British Literature:

WEEK 1

June 23: Introduction

Required Reading:

  -  None for this class

Lecture Outline:

  -  Course Syllabus and Assignments

  -  English Literature: An Introduction

June 25: Old English Literature

Required Reading:

  -  The Dream of the Rood (8th to 9th C)

  -  The Wanderer (9th to 10th C)

Lecture Outline:

  -  Old English Literature: An Introduction

Week 2

June 30: Middle English Literature

Required Reading:

  -  Geoffrey Chaucer, "Truth" (1380-87)

Lecture Outline: 

  -  Middle English Literature: An Introduction

July 2: Middle English Literature (Chaucer)

Required Reading:

  -  Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales ("The General Prologue") (PDF) (1387-1400)

Lecture Outline: 

  -  On Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

Week 3

July 7: Elizabethan Sonnets (Sidney)

Required Reading:

  -  Sir Philip Sidney, from Astrophil and Stella (1580's) (Sonnet #1, #2, #5, #20, #28, #52, #71, #72 and Second Song)

Lecture Outline:

  -  Renaissance Literature: An Introduction

  -  Elizabethan Sonnets: Sidney and Spenser

July 9: Elizabethan Sonnets (Spenser)

Required Reading:

  -  Edmund Spenser, from Amoretti (1595) (Sonnet #1, #34, #54, #65, #67 and #75)

Lecture Outline:

  -  Elizabethan Sonnets: Sidney and Spenser

Week 4

July 14: Shakespeare's Sonnets

Required Reading:

  -  William Shakespeare, from Sonnets (1609) (Sonnet #1, #3, #12, #15, #17, #18, #19, #29, #55, #65, #129 and #130)

Lecture Outline:

  -  On Time in Shakespeare's Sonnets 

July 16: Shakespearean Drama

Required Reading:

  -  None for this class

Lecture Outline:

  -  Shakespearean Drama: An Introduction

Week 5

July 21: Shakespearean Drama

Required Reading:

  -  William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra (1607)

Lecture Outline:

  -  On Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra

July 23: Shakespearean Drama 

Required Reading:

  -  William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra (1607)

Lecture Outline:

  -  On Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra

Week 6

July 28: Miltonic Epic

Required Reading:

  -  John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book I (1674)

Lecture Outlines:

  -  On Milton's Paradise Lost: Books I and II

July 30: Miltonic Epic

Required Reading:

  -  John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book IV and Book IX (1674)

Lecture Outlines:

  -  On Milton's Paradise Lost: Books III to VI

  -  On Milton's Paradise Lost: Books VII to XII