Fall Semester 2004
12-047 
History of English Literature
MWF  10am
Taught by Brother Anthony (An Sonjae) in English.

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.



Detailed Course Description

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.

August 30 Week 1
Introduction to the history of English Literature
Reading : The Middle Ages pages 1 - 33 (Old English period)  Beowulf

September 6 Week 2
Chaucer
Reading : The Middle Ages pages 123 - 149
Work : Chaucer, The General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales (Extracts)

September 13 Week 3
Chaucer
Work: The Nun’s Priest’s Tale

September 20 Week 4
The Renaissance
Reading : The Renaissance 61 - 101
Renaissance Sonnets: Sidney, Astrophel and Stella (extracts)

September 27 Week 5 (no class Monday and Wednesday, Chusok)
Renaissance poetry
Shakespeare, Sonnets

October 4 Week 6
Shakespeare
Reading :  The Renaissance pages 103 - 129
Drama before Shakespeare : Christopher Marlowe

October 11 Week 7
Drama: Shakespeare and Ben Jonson

 Week 8: Mid-term Exams

October 25 Week 9
17th-century Poetry (1) Donne and Jonson
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,' .

November 1 Week 10 - November 8 Week 11
17th-century Poetry (2) Herbert, Marvell, Milton
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'. John Milton 'L'Allegro' and 'Il Penseroso,' 'Paradise Lost'

Novermber 15 Week 12 - November 22 Week 13
18th Century :  Nature and Society
Works : Ann Finch 'Nocturnal Reverie'. Thomson's The Seasons: from 'Autumn'. Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.  Oliver Goldsmith 'The Deserted Village'. George Crabbe The Village Book 1.

 November 29 Week 14
18th Century : The Novel
A survey of the early history of the novel

December 9 Week 15
Final Exams begin Thursday



Reports

1.  Midterm:  (due on the Monday after the Midterm Exams) Write an illustrated account of the main developments in English history and culture between the years 1000 and 1600 (Norman Conquest, Magna Carta, Black Death, Peasants’ Revolt, Wars of the Roses, development of printing, Renaissance and Reformation, Elizabethan Era, Armada), with notes on 8 of the most significant works or writers of English and European literature in that period. The illustrations (xeroxed from books or copied from the Internet) should show buildings, paintings, books, objects from each of the centuries, especially explaining the difference between manuscript and printed book. Some pictures should also show the difference in buildings and clothing between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance periods. Use a binder with transparent pockets. The captions to each picture should be short and hand-written.
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2.  Final:  (due on the Monday after the Final Exams) Write an illustrated account of the main developments in English history and culture between the years 1600 and 1800 (Shakespeare’s theatre, Stuart England, the Civil War, the Commonwealth, the Restoration, the Glorious Revolution, Whigs and Tories, Walpole, the origins of the novel, the Industrial Revolution, the French Revolution, William Blake, ‘Lyrical Ballads.’) Also, write a 3-page essay on the differences between the ways Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.  Oliver Goldsmith 'The Deserted Village'. George Crabbe The Village Book 1 portray rural life.

Any parts of your papers which are taken from books or from the Internet MUST be indicated by quotation marks and a clear indication of the source.

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.