Premodern Texts, Modern Problems: Literature and Public Life

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Why do white supremacists care about Beowulf? What does Chaucer have to do with #MeToo? Why do we turn to William Shakespeare to understand Donald Trump? This course will attempt to answer these and other questions as we undertake an examination of how premodern literature informs and interacts with modern concerns. We'll accomplish this by looking closely at four canonical texts across early British literature - Beowulf, The Canterbury Tales, Julius Caesar, and Paradise Lost - and considering how they've been used in recent contemporary debates about race, sexual assault, and politics. We'll not only wrestle with the complexities of these texts and their reception histories but also think deeply about the function of literature, and literary scholarship, in public life. Our discussions will culminate in a class website on which you'll showcase your own pieces of public scholarship on premodern texts. Assignments include reading responses, blog posts, think pieces, and a podcast project.