ENGL 330
British Literary History I

1. Catalog Entry

ENGL 330. British Literary History I
Three hours lecture (3).

Prerequisites: Completion of English general education requirements.

The course traces British literary history from its origins until the end of the seventeenth century. Focusing on significant literary works and authors, it examines the literary genres, periods, and traditions that shaped a national literature in early Britain.

2. Detailed Description of Content of Course

This course provides English majors a solid foundation in the development of British literature from its beginnings until the end of the seventeenth century. To this end, students will read a wide range of representative primary texts composed during these centuries. They may also read historical, biographical, and cultural sources to clarify the forces that helped shape individual texts, writers, traditions, genres, and literary periods throughout the early development of British literature.

3. Detailed Description of Conduct of Course

ENGL 330 uses a wide variety of instructional strategies which may include any number of the following: lecture; discussion; web-enhanced instruction; collaborative group work; individual or group student reports to elucidate primary texts or pertinent historical, biographical and cultural contexts; individual or group student creative presentations on course material; informal writing activities such as in-class focused writing exercises, readers’ logs, journals or discussion questions; audio-visual resources on literary works and authors as well as pertinent contexts; library instructional workshops to reinforce students’ information literacy and knowledge of resources available; peer writing groups on drafts of essays; individual or group conferences with the instructor on drafts of essays.

4. Goals and Objectives of Course

The fundamental goal of this course is to provide students with an overview of the origin and development of the British literary tradition from its beginnings until the end of the seventeenth century, thereby building a solid foundation for more advanced, more intensive, more in-depth study of specific literary periods, particular individual authors, and significant literary movements in earlier British literature. To that end, students who have successfully completed this course will be able to:

• identify and discuss significant works and authors in British literature from its beginnings until the end of the seventeenth century;
• identify and discuss significant developments, trends and movements in British literature from its beginnings to the end of the seventeenth century;
• identify and discuss the interrelationships between literary works and between authors, in particular the influence of literary works or authors on subsequent works and authors;
• identify and discuss some of the central thematic and aesthetic concerns of the centuries covered, with particular attention to literary periods and the development of literary genres;
• identify and discuss some of the stylistic qualities of the literary works examined in the course;
• identify and use a number of literary critical strategies in analyzing literary works;
• explain how an awareness of literary history affects the understanding and interpretation of a literary work;
• place literary works and authors in their precise historical and cultural contexts
• explain the relationship between a particular text and its historical and literary contexts;
• access electronic and printed sources pertinent to the study of the works and authors examined in the course.

5. Assessment Measures

ENGL 330 uses a variety of assessment measures, which may include a number of the following:

• informal writing activities such as readers’ logs, journals and discussion questions;
• in-class student oral presentations and recitations;
• reading quizzes and examinations on the assigned readings;
• in-class or take-home essay examinations on the assigned readings;
• researched or non-researched essays on the literary works and authors examined in the course;
• research project and/or final essay focused on a single work or several works examined in the course;
• short critical essays examining individual literary works within an historical, biographical, cultural or literary context;
• short critical essays using specific literary strategies to analyze a literary work;
• short critical essays to analyze the formal qualities of particular literary works;
• short imaginative/creative pieces that imitate a literary work or style or that extend or revise the point of view of a literary work.

6. Other Course Information

NONE

7. Review and Approval