Course Description
Chronological survey of major works of British Literature from the late 18th century (about 1800) to the Modern Period.
This course is devoted to the study and understanding of major British literary works produced after 1800 and their social and cultural contexts. During the semester, our focus will often be on the extraordinary variety of major genres, literary modes, and forms of British literature. We will also examine each age listed in the modules as an era of political, cultural, and literary revolution. Our work on each era will include writers and their philosophical affinities and sensibilities, as well as a variety of novelists and poets who addressed crucial contemporary issues, such as the revolution of the class structure, the crisis in religion, and the effects of industrialization of their time.
The approach to this class will be at times interdisciplinary, demonstrating the ways in which artists dramatized some of the issues poets and novelists examined. We will often examine the relationship of literature to the visual arts. Throughout the semester, one of our primary goals will be to understand the influence of British writers on our ways of thinking, particularly on their relevance to our lives and our own culture.
Purpose: The purpose of this course is to teach students to read, understand, and appreciate the British literature available from 1800 to approximately 2000.
Method of Instruction: This course will be presented in modules. Within each module will be a series of lecture pages, tests, writing assignments, and discussions.
Course Credits: 3
Prerequisites: ENGL 1301 - Freshman Composition I and ENGL 1302 – Freshman Composition II and/or their equivalents at some other institution of higher learning. (Students cannot take 1302 and 2323 simultaneously and will be dropped from 2323 if the prerequisite has not been met).
Student Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Demonstrate awareness of the scope and variety of works in the arts and humanities in general, but in British Literature after 1800 in particular.
- Demonstrate an understanding of those works as expressions of individual and human values within an historical and social context and respond critically by articulating an informed personal reaction to those works.
- Demonstrate an appreciation for the aesthetic principles that guide or govern the humanities and arts as presented in this course.
- Demonstrate their knowledge of the reading process: responding to and interpreting what is read, responding to a range of texts of varying complexity and difficulty.
- Demonstrate knowledge of, and uses for, an extensive range of literature.
- Critical Thinking Skills: Students will draw well-reasoned, logically supported conclusions from information provided within the course. Students will demonstrate the ability to engage in creative thinking, innovation, inquiry and analysis, evaluation, and synthesis of information.
- Communication Skills: Students will demonstrate effective written, oral, and visual communication skills.
- Social Responsibility: Students will demonstrate intercultural competence, civic responsibility, and the ability to engage effectively in regional, national, and global communities.
- Personal Responsibility: Students will be able to connect choices, actions, and consequences to ethical decision-making.