ENG 223-01 - The Tradition of English Literature I

4 credits (Spring)

This class surveys the “greatest hits” of British literature from its inception to the mid-seventeenth century, Beowulf to Paradise Lost. These are the formative years for England as a nation as well as literature as a category, and the class will outline the ways these two concepts are related, and even help to create each other. In particular, we will track the motif of “the encounter,” as the fledgling British literature attempted to solidify a national tradition in dialogue with the many changes rocking the island country, including colonial expansion, scientific shifts, religious and political upheaval, and the discovery of ancient texts. So often this literature stages a charged scene of encounter which highlights the precarity of individual and national identity, from Beowulf and Grendel to Prospero and Caliban to Milton’s Adam and his not-quite-mirror Eve. We pay special attention to the way genre structures these encounters, from the epic poem to the chivalric romance to the sonnet. Students can expect short writing assignments keyed to a particular skill in literary analysis, as well as a midterm and a final essay.

Prerequisite: ENG 120 or ENG 121 for majors; for non-majors, ENG 120 or ENG 121 or third-year standing.
Instructor: Likert