Major I: A-Literature Pre-1500

Literature, Pre-1500 courses focus on writings produced from the Anglo-Saxon to late medieval periods to foster familiarity with key works in British and American literary history.  Literary history illustrates how literary works reflect, address, and resist the social and political environments in which they are produced as well as other works that have preceded them.  The study of early periods in particular sensitizes readers to historical transformations of the language itself.


Laskaya, C. Anne

This course offers students an exploration of a narrative genre that eventually gives rise to the novel, to fantasy literature, and even to science fiction... (read more)


Bayless, Martha

This is a course in learning to read and understand Old English, the language of the Anglo-Saxons (the English between 449 and 1066).  We will read some riddles and a wisdom text that tells you everything a tenth-century English warrior or devout maiden needed to know, and in addition learn a... (read more)


Clark, Stephanie

This course explores 4 texts produced by the three major cultures inhabiting the British Isles in the early Middle Ages: the Táin bo Culainge for the Irish; the Saga of the Volsungs (written in Iceland) for the Danes; and Genesis and Beowulf for the Anglo-... (read more)


Laskaya, C. Anne

ENG 427 invites students to engage selections from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Texts will include the more familiar comedic tales, like the Miller’s Tale but also the less familiar elegiacphilosophic, beast fable and several highly problematic tales, like the ... (read more)


Clark, Stephanie

ENG 428/528 is a course in learning to read and understand Old English, the language of the Anglo-Saxons (the English between the years 449 and 1066). We will concentrate on language basics, creating a firm foundation for reading Old English literature in later courses, and enabling you to... (read more)


Laskaya, C. Anne

This course will examine the General Prologue and a number of  Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, along with a few texts from which Chaucer borrowed and which exerted considerable influence on his work. We will also read a few important scholarly interpre- tations, exploring the arguments of scholars... (read more)