Section outline

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    General

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    Unit 1. Elizabethan Age

    Objectives:

    • To explore key literary texts from the Elizabethan period, including works by Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Spenser.
    • To understand the socio-political and cultural influences of the Elizabethan Age, including the impact of the Renaissance and the Reformation.
    • To analyze the major themes, characters, and forms of Elizabethan drama and poetry.

    Learning Outcomes:

    • Students will be able to identify significant authors and texts from the Elizabethan Age.
    • Students will analyze the representation of power, gender, and religion in Elizabethan literature.
    • Students will develop an understanding of the distinctive features of Elizabethan tragedy, comedy, and poetry.

    Suggested Activities:

    • Discussion Forums: Analyze themes such as political power, love, and betrayal in a Shakespearean play (e.g., Hamlet or Othello).
    • Close Reading Assignment: Focus on a soliloquy from Shakespeare or a sonnet by Edmund Spenser, examining literary devices like metaphor, imagery, and iambic pentameter.
    • Creative Assignment: Rewrite a scene from a Shakespeare play in a modern setting, maintaining the original themes but adapting the dialogue and context.
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    Unit 2. Restoration Age

    This unit focuses on the Restoration period, a significant era in English literature that followed the return of Charles II to the throne in 1660. Marked by the revival of the monarchy, this period saw the resurgence of drama, satire, and a shift toward more secular and worldly themes in literature. Students will examine how political, social, and intellectual changes—such as the rise of rationalism and the rejection of Puritan austerity—shaped literary expression.

    Key authors such as John Dryden, Aphra Behn, and Samuel Pepys will be studied, with particular attention to the revival of theatre, including the development of Restoration comedy. Students will explore Dryden’s heroic plays and Behn’s pioneering role as one of the first professional female writers in English literature. Additionally, satire and the role of wit in social commentary will be examined, setting the stage for the Augustan Age that follows.

    Central texts include:

    • John Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel and Mac Flecknoe (satirical works)
    • Aphra Behn’s The Rover (Restoration comedy)
    • Samuel Pepys’ Diary (primary historical source)

    This unit also delves into the re-opening of theatres, the new developments in prose, and the emergence of periodicals and journalism, which reflect the growing engagement with public life and politics in literary discourse.

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    Unit 3. Romantic Age

    This unit explores the Romantic Age, a transformative period in English literature characterized by an emphasis on emotion, individualism, and a deep connection with nature. Reacting against the rationalism of the Enlightenment and the constraints of the preceding Neoclassical period, Romantic writers sought to express personal experience, imagination, and the sublime in their works. The era was deeply influenced by political revolutions, particularly the French Revolution, and the rapid changes brought about by industrialization.

    Key poets such as William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats, and Lord Byron will be central to this unit. Through close readings of works like Wordsworth and Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads—the manifesto of Romanticism—students will engage with themes of nature, rural life, and the glorification of the ordinary. Shelley's Prometheus Unbound and Byron’s Don Juan showcase the rebellious spirit and fascination with the heroic, while Keats’ Odes explore beauty, mortality, and the fleeting nature of life.

    The unit also looks at the contributions of Mary Shelley and William Blake, focusing on their use of gothic elements and social critique, which reflect the darker undercurrents of the Romantic imagination.

    Core texts include:

    • Wordsworth and Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads (1798)
    • Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind and Prometheus Unbound
    • Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale and Ode on a Grecian Urn
    • Byron’s Don Juan
    • Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience and selections from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

    By examining these texts, students will trace how Romanticism challenged existing literary conventions, celebrated individual expression, and grappled with themes of nature, revolution, and the metaphysical. The unit will also explore how these works laid the foundation for subsequent literary movements.

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    Unit 4. Modern Age

    This unit focuses on the Modern Age, a period of rapid change and experimentation in English literature, driven by the dramatic shifts in society, technology, and global politics during the 20th century and beyond. The two World Wars, industrialization, and the rise of psychology and existentialism deeply influenced Modernist writers, leading them to challenge traditional narrative forms, explore fragmented identities, and depict the alienation of individuals in an increasingly complex world.

    Key figures such as T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, W.B. Yeats, and D.H. Lawrence will be studied, with an emphasis on their contributions to modernist techniques such as stream of consciousness, fragmentation, and symbolism. Central works like Eliot’s The Waste Land and Joyce’s Ulysses will be analyzed for their use of myth, experimentation with language, and exploration of urban and inner life. Woolf’s novels will provide insight into feminist modernism and psychological realism, while Yeats’ poetry captures the transition from romantic mysticism to a more philosophical engagement with modernity.

    The unit also introduces postmodernism, examining the works of Samuel Beckett, George Orwell, Salman Rushdie, and Zadie Smith, who respond to the fragmentation of identity, reality, and culture in a globalized world. Themes such as the questioning of truth, narrative, and history, along with multiculturalism and the impacts of colonialism, will be central to discussions on contemporary literature.

    Core texts include:

    • T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land (1922)
    • James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922)
    • Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway (1925) or To the Lighthouse (1927)
    • W.B. Yeats’ later poems, including The Second Coming and Sailing to Byzantium
    • Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (1953)
    • George Orwell’s 1984 (1949)
    • Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children (1981)

    This unit will also explore literary responses to technological advancement, the decline of religious belief, and the post-World War disillusionment that gave rise to both modernist and postmodernist sensibilities. Students will critically engage with how writers depict fractured realities and shifting identities in an age of uncertainty.