If you are interested in tracing the origins and development of English literature and the English language in connection with many themes and issues that remain relevant today, and in exploring the links between past and present, these trans-historical courses will be of particular interest to you:
- ENGL 2100Y: Perilous Realms: Medieval and Renaissance Literature
- ENGL 3100Y From Beowulf to Blogging
- ENGL 2809H Stage and Screen
- ENGL 2810Y Children's Literature
- ENGL 3808Y The Novel
You can also design your program to study a particular theme or genre as it evolves across the centuries. For example, you might plan to take this series of courses that focus on the development of poetry:
- ENGL 3351H: Romance, Fantasy and Adventure in the Ancient World
- ENGL 3121H: Love, Honour, and the Pursuit of Happiness: Medieval
Romance
- ENGL 3125H: Desire, Sex, and Death on the Road to Canterbury:Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
- ENGL 3155H: Sex and Politics in Elizabethan Literature
- ENGL 3200Y: Milton and His Age
- ENGL 3250Y/3251H: The Romantics
Literature
- ENGL 2802Y/2803H Modern Poetry
- ENGL 4802Y/4803H Advanced Studies in Modern Poetry
Alternately, you might plan to focus on just two or three historical periods and how they relate to one another. Here is a list of our literary-historical courses arranged chronologically:
Classical literature
- ENGL 3330H: Comedy in the Ancient World
- ENGL 3351H: Romance, Fantasy and Adventure in the Ancient World
Medieval literature
- ENGL 2100Y: Perilous Realms: Medieval and Renaissance Literature
- ENGL-3102Y/3103H: Invaders and Converts: Anglo-Saxon England
- ENGL 3121H: Love, Honour, and the Pursuit of Happiness: Medieval Romance
- ENGL 3123H: Angels and Demons, Shepherds and Shrews: Medieval Drama
- ENGL 3125H: Desire, Sex, and Death on the Road to Canterbury:Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
- ENGL 4120Y/4121H: Advanced Studies in Middle English Language
Drama
-
ENGL 2150Y/2151H: Studies in Shakespeare
-
ENGL 2152Y/2153H: Reading Shakespeare for the Classroom and Stage
-
ENGL 3100Y From Beowulf to Blogging
-
ENGL 3123H: Angels and Demons, Shepherds and Shrews: Medieval Drama
-
ENGL 4120Y/4121H: Advanced Studies in Middle English Language
-
ENGL 4150Y/4151H: Advanced Studies in Shakespeare
Renaissance literature
- ENGL 2100Y: Foundations in Medieval and Renaissance Literature
- ENGL 2150Y/2151H: Studies in Shakespeare
- ENGL 2152Y/2153H: Reading Shakespeare for the Classroom and Stage
- ENGL 3153H: The Renaissance Theatre
- ENGL 3155H: Sex and Politics in Elizabethan Literature
- ENGL 4150Y/4151H: Advanced Studies in Shakespeare
- ENGL 4152Y/4153H: Advanced Studies in Renaissance Literature
Restoration and 18th Century Literature
- ENGL 3200Y: Milton and His Age
- ENGL 3202Y/3203H: Theatre and Journalism During the Restoration and Eighteenth Century
- ENGL 3205H: Augustan Literature: Modern Laughter
- ENGL 3207H: The Age of Sensibility
- ENGL 3209H The First Media Revolution
- ENGL 3250Y: The Romantics
- ENGL 4200Y/4201H: Advanced Studies in Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Literature
19th Century Literature
- ENGL 3251H: The Early Romantics
- ENGL 3253H: The Later Romantics
- ENGL 3300Y/3301H American Literature: Back to the Future, Forward to the Past
- ENGL 3400Y/3401H: Darwin and His Publics
- ENGL 3402Y/3403H: Those Wild Victorians
- ENGL 4250Y/4251H: Advanced Studies in the Romantics
- ENGL 4400Y/4401H: Advanced Studies in Victorian Literature
Modern Literature
- ENGL 2802Y/2803H Modern Poetry
- ENGL 2804Y/2805H Modern Drama
- ENGL 2806Y/2807H Modern Fiction
- ENGL 3304Y/3305H Modern American Fiction
- ENGL 3410Y/3411H Twentieth-Century British Literature
- ENGL 3421H Modern Irish Literature
- ENGL 4802Y/4803H Advanced Studies in Modern Poetry
- ENGL 4804Y/4805H Advanced Studies in Modern Drama
- ENGL 4806Y/4807H Advanced Studies in Modern Fiction
For more information about studying literature through time, contact: englishadvice@trentu.ca
Emphasis in Premodern Studies
If you are particularly interested in classical, medieval and renaissance literature, you might consider contextualizing your studies by pursuing an emphasis in Premodern Studies alongside your English degree.
The emphasis is ideal for anyone with an interest in the thought, literature, and history of the preindustrial (pre-1800) world. While the more remote past is often romanticized as a “golden fantasy realm,” the study of historical culture in world civilizations from antiquity through early modernity (ca. 1800) allows students a window onto the origins and development of culture informing modern global society.
More information available at:Emphasis in Premodern Studies or contact Professor Jennine Hurl-Eamon, jenninehurleamon@trentu.ca