The History of British Literature Course 4101-3ZHLBO
TOPIC AREAS
1. From Old English to the Restoration period
OE heroic epic in verse; OE society: values and beliefs; epic convention: primary and OE versification: alliteration and kennings; Early Middle English (ME) conventions: allegory and romance; the Arthurian Cycle, Alliterative Revival; Medieval drama: origins and differences: Miracle, Mystery, Morality Plays and Interludes; Medieval literature: Geoffrey Chaucer and his contribution to the development of English versification; Renaissance (I): changes in philosophy and aesthetics, Tudor and Elizabethan drama (Interludes, University Wits), development of comedy and tragedy; Renaissance (II): William Shakespeare the dramatist, and his tragic hero; Renaissance (III): The English sonnet vs Petrarchan sonnet, the sonneteers: Thomas Wyatt,
Philip Sidney, Edmund Spencer, William Shakespeare; Renaissance (IV): prose of the Elizabethan period;
Metaphysical poetry vs Cavalier poetry; Puritans' approach to literature: John Milton; Restoration period: satire and comedy of manners.
2. From the rise of the novel to the Late Victorian period
Novel as discourse: socio-cultural shaping factors and literary antecedents; Typology of the 18th century novel; aspects of the structure (Laurence Sterne); Development of the novel at the turn of the 18th century: sentimental, Gothic, historical; Jane Austen and the modern psychological novel; Romanticism (1): William Blake and the Lake Poets (William Wordsworth, Samuel T. Coleridge); Romanticism (2): the second generation of Romantic poets (John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, George Gordon Byron); Victorian novel (1): periodisation (Early and Late Victorian Period); Charlotte and Emily Bronte; the Romantic vs the Victorian; Victorian novel (2): Utilitarian philosophy; Victorian values; the Great Tradition of the 19th century novel (Charles Dickens) Victorian poetry: themes - death, relationship to God, the passage of time; Alfred Tennyson and Robert Browning; Late Victorian Period: breakdown of Victorian standards; "Gay Nineties" and the Aesthetic Movement (Oscar Wilde); Pessimism, determinism and emotional despair (Thomas Hardy); new concepts in poetry (Gerard Manley Hopkins).
3. British literature of the 20th century
Poetry of World War I: "War poets" Wilfred Owen and Isaak Rosenberg; new attitude to war ("the horror of war"); Modernism in the novel (1): reaction against representational (mimetic) function of literature; Joseph Conrad ? the narrative voice and the focal character; Modernism in the novel (2): stream of consiousness and interior monologue (James Joyce), experimental psychological novel (Virginia Woolf); Modernism in poetry: Imagism, Symbolism ? the later poetry of William Butler Yeats; The novel of ideas: utopia and anti-utopia from the turn of the 19th century to the 1950s (H.G.Wells, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell); Drama of the 1950s and the 1960s: the 'Angry Young Men' movement (John Osborne); the theatre of the absurd and the comedy of menace (Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter); Postmodernist novel (the 1960s onwards) (John Fowles, Martin Amis, Ian McEwan); Postmodernist drama: postmodern topics and tactics in the British drama- language games (Tom Stoppard); poetry in the postmodern world: concrete poetry, 'Martian school'; exploration of the
nation's past, individuality and culture in "bog poetry" (Seamus Heaney).
Type of course
obligatory courses
Learning outcomes
KNOWLEDGE: THE GRADUATE KNOWS AND UNDERSTANDS
K_W01 the basic facts, theories, processes and phenomena relating to history of British literature, which have practical application in English language teaching at pre-school and the first and second stages of education (P6S_WG Scope and depth)
K_W02 selected study areas relevant to British literature, which have practical application in English language teaching (P6S_WG Scope and depth)
K_W03 the basic terminology covering literary studies and British literature relevant to English language teaching (P6S_WG Scope and depth)
SKILLS: THE GRADUATE IS ABLE TO
K_U01 search, analyse, evaluate, select and use information using a variety of sources and methods (P6S_UW The application of knowledge/problems solved and activities performed)
K_U16 conduct an argument using the views of other authors and formulate conclusions (P6S_UK Communication/ constructing and receiving messages, propagation of knowledge in the academic environment, foreign language use)
K_U19 prepare oral presentations, in Polish and English for specific purposes, using basic theoretical approaches, as well as a variety of sources (P6S_UK Communication/ constructing and receiving messages, propagation of knowledge in the academic environment, foreign language use)
SOCIAL COMPETENCES: THE GRADUATE IS PREPARED TO
K_K02 reflect on the level of their skills and knowledge, constantly develop professionally and personally, self-assess their competences, improve their skills, plan their development and training (P6S_KK Assessment/critical approach)
K_K04 take responsibility for the promotion and preservation of the cultural heritage of the region, country, Europe and multilingualism and multiculturalism related to various ethnic groups living in Great Britain (P6S_KO Responsibility/fulfilling social obligations and acting for the public good)
K_K06 interact and work in a group, performing various roles (P6S_KR Professional role/ autonomy/development of the ethos)
Bibliography
Abrams, M. H., (ed), The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vols. 1-2, W. W. Norton & Company, 1993.
Baldick, Ch., The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, OUP, Oxford, 1991.
Burgess, A, English Literature, Longman, Harlow,1990.
Cuddon, J. A., A Dictionary of Literary Terms, Penguin Books, London & New York, 1982.
Durant, A. & Fabb, N., Literary Studies in Action, Routledge, London & New York, 1990.
Easthope, A., Poetry as Discourse, Routledge, London & New York, 1983.
Ford, D. (ed), The New Pelican Guide to English Literature, Vols 1-9, Penguin Books, London & New York, 1990.
Gower, R., Past into Present: An Anthology of British and American Literature, Longman Harlow, 1990.
Montgomery, M. et al, Ways of Reading: Advanced Reading Skills for Students of English Literature, Routledge, London & New York, 1992.
Mrozowska, H., Adventure for the Reader: Teaching Texts to Students of English Literature, WSiP, Warszawa, 1998.
Pope, R., Textual Intervention: Critical and Creative Strategies for Literary Studies, Routledge, London & New York, 1995.
Toolan, M. J., Narrative: A Critical Linguistic Introduction, Routledge, London & New York, 1991.
Watt, I., The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding, Penguin Books, London & New York, 1976.
Zgorzelski, A., Lectures on British Literature: A Historical Survey Course, Parts 1-3, Wydawnictwo Gdańskie, Gdańsk, 1999.
Additional information
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