Course Description
This course examines how social contexts and literary traditions helped to shape the poetry, fiction, and drama produced in Britain after 1800.  Some of the specific issues addressed include the expression of individual and national identity through literature; the construction of gender roles in literature; the relationship of nature to the individual; the clash between “progress” and traditional beliefs; and the possibility of a more global and multicultural British literature.  Ultimately, the course will provide students with a broad background in British literature for more specialized study in the future.

Required Texts
Damrosch, David et al, eds.  The Longman Anthology of British Literature, Vol. 2.  New York:  Longman, 1999. (3-book set)
Austen, Jane.  Persuasion.  1818.  Harmondsworth:  Penguin, 1998.  (Packaged with anthology)
Joyce, James.  A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.  1914-15.  Harmondsworth:  Penguin, 1993.