Course Title: History of British Literature

Course Duration: 14 weeks, 3 hours per week

Overall Goal: To explore the major movements in British literature, examining how they reflect cultural shifts, philosophical changes, and societal challenges from the Romantic period to the present day.

Week 1: The Emergence of Romanticism
Topics: Transition from Enlightenment rationality to Romantic emotionalism, early Romantic themes of nature and the sublime.
Suggested Readings: The Tyger and The Lamb by William Blake, Preface to Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge.
Discussion Questions: What marks the shift from Enlightenment to Romanticism? How do Blake’s poems reflect the dual nature of humanity?

Week 2: The First Generation of Romantics
Topics: Wordsworth’s and Coleridge’s contributions to Romantic poetry, the power of imagination and memory.
Suggested Readings: Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey by Wordsworth and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge.
Discussion Questions: How do Wordsworth’s ideas of nature challenge traditional views of poetry? How does Coleridge blend the supernatural with realism?

Week 3: The Byronic Hero and Romantic Radicalism
Topics: The Byronic hero, political radicalism in Shelley’s work, and Keats’ exploration of mortality.
Suggested Readings: She Walks in Beauty by Byron, Ode to the West Wind by Shelley, Ode to a Nightingale by Keats.
Discussion Questions: What defines the Byronic hero, and how does he challenge societal norms? How does Shelley use nature as a force of revolution?

Week 4: The Gothic and the Rise of the Novel
Topics: The Gothic tradition and its influence on Romantic novels, critique of scientific ambition in Frankenstein, and social and gender critique in Brontë’s works.
Suggested Readings: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.
Discussion Questions: How does Frankenstein critique Enlightenment ideals? In what ways do the Brontë sisters challenge Victorian gender roles?

Week 5: Victorian Poetics: Tennyson and Browning
Topics: Victorian poetry’s engagement with societal change and moral questions.
Suggested Readings: Ulysses and The Lady of Shalott by Tennyson, My Last Duchess and Porphyria’s Lover by Browning.
Discussion Questions: How does Tennyson’s Ulysses reflect Victorian ideals of perseverance and self-reliance? What psychological complexities emerge in Browning’s dramatic monologues?

Week 6: Realism and Social Critique in Victorian Fiction
Topics: Realism as a response to romantic idealism, class struggle, and gender dynamics in Dickens and Eliot.
Suggested Readings: Hard Times by Charles Dickens, Middlemarch by George Eliot.
Discussion Questions: How does Dickens portray industrial hardships in Hard Times? In what ways does Eliot critique Victorian gender roles?

Week 7: Aestheticism and the Art for Art’s Sake Movement
Topics: Wilde’s critique of Victorian morality through aestheticism and decadence.
Suggested Readings: The Picture of Dorian Grey and The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde.
Discussion Questions: How does Wilde use Dorian Grey to challenge Victorian hypocrisy? What role does aestheticism play in the moral dilemmas presented in Wilde’s works?

Week 8: Modernist Breakthrough: Hopkins and Wells
Topics: Literary experimentation, the rise of dystopian fiction, and the search for new forms of expression.
Suggested Readings: God’s Grandeur by Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells.
Discussion Questions: How does Hopkins’ poetry break from traditional forms? How does Wells’ The Time Machine challenge concepts of time, technology, and progress?

Week 9: Stream of Consciousness: Joyce and Woolf
Topics: Fragmented narrative techniques and inner consciousness in modernist writing.
Suggested Readings: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf.
Discussion Questions: How do Joyce and Woolf use stream of consciousness to explore modern identity? How do their works reflect the fragmented nature of the self?

Week 10: T.S. Eliot and the Crisis of Meaning
Topics: Alienation, fragmentation, and existential disillusionment in modernist poetry.
Suggested Readings: The Waste Land and The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot.
Discussion Questions: How does Eliot depict the crisis of meaning in modern life? In what ways does The Waste Land reflect the fragmented nature of the modern world?

Week 11: The Rise of Postmodernism
Topics: Postmodern literary techniques and the breakdown of traditional narrative forms.
Suggested Readings: The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles.
Discussion Questions: How does Fowles' novel play with historical and narrative conventions? What makes it a quintessential postmodern text?

Week 12: Feminism and Postcolonialism in Contemporary Literature
Topics: The intersection of feminism and postcolonial critique in literature.
Suggested Readings: The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing, Possession by A.S. Byatt.
Discussion Questions: How do Lessing and Byatt address the complexities of gender and colonial history in their works? How do their characters navigate social and historical forces?

Week 13: Contemporary British Literature and Globalization
Topics: The effects of globalisation on British literature, the blending of cultural identities.
Suggested Readings: White Noise by Don DeLillo.
Discussion Questions: How does DeLillo critique the effects of media and consumer culture on identity? In what ways does globalisation influence the characters’ lives?

Week 14: The Future of British Literature
Topics: Evolving literary trends and the future direction of British literature in the 21st century.
Suggested Readings: Selected contemporary short stories or essays.
Discussion Questions: What are the emerging themes in contemporary British literature? How do current issues shape the literature of today?