English 45A

Other Readings and Media

"Chaucer, G.: The Canterbury Tales; Spenser, E.: Edmund Spenser's Poetry; Donne, J.: John Donne's Poetry; Milton, J.: Paradise Lost (all Norton Critical Editions)



Recommended Texts: Davis, N. et al.: A Chaucer Glossary; Abrams, M. H.: A Glossary of Literary Terms "

Description

An introduction to English literary history from the late fourteenth to the late seventeenth centuries, with an emphasis on epic and epic romance. The Canterbury Tales, The Faerie Queene, and Paradise Lost will be our main texts, but we will also look at selected Renaissance lyrics (primarily by John Donne). In addition to the formal and historical issues specific to each text, we will consider the following common threads: tensions between received authority (literary, religious, or political) and experience, challenges to didacticism posed by playful or errant literary form, shifting definitions of place and personhood, and wandering quests of all kinds.