LBB AN128 K1 History of English Literature I.
2010 Autumn
Dr. Dolmányos Péter
Lectures
Schedule
Lecture Block 1. (24 Sept. 2010, 11.30 – 13.45)
- From Anglo-Saxon to Renaissance: an Overview of English History and
Literature. Contexts for Medieval and Renaissance literature
- Anglo-Saxon Literature – Pagan and/or Christian. Middle English Literature.
The Alliterative Revival. Early Humanism: Geoffrey Chaucer
Lecture Block 2. (19 Nov. 2010, 11.30 – 13.45)
- The Development of English Drama from Mediaeval to Renaissance. The
University Wits: Classical and Native Traditions.
- The Elizabethan World: Worldview and Aesthetics.
- English Poetry in the 16th Century
Lecture Block 3. (10 Dec. 20109, 14.15 – 16.30)
- The Shakespearean Comedy. The Chronicle Plays: Shakespearean History.
- The Shakespearean Tragedy. The Shakespearean Romance.
- Renaissance Drama Besides Shakespeare. Conclusions
Required Readings for the Examination:
Longer works:
Beowulf
Pearl; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales -- General Prologue, The Knight’s Tale, The Nun’s
Priest’s Tale, The Pardoner’s Tale
Everyman
Thomas More: Utopia
Thomas Kyd: The Spanish Tragedy.
Christopher Marlowe: Doctor Faustus
William Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Richard III; Hamlet; Othello;
Macbeth; The Tempest
Ben Jonson: Volpone.
Shorter works:
The Wanderer, The Seafarer, The Dream of the Rood
Sir Thomas Wyatt: ’The Long Love That in My Thought Doth Harbour’; ’Farewell, Love’
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey: ’Love, That Doth Reign and Live Within My Thought’;
’The Soote Season’
Sir Philip Sidney: Astrophil and Stella /selections/
Edmund Spenser: Amoretti /selections/
William Shakespeare: Sonnets 18, 60, 73, 129
Criticism:
Required:
1. Baugh, A. /ed/ A Literary History of England.
2. Daiches, D. A Critical History of English Literature. London: Mandarin, 1994 /1969/ rel.
chapters
LBB AN128 K1 History of English Literature I.
2010 Autumn
Dr. Dolmányos Péter
Lectures
Recommended:
1. Ford, B. /ed./ Medieval Literature. The New Pelican Guide to English Literature. Vol.1.
Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1984
2. Ford, B. /ed./ The Age of Shakespeare. The New Pelican Guide to English Literature.
Vol.2. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1984
3. Bolton, W. F. /ed./ The Middle Ages. The Penguin History of Literature. Vol. 1.
Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1993 /1986/
4. Ricks, C. /ed./ English Poetry and Prose 1540-1674. The Penguin History of Literature.
Vol. 2. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1993 /1986/
5. Ricks, C. /ed./ English Drama to 1710. The Penguin History of Literature. Vol. 3.
Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1993 /1987/
6. Introductory chapters of The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol. 1. New York:
W. W. Norton, 1993 /sixth edition/
7. Wells, S. /ed./ The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge
Univ. Press, 1986
8. Pearsall, D. The Canterbury Tales. 1985
9. Penguin Critical Studies series – Chaucer, Marlow, Shakespeare
10. The New Penguin Shakespeare series /good introductions and notes/
11. Boyce, C. The Wordsworth Dictionary of Shakespeare. Wordsworth Reference. Ware:
Wordsworth Editions, 1996 /1990/
12.Cook, W.R., Herzman, R.B. The Medieval World View. New York/Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1983
Description:
The series of lectures attempts to provide an overview of the major trends and directions in
the Anglo-Saxon, Middle English and Renaissance periods in the context of the respective
social and cultural developments, paying attention to the history of the English language and
the role of literacy and art in the medieval and renaissance approaches to life. Special
emphasis is laid on the works of Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare.
Important:
The lecture course is followed by an examination. Attendance is not compulsory but highly
recommended as examination questions are based on the cardinal issues tackled by the
lectures. Emphasis will be put on the required readings: a set of questions checking the
readings will also be employed.