Course Descriptions

ENG 201 - Early British Literature

3 Credits

The first of a two-part survey of English-language literature written in and around what is now known as the United Kingdom. This course examines texts from ca 800-1785, paying close, critical attention to inherited literary traditions and the ways writing informs identity and vice versa. Approaching the traditional canon with an eye toward representational equity, inclusion, and social justice, students will consider questions of power, privilege, oppression, and opportunity as they read texts written in a region where multiple entities have struggled for control. Possible texts include Headley's 21st century translation of Beowulf, Shakespeare’s Othello and its adaptations, Behn’s abolitionist novel Oroonoko, feminist utopias, early travel and medical literature, Swift’s social satire, and Hogarth’s illustrated class commentaries.

Prerequisite(s): English 101 with a C or better, or placement into English 200, or instructor permission.

New SUNY General Education: SUNY - Diversity: Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice, SUNY - Humanities

Retiring SUNY General Education: SUNY-H - Humanities (SHUM)

MCC General Education: MCC-AH - Arts and Humanities (MAH)

Course Learning Outcomes
1. Interpret British literature written from the 10th century to the late 18th Century as part of a complex network of social structures, systems, and movements that have been and continue to be responsible for the creation and perpetuation of the dynamics of power, privilege, oppression, and opportunity 
2. Analyze the ways British literature represents and contributes to the development of individual, group, and cultural identities, including colonial and post-colonial identities
3. Analyze how historically marginalized writers living under British imperial rule have used writing as an act of socio-political resistance and to enact social justice
4. Interpret British literature using critical lenses that include, but are not restricted to, race, ethnicity, class, LGBTQ+, and disability perspectives.
5. Compose arguments supported by primary and secondary sources that connect principles of social justice to the authorship/writing of British Literature and/or that connect principles of social justice to the students' act of studying and writing about British literature.

Course Offered Fall

Use links below to see if this course is offered:
Fall Semester 2024
Intersession 2025
Spring Semester 2025