courses of instruction - Lafayette College

321. Literature of the Middle Ages. A
study of selected major works written
between 700 and 1500, with an emphasis
on those written in English (exclusive of
Chaucer). Among the texts normally in
cluded are Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight, Langland's Piers Plowman,
and Malory's Morte d'Arthur. Some atten
tion is given to continental epic and ro
mance. Prerequisite: English 205, 210, 211,
or 212, or permission of instructor. [W]
Ms. Van Dyke
322. Studies in Renaissance Literature.
The Renaissance is commonly regarded
as the height of Western aesthetic
achievement. This course looks at and
problematizes the "rebirth" of knowl
edge by examining early modern English
literature and culture, with attention to
the effects of humanism, discovery, class,
race, the Reformation, a female monarch,
and civil war. Specific topics vary and
will be announced during the registration
period. Prerequisite: English 205, 210,
211, or 212, or permission of instructor.
[W] Mr. Cefalu, Ms. Donahue, Mr. Smith,
Ms. West/all
323. The Age of Satire. Wit, irony, satire,
burlesque, and farce from Dryden to By
ron, seen against their contexts in eigh
teenth-century social, political, and liter
ary controversy. Readings such as Gulliv
er's Travels and "A Modest Proposal" by
Swift, Pope's "The Rape of the Lock,"
Gay's Beggar's Opera, various burlesques
and farces, Hogarth's satiric engravings,
and portions of Byron's Don ]uan. Pre
requisite: English 205,210,211, or 212, or
permission of instructor. [W] Mr. Woolley
324. Eighteenth-Century Fiction. Comic,
sentimental, and gothic novels from an
age whose pursuit of happiness is marked
by growing psychological awareness and
by changing views on sex, passion, and
marriage. Within such social contexts, the
course assesses the tensions between the
early novel's richly comic realism, its seri
ous indulgence in the cult of feeling, and
its romantic flirtation with the supernatu
ral thriller. Prerequisite: English 205, 210,
ENGLISH
211, or 212, or permission of instructor.
[W] Mr. Woolley
325. London High and Low Life: The
Age of Exuberance. Eighteenth-century
London was the undisputed center of
England's literature, drama, art, architec
ture, music, politics, and wealth. Yet
alongside London's opulence flourished
astonishing crime and corruption. This
rich urban diversity occasionally con
trasted with life in other places is reflect
ed in the course readings: major works by
major authors from the Restoration to the
Regency, with some emphasis on drama.
Prerequisite: English 205, 210,211, or 212,
or permission of instructor. [W] Mr. Woolley
326. The Romantics. A study of English
romanticism that focuses on the poetry of
Blake, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Byron,
Keats, and Percy Shelley and on the prose
of Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley. Pre
requisite: English 205, 210,211, or 212, or
permission of instructor. [W] Ms. Byrd
327. The Victorians. A study of represen
tative poems, essays, and works of fantasy
of the period 1832-1900, focusing on such
authors as Tennyson, Arnold, Carlyle,
Wilde, Carroll, the Brownings, and the
Pre-Raphaelite poets. Prerequisite: English
205, 210, 211, or 212, or permission of in
structor. [W] Ms. Byrd
328. The American Renaissance. An in
tensive study of Poe, Emerson, Thoreau,
Hawthorne, Melville, and Whitman; the
fulfillment of romanticism; and the devel
opment of transcendental idealism in the
middle of the nineteenth century. Pre
requisite: English 205, 210, 211, or 212, or
permission of instructor. [W] Ms. Blake,
Ms. Walls
329. 330. American Decades. An intensive
investigation of a single decade in Ameri
can life, exploring the relationships be
tween and within the several areas of the
American experience as expressed in its
literature and history. In the fall term, a
decade of the eighteenth or nineteenth
century is studied; in the spring term, a
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