Welcome to the Course

Welcome to our Spring 2025 semester's version of British Literature to 1800! I e-mailed everyone the syllabus already, but let me know if you have any questions about the basic information. Here is the intro to the class I wrote on the syllabus, which I really feel is important to my approach to the class--finding the modern connections to these now-ancient works (though they often don't sound very ancient at all). 

This course explores the development of British/English literature from its origins in King Arthur and Courtly Love, to Shakespeare’s divine (and divinely obscene) poetry, and finally into the scandalous Eighteenth Century, where literature was beginning to reflect the emerging market of young readers, many of whom (like Austen) also became writers themselves. Despite the distance of time and geography, these works always strike me as shockingly modern, full of characters, conflicts, and conversations which might have tumbled off social media. If you think “hawk tuah” was invented in 2024, wait until you meet Chaucer’s Miller and Wife of Bath! And if you’ve ever watched a Romantic comedy, or are a fan of Bridgerton, you’re definitely indebted to Jane Austen. Everything old is new again in this course, and I look forward to exploring these timeless works with you in the beginning of 2025!

Be sure to get the books of this course, since you will need ALL of them, and yes, we're reading each one (though we won't read the entirety of The Canterbury Tales or all the plays in Sheridan's collection). If you're curious, you can scroll down and see some of the questions and assignments I gave in previous years, though none of them will be the same as I give this year. But this is basically what the blog will look like as we move through the semester.

Take care and see you on Wednesday!