British Literature 1

This is a reading-intensive survey course that has been designed using a combined workshop, seminar, and lecture model. This means that instruction will consist of hands-on activities, guided writing exercises, discussions, and lectures. Over the semester, you will complete two major research projects—a presentation and a research paper—in addition to discussion board writing assignments, reading quizzes, a midterm exam, and a cumulative final exam. Readings in this course cover the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Restoration, but we will only be able to engage a small sample of texts produced during this time frame. In selecting between the many texts we could read, I have chosen authors and stories that have traditionally been considered part of the  Western "literary cannon" to give us an opportunity to interrogate the cannon's relevance, or lack thereof, for us in our particular time and place today. As we study the literature of the three periods, it will be helpful for us to reflect on the following questions: 

1. Why should or shouldn't we continue to study this text? 

2. What relevance does this text have for us today? 

3. What influence does this text have on contemporary media (i.e. literature, television, film, music, etc.), or where to you find echoes of this text today?