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Eras of English
Course leader:
Dr Bill Angus
One term: 15 units
Who came first, Jane Austen or William Shakespeare? What is an epic? Why were no plays performed in public in England in 1645? Did Romanticism impact on Modernism or vice versa? Simple enough questions once you have a basic overview of the development of literature in English, and of British culture and political / social history: which is precisely what this introductory course is designed to provide.
The principal learning outcome from the course is the acquisition of a historical perspective on how and why a ‘canon’ of different kinds of literary text has been established since the emergence of the earliest forms of English as a language. The course also provides an overall temporal and historical framework into which you’ll be able to locate the authors, texts, and movements you will encounter when you go to take other courses on the English major programmes. By the end, you should be able to account for the rise of different literary genres and recurrent themes in literature with reference to the main historical phases of national development. You’ll also be familiar with a whole range of extracts of original or translated literary texts and be encouraged them to begin analysing and discussing their linguistic and ‘literary’ properties.
The topics we’ll cover week by week are:
- the beginnings: Old English / Anglo Saxon literature 450-1066
- the rise of English: medieval literature 1066-1509
- Renaissance and reformation: literature 1510-1603
- Revolution and Restoration: Literature 1603
- an Augustan Empire: eighteenth century literature
- Romanticism abroad: literature 1780-1837
- the reign of Victoria: literature 1838-1901
- modernist writing, 1900-1945
- contemporary writing, 1945-present
Set texts for study include:
- Alexander, M. A history of English literature (2nd ed., Basingstoke: Palgrave Foundations, 2007). ISBN: 978-0-230-00723-9.
- Carter, R., J. McRae & M.Bradbury (intro.). The Routledge history of literature in English (2nd ed., London: Routledge, 2001). ISBN: 0-415-24318-1.
- Johnson, S. The History of Rasselas (1759).