This course covers major American writers of the 20th century after the beginning of World War I including writers from both the modern and postmodern periods. Some writers covered include Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Faulkner, Steinbeck, and Bellow. A study of medieval poetry and drama with major emphasis on Chaucer's works. Some attention given to Middle English language. A study of selected comedies and dramatic romances of Shakespeare.
Some attention is given to the development of comedy in England.
Selected authors include Crashaw, Donne, Herbert, Marvell, Vaughan, and Milton, with special emphasis placed on the major works of Milton. A course in the interpretation and criticism of selected modern masters of poetry, British and American, from Yeats to Heaney, with the emphasis on poetry as an art. The poets selected may vary at the discretion of the instructor. Emphasis is upon contemporary writers. Emphasis is placed upon individual research.