This course mainly surveys the poetry (with some mention of fiction and drama) written in England before Romanticism (1789). It will include study of the main aspects of English social and political history, which form the background reflected in the literary works. The main text-books will be the Norton Anthology of English Literature Volume 1 (seventh edition) and Brother Anthony's books on Literature in English Society : (1) The Middle Ages and (2)The Renaissance (Sogang University Press). All students are expected to have access to the World Wide Web and to know how to explore it for useful resources. Brother Anthony's Home Page offers a list of some of the main sites for medieval, renaissance and 18th-century literature and culture.

Students should read the following pages in the two volumes by Brother Anthony, focusing on the writers and works listed, as preparation for class. The Norton Anthology will provide the full text of the works we study.

September 3 Week 1
Old English Literature
Reading : The Middle Ages pages 1 - 33.
Work : Beowulf

September 10 Week 2
Chaucer
Reading : The Middle Ages pages 123 - 149
Work : Chaucer, The General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales

September 17 Week 3
Chaucer
Work: Chaucer, The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale

September 24 Week 4
The Renaissance : Sidney and Spenser
Reading : The Renaissance 61 - 101
Works : Renaissance Sonnets, Sidney, Astrophel and Stella

October 1 Week 5 (No class Thursday)
Shakespeare, Sonnets

October 8 Week 6
Shakespeare
Reading :  The Renaissance pages 103 - 129
Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing (video)

October 15 Week 7
Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing

October 22 Week 8: Mid-term Exams

October 29 Week 9
17th-century Poetry (1)
Reading : The Renaissance pages 177 - 178 (society), 189 - 234 (Donne & Jonson),
Works : John Donne 'Song', 'The Sun Rising', 'Batter My Heart';  'A Valediction Forbidding Mourning'; etc. Ben Jonson 'On my First Daughter',  'On my First Son', 'To Celia,' 'To Penshurst'.

November 5 Week 10 - November 12 Week 11
17th-century Poetry (2)
Reading : The Renaissance pages 178 - 187 (society) 253 -263 (Herbert), 294 - 301 (Marvell), 303 - 325 (Milton)
Works : George Herbert 'The Pulley', 'The Altar', 'Easter Wings', 'Love 3' etc. Andrew Marvell 'To His Coy Mistress'. George Herrick 'To the Virgins'. John Milton 'L'Allegro' and 'Il Penseroso,' 'Paradise Lost'

Novermber 19 Week 12
18th Century :  Nature
Works : Ann Finch 'Nocturnal Reverie'. Thomson's The Seasons: from 'Autumn'. Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. William Collins 'Ode to Evening'. Oliver Goldsmith 'The Deserted Village'. George Crabbe The Village Book 1.

November 26 Week 13 - December 3 Week 14
18th Century : Men & Women
Works : Alexander Pope Epistle to a Lady. Anne Ingram An Epistle to Mr. Pope. Mary Leapor An Essay on Women. Hogarth's Marriage a la Mode. Daniel Defoe Moll Flanders and Roxana (extracts). Women in early novels.

December 10 Week 15
Final Exams begin Thursday

1. A Midterm Essay (due on the Monday after the Mid-term Exam) about one of the works studied in class
.
2.  A Final Essay  (due on the Monday after the Final Exams) on the various works listed under one of the broad topics studied in the 2nd half of the semester.
Students will illustrate their two reports with a few well-chosen pictures copied from books in the library or from the Internet (with a Bibliography)

Grading

Grading will be based on the 2 reports and the result of the Mid-term and Final Exams, which will test students' detailed knowledge of what has been taught. Reports and exams are of equal weight.