British Literary Traditions (210-1-01)

Instructors

Helen Thompson

Meeting Info

University Hall 101: Tues, Thurs 11:00AM - 12:20PM

Overview of class

This class surveys major texts in the development of English literature from the epic Beowulf (c. 750 - 950) to Olaudah Equiano's Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African (1788). A central goal of the class is to develop tools for approaching literary texts as creative expressions as well as challenging reflections on society, power, knowledge, and difference. The millennium-long sweep of English 210 will help us approach literature not as escapist leisure but as social thought expressed in new representational modes. We will pay special attention to the role of transoceanic travel, exploitation, and mercantile capitalist trade in the development of English literary forms. At a time of unprecedented encounters with other peoples and places, how did English literary forms represent—and contest—these new realities?

Class Materials (Required)

Required Texts

Aphra Behn, Oroonoko: or, The Royal Slave. Ed. Joanna Lipking. Norton Critical Edition. ISBN: 978-0393970142
Beowulf, A Verse Translation, trans. Seamus Heaney. Ed. Daniel Donoghue. Second Norton Critical Edition (2019). ISBN: 978-0393938371
Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales. Ed. V. A. Kolve and Glending Olson. Third Norton Critical Edition (2018). ISBN: 978-1324000563
Thomas More, Utopia. Ed. George M. Logan. Third Norton Critical Edition (2011). ISBN: 978-0393932461
William Shakespeare, The Tempest. Ed. Peter Hulme and William H. Sherman. Second Norton Critical Edition (2019). ISBN: 978-0393265422

Class Attributes

Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area

Associated Classes

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