LIT3112- Fall 2025- Eckert

This course is a survey of literature written in English from the medieval period until 1800. Studying a wide range of texts across genres and periods--from medieval epics like Beowulf to seventeenth-century poems like John Milton’s Paradise Lost to eighteenth-century treatises like Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of Rights of Woman—this course will focus on how literary texts depict heroes, villains, and rebels. In doing so, we will consider how literature shapes and responds to cultural value systems. Students will read a variety of works in their historical contexts and will develop skills for detailed literary analysis, critical thinking, and academic writing. Students in the class will be expected to work individually and collaboratively as we strive to understand and analyze British literature before 1800.