ENGL 250 - Medieval and Early Modern British Literature: Masculinity and Monstrosity

FDR: HL
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Winter 2014

Prerequisite: Completion of FW requirement. This course is a survey of English literature from the Early Middle Ages to the Early Modern period. We read works in various genres–verse, drama, and prose–and understand their specific cultural and historical contexts. We also examine select modern film adaptations of canonical works as part of the evolving history of critical reception.

Winter 2014 emphasis: Masculinity and Monstrosity. This course is a survey of English literature from the Early Middle Ages to the Early Modern period. We read works in various genres–verse, drama, and prose–and understand their specific cultural and historical contexts. Our particular focus is on the diverse conceptions and representations of masculinity and monstrosity in texts such as Beowulf, Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Shakespeare’s King Lear, Spenser’s Faerie Queene, and Milton’s Paradise Lost. Can heroic, courtly, or spiritual masculinity exist without monstrosity? And how does female masculinity or male femininity navigate the monstrous and the normative? We also examine select modern film adaptations of canonical works as part of the evolving history of critical reception. (HL) Kao.