Handbook

This course charts a roughly chronological path through the tradition of literature in English from the Renaissance to the twentieth-first century. As we move through the term, you will become familiar with some of the most significant periods and movements in English literary history, immerse yourself in the work of some amazing writers and learn many of the critical tools you need to read, analyse, and understand literature. As the course title implies, one of the themes that we will encounter along the way is the idea of “reading” itself: what special practices of reading do we cultivate as students of literature, where did these practices come from and how is the way we read changing and evolving today - as a result, for instance, of changes in the media landscape? Like other English subjects, one of the aims of this course is to help you sharpen your critical reading skills. But it is also one of our assumptions that reading and studying the history of literature in English is the single best way to become a better writer.