spring 2013
ENG-1110 Introduction to British Studies - 10 ECTS

Type of course

This course may be taken as a singular course.

Course content

The British Studies syllabus will be organized into two to three week blocks which focus on particular historical periods and investigate specific literary and cultural texts and genres within those periods. Each section of the course will examine the development of a particular genre (namely, the sonnet, the pastoral and the novel) and expository texts which explore the social, political, and aesthetic tensions of each period. The course will introduce the student to the techniques of close textual reading of literary and cultural texts in British literature; develop an appreciation of the historical and literary conditions under which texts are produced; examine the development of specific genres within historical time periods; and ask the student to write essays about the texts on the reading list using the vocabulary and strategies of literary study.

Objectives of the course

Knowledge and understanding:
- some knowledge of the history and society of the British Isles in different historical periods
- understanding of the interplay between culture and literature in British history and culture
- insight into the main formal and thematic characteristics of literary genres
- in-depth knowledge of individual texts of the period

Skills:
- familiarity with a diversity of texts and genres of British Literature
- proficiency in close reading, analysis, and interpretation of literature
- to be able to write persuasively and effectively in academic English

Language of instruction and examination

English.

Teaching methods

The course will meet for four hours (two hours lecture and two hours discussion section) each week during 13 teaching weeks of the semester. Please see Fronter for specific details. Any course changes in meeting times will be announced on Fronter and study questions and discussion material will be available on Fronter or at the course meetings.

Assessment

Each student must successfully pass two written work requirements.

The course mark is solely determined by a six-hour school exam at the end of the course, but no student can sit the school exam until they have passed both work requirements.

Recommended reading/syllabus

The Norton Anthology of English Literature (Two volumes, 9th edition)

William Shakespeare: Hamlet (The New Cambridge Shakespeare)

Charlotte Brontë: Jane Eyre (Penguin Classics)

Sheridan Le Fanu: Carmilla

Virginia Woolf: Orlando (Oxford World's Classics)

Error rendering component

  • About the course
  • Campus: |
  • ECTS: 10
  • Course code: ENG-1110
  • Earlier years and semesters for this topic