Welcome to the Course!

Welcome to British Literature to 1800, for the Fall 2017 semester! This course is a highly subjective seminar that tries to trace the “family history” of English literature from around the 10th century to the early 19th. I like to think of this class as a tour of a great museum: there’s too much to see in one day (or one semester), so we could either rush through and click off each painting (“yes, there’s Shakespeare’s Sonnets, and here’s Pride and Prejudice”), OR we could pick a painting in each room and say, “okay, let’s really sit down and examine this painting.” I’ve chosen six “paintings” for us to read this semester, hoping that our discussions will teach us about the people who wrote them, the time that shaped them, and the legacy of literary criticism that makes these texts relevant in the 21st century. The challenge for the student is to read slowly and attentively, and not be discouraged by works that frustrate our modern notions of what literature is or should be. So whether you are an ardent Anglophile or are racked with metrophobia (fear of poetry), you will find something in this class that moves you, confuses you, inspires you, and intimidates you. Read with an open mind and don’t be afraid to ask questions. 

The books for the class are listed below:

• Anonymous, The Wanderer: Elegies, Epics, Riddles (Penguin)
• Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales (Penguin or other)
• Various, Elizabethan Poetry: An Anthology (Dover)
• Shakespeare, Twelfth Night (Folger or other)
• Johnson, The History of Rasselas (Penguin or other)
• Austen, Mansfield Park (Penguin or other) 

E-mail me with any questions at jgrasso@ecok.edu