History of British and American Literature

Teaching Schedule10 weeks for History of British Literature;

6 weeks for History of American Literature.

Chapter 1 Early and Medieval English Literature Chapter 2 English Literature of the Renaissance Chapter 3 English Literature of the 17th Century Chapter 4 English Literature of the 18th Century Chapter 5 English Literature of the Romantic Period (I) Chapter 6 English Literature of the Romantic Period (II) Chapter 7 English Literature of the Victorian Age Chapter 8 English Literature at the Turn of the 20th Century

Chapter 9 English Literature Between the Two World Wars Chapter 10 English Literature after the Second World War Chapter 11 Early American Literature Chapter 12 American Romanticism (I) Chapter 13 American Romanticism (II) Chapter 14 American Literature of the Realism (I) Chapter 15 American Literature of the Realism (II) Chapter 16 American Literature of the 20th Century

Goal:2 long novels,5-6 short ones recite 5-6 poems, 2 book reports.Requirements: 1、Class Attendance; 2、Finish assignments on time; 3、Read as widely as possible, and do some further research.

Teaching Ideas1、Class time : History Review; Literature reading; class talking; oral presentations; 2、After class: Further reading and writing; 3、Make use of library and Internet.

Suggested Reading List

Hamlet--- by William Shakespeare Sonnet 18 --- by William Shakespeare Of Studies --- by Francis Bacon Robinson Crusoe --- by Daniel Defoe Gulliver’s Travels ---by William Blake A Red, Red Rose ---by Robert Burns I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud ---by William Wordsworth Kubla Khan ---by Samuel Coleridge Ode to the West Wind --- by Percy Bysshe Shelley Ode on a Grecian Urn --- by John Keats Pride and Prejudice --- by Jane Austen Oliver Twist ---by Charles Dickens Great Expectations --- by Charles Dickens Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy Sons and Lovers --- D. H. Lawrence

Autobiography --- by Benjamin Franklin The Scarlet Letter --- by Nathaniel Hawthorne Uncle Tom’s Cabin --- by Harriet Beecher Stowe The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn --- by Mark Twain Sister Carrie --- Theodore Dreiser A Farewell to Arms --- Ernest Hemingway The Great Gatsby --- F. Scott Fitzgerald The Road Not Taken --- Robert Lee Frost The Sound and the Fury --- William Faulkner

1 The Making of EnglandI . The BritonsCelts: the original inhabitants

II. The Roman Conquest55 B. C. , 78 A. D. Julius Caesar

Roman civilizationRoman occupation: about 400 years

410 A. D.

III. The Anglo-Saxon Conquest(The English Conquest) around 449Angles, Saxons, Jutes

By the 7th century, England was established.Language: Anglo-Saxon (Old English), a branch of theGermanic language family

Social structure: from tribal society to feudalism

2. Beowulf

I. National epic– Beowulf is a part of the epic tradition like Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey, and Virgil’s Aeneid – It is the national epic of the Anglo-Saxons. – It is concerned with human values and moral choices. – The epic poet also functions as a historian, blending past, present, and future in a unique, all-encompassing way.

II. StoryMajor characters: – Beowulf – Grendel – Grendel’ mother – Firedrake

In the poem, Beowulf, a hero of the Geats in Scandinavia, comes to the aid of Hrothgar, the king of the Danes, whose mead hall (in Heorot) has been under attack by a monster known as Grendel. After Beowulf slays him, Grendel’s mother attacks the hall and is then also defeated. Victorious, Beowulf goes home to Geatland in Sweden and later becomes king of the Geats.

After a period of fifty years has passed, Beowulf defeats a dragon, but is fatally wounded in the battle. After his death, his attendants bury him in a tumulus, a burial mound, in Geatland. According to his will, the mound became a beacon for the seafarers who sailed along the coast. The poem ends with praises of the great deeds of the hero, who was “the mildest and most beloved, to his kin the kindest, keenest”.

III. The structureThe poem can be divided into three parts: The fight against Grendel The fight against Grendel's mother

The fight against the fire dragon

Grendel

Beowulf fights against Grendel

Beowulf fights against Grendel’s Mother

Fire Dragon