English Literature I

Catalog description

This course explores the development of literary forms and themes by major and minor authors within the changing social, political, and economic contexts of English literature, stretching from the 7th-9th c. when Christians from Rome brought written language and recorded the centuries-old oral epic poem "Beowulf," through to the French Revolution at the end of the 18th c. which stirred passionate arguments by increasingly diverse writers for the humanity, rationality, and political enfranchisement of enslaved Africans, women, and working-class men, out of which grew contemporary discourses regarding democracy and human rights. Prerequisite: Engl 111.