ENG-1110 Introduction to British Studies - 10 stp

Institutt for kultur og litteratur

This course may be taken as a singular course.

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.

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

English.

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. Lecture notes and power-point presentations will not appear on Fronter.

Each student must successfully pass two written work requirements. These will be written in class. Therefore, attendance for two weeks of the semester is mandatory.

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.

one written 21.05.2012

The date for the exam can be changed. The final date will be announced at your faculty early in May and early in November.

Many of the primary texts are available either in The Norton Anthology of English Literature (Two volume, 8th edition), which can be purchased in the bookstore. Most of the early material in the Course, that is Weeks 1-4, is available on line or material will be placed on Fronter. We suggest you buy Volume II of the Norton Anthology of English Literature only ISBN-10: 0393925323 or ISBN-13: 978-0393925326.

Other required texts that should be purchased are:
William Shakespeare, Macbeth, edited Roma Gill Oxford School Shakespeare, (ISBN-0198321465)
Charlotte Brontë Jane Eyre (Penguin Classics) ISBN-10: 0141441143
ISBN-13: 978-0141441146
Ian McEwan, Saturday ISBN-10: 0141439742 ISBN-13: 978-0141439747

Required Secondary Text:
The English Handbook, A Guide to Literary Studies. William Whitla, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.