ENG 223-01 - The Tradition of English Literature I

4 credits (Spring)

This course will approach the medieval and early modern periods through the conceptual lens of monstrosity. Taking a capacious understanding of the term, we will consider various literary monsters, including supernatural creatures, wounded Christs, and leaky women. Together, we will discuss how monstrosity provokes feelings of anxiety, fear, and even desire while gaining familiarity with the periods’ representative forms: the epic, the sonnet, the lyric, and drama. Through introductory readings in the Norton anthology and excerpts from archival material, students will also gain an understanding of the period’s central cultural developments: the solidification of the English nation, the rise of Humanist thought and rhetoric, the Protestant reformation, and the Scientific Revolution. Texts may include The Grinnell Beowulf, Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, Julian of Norwich’s A Book of Showings, Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queen, and William Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

Prerequisite: ENG 120 or ENG 121 for majors; for non-majors, ENG 120 or ENG 121 or any course in the study of literature in another language department.
Instructor: Biggie