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English Literature from the Beginnings to 1700 (Honors)


Course Description

Writers typically include the Beowulf poet, Gawain poet, Chaucer, Spenser, Sidney, Marlowe, Donne, Jonson, Shakespeare, and Milton.


Athena Title

English Lit from Beg to 1700 H


Equivalent Courses

Not open to students with credit in ENGL 2310, ENGL 2310E, ENGL 2310W


Prerequisite

(ENGL 1102 or ENGL 1102E or ENGL 1103) and permission of Honors


Semester Course Offered

Offered fall and spring


Grading System

A - F (Traditional)


Course Objectives

Course objectives: At the end of the course, which is designed to familiarize the students with representative texts of major English writers from the Beowulf poet to 1700, students, having read a substantial body of literature, will be able to discuss the assigned works (orally and in writing) with a considerable degree of critical sophistication, to reread them with pleasure, to read and enjoy other works from the period, and to converse with fellow students about texts and issues related to the subject matter of the course.


Topical Outline

Topical outline: The choice and sequence of topics will vary from instructor to instructor and semester to semester. The topics will consist of selected works by various authors, to be read outside of class and discussed in class, examined individually and comparatively in the context of the times and the circumstances of their composition. Periodically during the semester, students will perform a number of graded tasks, including some combination of tests and out-of-class papers. A possible series of readings might resemble this: Beowulf Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales: "The General Prologue," "The Miller's Tale," "The Wife of Bath's Tale" Sir Thomas Malory, Morte Darthur: selected readings Sir Thomas More, Utopia: selected readings William Shakespeare, Sonnets; The Tempest John Donne, selected readings John Milton, Paradise Lost: selected readings


General Education Core

CORE IV: Humanities and the Arts

Syllabus