ENGL 311: History of Storytelling I: Beowulf to 18th C British Literature

Course Description

A survey of some of the essential and influential texts that have helped ground our English literary heritage, this course covers literature from 700 to 1800, from its beginnings in Beowulf through the Middle Ages Renaissance, Restoration, and Eighteenth-Century. Authors may include Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, Queen Elizabeth I, Webster, Milton, Behn, Swift, Pope, and Austen. We will explore a variety of genres including epic poetry, love lyric, drama, satire, early novels, and gothic poetry, and investigate recurring themes, such as the voyage/quest, gender and marriage, spirituality, community, colonialism, and the nature of literary creation. We will pay particular attention to continuities that link writers to their predecessors and successors against changing social and intellectual backgrounds. (YR).