ENGL 23052 - Making/Unmaking Britain

Course Credit: 1
Maximum Credit: 0

MAKING/UNMAKING BRITAIN: ENGLISH LITERATURE TO 1800 As a political idea, “Britain” has never coincided with the geographical entity bearing the same name. Instead, it has excluded many of the island’s inhabitants while including some beyond its shores. This course studies how early literature helps to construct and question notions of Britishness. Special attention is paid to Roman, Anglo-Saxon, and Norman conquests; conflicts among England, Wales, and Scotland; colonization of Ireland and, later, farther countries; subordination of groups like women, Jews, Africans, and indigenous peoples; and exclusion of non-humans from ethical consideration. Readings commence with Beowulf (instated as the national epic in the late eighteenth century) and conclude with Phillis Wheatley (the first African to publish English poems). Other featured authors include Marie de France, Spenser, Shakespeare, Katherine Philips, Aphra Behn, and Alexander Pope. [Before 1800]