ENGL 343 Medieval/Renaissance Literature

This course surveys selected lyric, narrative, and dramatic poetry from Beowulf to the contemporaries of Shakespeare with special attention to historical changes that shift the medieval worldview into early modern understandings of God, humanity, and the purpose of life and literature that came to be called "The Renaissance." Texts may include Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Dante’s Divine Comedy, Christopher Marlowe’s plays, and lyric poetry by John Donne and George Herbert. This course falls in the Questions of Literature in History category.