The History of English-Language Literature

Course unit code

45.03.02 Linguistics

Course unit title

The History of English-Language Literature

Name(s), surname(s) and title of lecturer(s)

Peter J. Mitchell, senior lecturer, Department of English Philology

Level of course

Bachelor’s  degree

Semester

5

ECTS credits

2

Working hours

Contact hours

36

Lectures

12

Seminars

22

Practical classes

0

Consultations

2

Self-study

36

Total

72

Work placement

Variational part of the general academic cycle

Prerequisites

English language skills at upper-intermediate level

Language of instruction

English

Objectives of the course

Learning outcomes

A student’s assessments methods

To gain understanding of the history and development of English-language literature from its early beginnings to the end of the 19^th century;

To understand the contemporaneous and lasting influences of writers on society and, conversely, the influence of history and society on key English-language writers as authors.

At the end of the course, the students shall be able to engage in academic discourse on the history and development of English-language literature.

Formative assessment: oral presentations, discussions.

Summative attestation: project (50%) and exam (50%).

Teaching methods

Lectures, discussions, presentations, project work

Course unit content

Old English and Middle English: The beginnings of literature in England – the first written pieces of work, their importance in creating an “English” identity and setting a trend for future writing

16th and 17th Centuries: Early Modern English, the coming together of a truly “English” literature, combining poetry, plays, religious texts, histories and philosophy, the Age of Enlightenment

18th and 19th Centuries: Modern English, Sentimentalism, Romanticism, Realism, Aestheticism

The beginnings of American literature in colonial times – how it began, how it set the foundation for future writing

The emergence of an American national literature – how and why it developed, how Americans saw themselves and wrote about themselves

The American Renaissance – the dichotomy between the Frontier (Wild West) and New England (East Coast), the Transcendentalists, the Boston Brahmins

The Civil War, the “Gilded Age” – reflections on American society and identity

Course objective – To gain understanding of the history and development of English-language literature from its early beginnings to the end of the 19th century;

To understand the contemporaneous and lasting influences of writers on society and, conversely, the influence of history and society on key English-language writers as authors.

Gained knowledge and skills:

1. General cultural competencies:

• Understanding the history of “English” identity
• Understanding the development of “English/British” identity
• Understanding the history of “American” identity
• Understanding the development of “American” identity
• Acquiring skills of sociocultural and intercultural communication

2. Professional competencies:

• Understanding the reasons behind the development of English-language literature in the British isles and United States of America.

List of Topics

Topic title

Contact hours

Assignments and independent study hours

Old English and Middle English 1: The beginnings of literature in England – the first written pieces of work, their importance in creating an “English” identity and setting a trend for future writing

Caedmon – Hymn (late 7th century)

Unknown – Beowulf (circa 700-1000)

John Wyclif – The Bible (1395)

2

4

Old English and Middle English 2: The beginnings of literature in England – the first written pieces of work, their importance in creating an “English” identity and setting a trend for future writing

William Langland – Piers Plowman (c. 1360-1380)

Geoffrey Chaucer – The Canterbury Tales (c. 1380)

John Gower – Confessio Amantis (c. 1390)

2

4

16th and 17th Centuries 1: Early Modern English, the coming together of a truly “English” literature (poetry and plays)

Thomas Wyatt – various sonnets

Christopher Marlowe – Edward II (1593)

William Shakespeare – Romeo and Juliet (1594-95)

2

4

16th and 17th Centuries 2: Early Modern English, the coming together of a truly “English” literature (identity and religious texts)

Francis Bacon – Essays (1597)

James I – The King James Bible (1611)

2

4

16th and 17th Centuries 3: Early Modern English, the coming together of a truly “English” literature (histories, philosophy, and the Age of Enlightenment)

Samuel Pepys – Diary (1660-69)

John Milton – Paradise Lost (1667)

John Locke – Two Treatises of Government (1689)

2

4

18th and 19th Centuries 1: Modern English

Samuel Johnson – A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)

2

4

18th and 19th Centuries 2: Sentimentalism

Jane Austen – Sense and Sensibility (1811)

Charlotte Bronte – Jane Eyre (1847)

2

4

18th and 19th Centuries 3: Romanticism

Robert Burns – various poems

William Wordsworth – The Prelude (1799-1805)

2

4

18th and 19th Centuries 4: Romanticism

John Keats – Ode on a Grecian Urn (1818)

Lord Byron – Don Juan (1818-24)

Sir Walter Scott – Ivanhoe (1819)

2

4

18th and 19th Centuries 5: Realism

Charles Dickens – Oliver Twist (1837-38)

George Eliot – Middlemarch (1871-72)

2

4

18th and 19th Centuries 6: Aestheticism

Oscar Wilde – The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

2

4

The beginnings of American literature in colonial times – how it began, how it set the foundation for future writing

Thomas Hariot – Briefe and True Report of the New-Found Land of Virginia (1588)

Captain John Smith – Description of New England (1616)

John Winthrop – The History of New England (1630)

Cotton Mather – Magnalia Christi Americana (1702)

2

4

The emergence of an American national literature 1: How and why it developed, how Americans saw themselves and wrote about themselves

Benjamin Franklin – Autobiography (1771)

Thomas Jefferson – Declaration of Independence (1776)

2

4

The emergence of an American national literature 2: How and why it developed, how Americans saw themselves and wrote about themselves

J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur – Letters from an American Farmer (1782)

Washington Irving – A History of New York, by Diedrich Knickerbocker (1809)

James Fenimore Cooper – The Last of the Mohicans (1826)

2

4

The American Renaissance – the dichotomy between the Frontier (Wild West) and New England (East Coast), the Transcendentalists, the Boston Brahmins

Ralph Waldo Emerson – Nature (1836), The American Scholar (1837), Self-Reliance (1841)

Henry David Thoreau – Civil Disobedience (1849), Walden (1854)

Nathaniel Hawthorne – Celestial Railroad (1843)

Herman Melville – Moby-Dick (1851)

Edgar Allan Poe – The Raven (1845)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – A Psalm of Life (1838), Excelsior (1842)

2

4

The Civil War, the “Gilded Age” – reflections on American society and identity 1

Walt Whitman – Leaves of Grass (1892)

Harriet Beecher Stowe – Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)

Mark Twain – The Innocents Abroad (1869), The Gilded Age (1873), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)

2

4

The Civil War, the “Gilded Age” – reflections on American society and identity 2

Henry James – The Portrait of a Lady (1881), The Ambassadors (1903)

Henry Adams – Democracy (1880), The Education of Henry Adams (1907)

Jack London – The Call of the Wild (1903), The Sea-Wolf (1904)

Lincoln Steffens – Shame of the Cities (1904)

Robert Herrick – The Common Lot (1904)

2

4

Assessment requirements

1. Attendance of not less than 80% of classes; 2. Presentation on an approved topic. 

Assessment criteria

Demonstration of knowledge of the subject area, ability to discuss the subject at an appropriate level, quality of presentation.

The composition of final accumulative mark

Project (written) – 50%, Examination (oral) – 50%.

Author of the course

Peter J. Mitchell, senior lecturer