Particular attention will be paid to the following works of major authors of the given period: COURSE PROGRAM AND EXAM TOPICS 1. Old English/Anglo-Saxon Literature (anonymous bards, Caedmon, Beowulf, The Wanderer) Reading: Beowulf, The Wanderer 2. Medieval English Literature(Geoffrey Chaucer, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (15th ct.) Reading: Chaucer: General Prologue, "The Miller's Tale," "The Woman of Bath's Tale," "The Merchant's Tale," "The Pardoner's Tale" (Canterbury Tales, 1400), anon.: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (15th ct.) 3. The Elizabethan Age and Jacobean Era (Edmund Spenser, Walter Raleigh, Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, John Donne, George Herbert, Sir John Suckling) Reading: Twelfth Night (1601-2), Sonnets: 20,116, 129, 130, 138, 144; Spenser: The Faerie Queene: Book 1 (1590), Raleigh: "Answer to Marlowe"; Marlowe: "The Passionate Shepherd to his Love", Jonson: "On My First Son", "Song: To Celia", "My Picture Left in Scotland", Donne, "Song", "The Good Morrow", "The Sun Rising", "Break of Day", "The Flea", "The Bait", "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning", "Elegy 19. Going to Bed", "Holy Sonnets VI and X"; Herbert, "Easter-Wings", "The Collar", "Love (III)"; Suckling: "Song" 5. The Puritan Revolution and John Milton, Andrew Marvell Reading: Milton: Paradise Lost (1667), Marvell: "To His Coy Mistress" 6. The Restoration Period and its Aftermath (William Wycherley - The Country Wife (1675), George Farquhar, John Dryden, Sir George Etherege) Reading: George Farquhar: The Beaux' Stratagem (1707) 7. The Beginnings of the Novel (Daniel Defoe, Samuel Richardson: Pamela (1740), Henry Fielding: Joseph Andrews (1742) Reading: Daniel Defoe: Moll Flanders (1721) 8. Notable Satirists (Alexander Pope, John Gay, Jonathan Swift) Reading: Pope: "The Rape of the Lock" (1712), Swift: Gulliver's Travels (1726) 9. Sentimentalism and Gothic Fiction (Laurence Sterne, Oliver Goldsmith, M.G. Lewis, Horace Walpole, Ann Radcliffe) Reading: Laurence Sterne: Tristram Shandy (1759-1767, Vol. 1-3), Oliver Goldsmith: The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), S.Johnson: Rassellas, Prince of Abyssinia, Matthew Gregory Lewis: The Monk 10. Ladies in Literature(Aphra Behn, Eliza Haywood, Charlotte Lennox, Fanny Burney, Jane Austen -only the juvenilia) Reading: F.Burney: Evelina, J.Austen: Juvenilia (tba) 11. Eighteenth-century Drama (John Gay, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Oliver Goldsmith) Reading: John Gay: The Beggar's Opera (1736) 12. Critical Miscellania (Samuel Johnson, Daniel Defoe, Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift) For each topic you should read at least 1 novel/drama, or 3 short stories/essays, or 10 poems.
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The mandatory course, intended for third-block students, focuses on Anglo-Saxon literature from 700 up to the 18th century. Students will be introduced to the beginnings of Anglo-Saxon literature, including anonymous bards, Beowulf and others. The course proceeds with medieval literature, particularly the work of Chaucer. The next topics are Renaissance poetry and Elizabethan and Jacobean drama. Special attention is devoted to the writings of William Shakespeare. The course further focuses on the Restoration and the following periods. Other topics on the syllabus include the beginnings of the novel, major satirists, Gothic fiction and women in literature.
Students will acquire: - a knowledge of older English literature, - knowledge of primary and secondary sources relevant to the given period, - an understanding of the development of literature and of the main genres in relation to social and cultural changes, - an understanding of the specific character of literary representation, - an understanding of the connections between the past and the present, mediated by literature, - an appreciation for the value of cultural heritage, - knowledge of basic literary terminology and MLA bibliography norms, - greater competence in interpreting literary texts, - greater competence in structuring and writing essays, - improved ability to take part in a scholarly discussion.
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