Introduction to English I: What Is Literary History?

From the 14th to the 17th centuries, how are literary developments involved with historical events and social conditions? Discussion of how literature works as a force in culture, not only a reflection of other forces. Chaucer's General Prologue and Knight's Tale; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; More, Utopia; Wyatt, Sidney, poems; Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Book Two; Shakespeare, King Lear; Donne, Songs and Sonets and Holy Sonnets; Cavendish, Blazing World.