Fulfills Distribution Course in Arts & Letters

In this course we will trace the early history of English narrative literature from the heroic masterpiece of Anglo-Saxon England, Beowulf, to Milton's salvation epic, Paradise Lost. Topics will include the following: gender and courtly love, codes of honor and political values, the invention of national literary traditions, he relationship between genre and history, and literary conventions of religious piety. In addition to Beowulf and Paradise Lost, readings will include Chretien de Troyes, Arthurian Romances, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde, Sir Thomas Nalory, Le Morte Darthur, and Sir Philip Sidney's, The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia. Requirements: weekly response papers and a final exam.