ENG303: Introduction to British Literature I (4 credit hours) | TF 11:00-12:15
Prof. Cyrus Mulready | mulreadc@newpaltz.edu| Office Phone: 845-257-2739
Office Hours: Tuesdays 12:30-3, and Wednesdays 12:30-2:00 in JFT 220
Description:
Although popularly cast as the “Dark Ages,” the medieval period has long provided some of the richest artistic materials for adaptation in the Western tradition. In British literature and culture, poets, novelists, film makers, game designers, and other storytellers have returned repeatedly to stories of heroic knights, unfathomable monsters, quests to distant lands, and other familiar tropes of the period’s literature. This course will explore perhaps the oldest building blocks of British storytelling and literate culture, from King Arthur to Game of Thrones. What do these stories teach us about the societies that produced them? How do our ideas of the medieval past reflect our values, both in the past and today? Throughout the course, we will practice skills of literary analysis, critical writing, and research. Course requirements include critical writing and research exercises, group projects, class participation, unit exams, and a semester-long capstone project.
Course Materials:
Required:
Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey (Oxford University Press), ISBN: 9780199535545
J.R.R. Tolkien, Sir Gawain & Green Knight, Pearl, Sir Orfeo (Ballantine Books) ISBN: 9780345277602
Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene (Bk 1) (Hackett) ISBN: 9780872208070
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit (Houghton Mifflin Company), ISBN: 054792822X
William Shakespeare, Henry V (Folger Shakespeare) ISBN: 07434848789
MLA Handbook, 8th Edition ISBN: 9781603292627