12 - 047
History of British Culture / Literature
Brother Anthony (An Sonjae)
Fall Semester 2006
Monday, Wednesday, Friday 14:00
This course is designed to give
students a deeper understanding
of the historical origins and the development of the literature written
in England. Usually the Monday and Wednesday classes will focus on the
society and histroical events of the period, the Friday class will be
spent looking at the poems etc set for the week.
The
main text book (available from the University Bookstore) will be :
An
Illustrated History of Britain by David McDowall (Longman, 1989).
Students must also have a copy of History of English Literature Through Poetry (available in the first week of class)
Grading: The two
Reports and the two Exams (midterm and final) will have equal
value.
If you
have questions you may write
emails to Brother Anthony or visit him in his office (X109)
There are many Internet resources available. See my page of links.
Class topics and linked materials
Page numbers refer to "An Illustrated History of Britain"
Works with underlined titles are found in "History of English Literature Through Poetry"
Week
1 Introduction A map of Britain An outline of Britain
Week 2
(Pages 1 - 33) Early history, Celtic, Roman Britain Stonehenge
(+ in English Heritage),
(BBC) Roman Britain,
The Romans in
Britain, Roman
roads, Hadrian’s
Wall, Roman
Bath. Roman
London. Anglo-Saxons, Vikings,
Old English literature: The Wanderer, Beowulf
Week
3 (Pages 34 - 65) Medieval England:
The Norman Conquest... Bayeux
Tapestry Part : 18, Magna Carta, Canterbury
Cathedral 1, Westminster
Abbey,
Medieval literature: The Troubadors, King Arthur and the Round Table, The Grail, Dante, Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, The Canterbury Tales
Week
4 (Pages 67 - 85) Renaissance and
Reformation, Tudor England
Thomas More: Utopia
Week
5 Elizabethan England
Sonnets by Shakespeare
Week
6 (No classes Tuesday, Thursday, Friday) Shakespeare: Hamlet (video)
Week
7 Hamlet (video)
Week
8 Mid-term Exams
Week
9 (Pages 87 - 129) The 17th Century: Tradition and Revolution
John Donne 'Song', 'The Sun Rising', 'A
Valediction Forbidding Mourning', 'Batter My Heart';.
George Herbert 'The Pulley', 'The Altar', 'Easter Wings', 'Love 3' etc. John Milton 'Il Penseroso'
Week 10 The 18th Century: Satire and Sensitivity
Alexander Pope, Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady. Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.
Week 11 Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice (video)
Week
12 (Pages 131 - 150) 19th-century
Britain : Industry, Empire, Progress
Poems: Wordsworth, Tintern Abbey; Keats, To Autumn, Ode on a Grecian Urn; Robert Browning, Home-Thoughts; Gerard Manley Hopkins, God's Grandeur.
Fiction: a brief survey of 19th-century novels
Week
13 (Pages 151 - 184) The history of the 20th-century
Wilfred Owen, Anthem for Doomed Youth, Strange Meeting. T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.
Week 14
The culture / literature of Britain today
Week
15 Final Exams
Assignments : Each student will prepare two
illustrated reports:
The first report
will be a discussion of what you think Shakespeare's Hamlet
is about and why it is so popular. It will be accompanied by a few
pages (combining pictures and your own text) evoking the Elizabethan
Age in which Shakespeare's Hamlet was written.
(The first
report will be due at the first class after Mid-term Exams)
The second report will be
a descriptive survey of one major aspect of British society and culture
in its development through history until today. (eg one of the following: Parliament, the monarchy, the education system, health care, sport, art, music, architecture . . .)
(The second report will be submitted by the Tuesday after the end of the Final Exam)
