Discussion

Week 5: Milton & Bunyan Learning Objectives:

• discuss Jacobean authors and works.
• discuss cultural environment surrounding texts.
• discuss the use of literary elements, styles, and movements in readings.

Reading(s):

Milton’s Paradise Lost (Books 1 and 9)  John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (1-99) Assignment(s):

Week 5 Discussion

Week 6: Oroonoko Learning Objectives:

• discuss Neoclassical authors and works.
• discuss cultural environment surrounding texts.

• discuss the use of literary elements, styles, and movements in readings. compose an essay in which they recognize examples of religious themes in selected works.

Reading(s):

Aphra Behn’s “Oroonoko” Assignment(s):

Week 6 Discussion

Essay 2

Week 7: Neoclassical Works Learning Objectives:

• discuss Neoclassical authors and works.
• discuss cultural environment surrounding texts.
• discuss the use of literary elements, styles, and movements in readings.

Reading(s):

Edmund Burke, “Speech on Conciliation with America” Samuel Johnson, “Taxation No Tyranny”

Olaudah Equiano, “Interesting Narrative”

Assignment(s): Week 7 Discussion

Week 8: Wrap Up
Learning Objectives:

• demonstrate an understanding of literary genre by rewriting a text in a modern version to include appropriate literary devices.