Early English Literature

Early English literature finds its first verbal and artistic expression in rhythmic utterances and creative performances that celebrate community, beauty, love and loss. Like all oral poetry, it is a communal art of preservation and celebration,one that orders its rhythms and effects according to metric and structural principles that continue to inspire today. This course attends to the quests of its colorful characters in their historical and cultural contexts. It focuses on the poetic techniques employed by the poets and the effect they have on the reader. Key themes examined include the shifting ethos of power, heroism and community, isolation and domesticity, spiritual and geographical exploration and the expandingspirit of nationalism. Topics such as transgression, alienation and religiousfundamentalism are encountered in romances, laments, ballads, satires, dream-visions and mystical plays.

Fall, Spring, Summer

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