History of British literature before 1900 15-HLBP1-NA-12

(First semester of a two semester course. Continued as 15-HLBP1-NA-22 in the second semester.)

The course is devoted to the presentation of the texts and contexts of the history of English literature from medieval to the Victorian period. The course commences with Old English poetry, continues through the Middle English period with Geoffrey Chaucer’s medieval encyclopedia of genres The Canterbury Tales, and looks at religious and secular (romance) literary traditions. Next, we study the history of drama and the theater in the Late medieval and Renaissance period, as well as renaissance humanism in poetry. The literary works written during the Puritan Period and the Restoration offer two different approaches to reality, both religious and secular, thus they offer an insight into the seventeenth century culture. The Age of Reason, or Augustan literature, Romantic and finally Victorian literature are presented through the works of their major representatives.

This version of the course (for some specializations) includes classes only (no lectures).