Academic Catalogs

ENGL G275: British Literature Since 1800

Course Outline of Record
Item Value
Curriculum Committee Approval Date 12/05/2023
Top Code 150100 - English
Units 3 Total Units 
Hours 54 Total Hours (Lecture Hours 54)
Total Outside of Class Hours 0
Course Credit Status Credit: Degree Applicable (D)
Material Fee No
Basic Skills Not Basic Skills (N)
Repeatable No
Open Entry/Open Exit No
Grading Policy Standard Letter (S)
Local General Education (GE)
  • Area 3 Arts and Humanities (GC)
Diversity Requirement (GCD) Yes
California General Education Transfer Curriculum (Cal-GETC)
  • Cal-GETC 3B Humanities (3B)
Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC)
  • IGETC 3B Humanities (3B)
California State University General Education Breadth (CSU GE-Breadth)
  • CSU C2 Humanities (C2)

Course Description

This course is a study of selected writers in British literature from 1800 to the present. Students explore the historical, cultural, philosophical, and aesthetic implications of representative works and produce written analyses of assigned works. PREREQUISITE: ENGL C1000, ENGL C1000E, or achieve qualifying score on English Placement. Transfer Credit: CSU; UC. C-ID: ENGL 165. C-ID: ENGL 165.

Course Level Student Learning Outcome(s)

  1. Course Outcomes
  2. Analyze a British literary text based on its literary, historical, social, and/or cultural significance after 1800.
  3. Explain the stylistic, thematic, and/or rhetorical elements of a text in order to reveal its importance in the literary tradition in British literature after 1800.
  4. Compile the major theories of relevant critics into a developed and scholarly written analysis of post-1800 British literature.
  5. Compose a paper synthesizing relevant and scholarly sources to support an original analysis of British literature from the early 19th century to the present.

Course Objectives

  • 1. Analyze the literary characteristics of representative works of British literature.
  • 2. Review the development and continuity of major forms of British literature.
  • 3. Analyze the interrelationship of British culture and literature in the period from 1800 to the present.
  • 4. Analyze patterns and innovations in the major genres of British literature from the early 19th century to the present.
  • 5. Employ academic discourse and conventions of literary analysis to discuss British literature.
  • 6. Employ skills in close reading and critical analysis to identify and analyze texts.
  • 7. Apply writing strategies to academic essays.
  • 8. Integrate literary evidence into the student's own writing.
  • 9. Use literature to identify and analyze how alternative social systems interacted with one another and impacted the culture in Britain since the early 19th century.

Lecture Content

Major genres of British literature from the 18th century Prose Poetry Drama Read, discuss and write about major figures during the Romantic period  Wordsworth Coleridge Blake  Byron  Shelley Keats  Austen Wollstonecraft Read, discuss and write about major figures in the Victorian period Tennyson Browning Arnold Wilde Dickens Hardy Lamb the Brontes Read, discuss and write about major figures during the Modern period  Yeats  Eliot Lawrence Forster Joyce Woolf Conrad Beckett Rushdie Ishiguro Conrad Barnes Carter Le Guin  Religion, Evolution and Science Darwin Hardy Eliot Changing Perspectives on Empire Kipling Tennyson Kingsley Arnold The emergence and refinement of prose as a literary vehicle Prose and urban civility (journalism, modernity, and literacy) The periodical prose narrative Birth and development of the novel Criticism, commentary, judgments of taste, the discerning reader Literary Analysis Writing an analysis in support of a thesis Using sources to support a thesis

Method(s) of Instruction

  • Lecture (02)
  • DE Live Online Lecture (02S)
  • DE Online Lecture (02X)

Reading Assignments

Anthology of British literature, and/or supplementary texts and novels as selected by the instructor.

Writing Assignments

Written assignments based on assigned readings, class discussions, and analysis of British literature. Essay exams  Short and/or long essay responses, journal writings, discussion responses, or other types of writing about the literature.

Out-of-class Assignments

Additional readings, as well as short essays, reading responses, reflections, longer research essays using secondary sources, take-home exams etc.

Demonstration of Critical Thinking

Analysis and evaluation of texts. Synthesizing, evaluating, and applying information from primary and secondary sources into thesis driven essays.  Write critical and analytical essays focusing on themes and issues central to the study of the British literature from 1800 to the present.

Required Writing, Problem Solving, Skills Demonstration

Analysis of the genre in class discussion. Write critical essays analyzing the works of major authors.  Midterm and/or Final Assessments.

Eligible Disciplines

English: Master's degree in English, literature, comparative literature, or composition OR bachelor's degree in any of the above AND master's degree in linguistics, TESL, speech, education with a specialization in reading, creative writing, or journalism OR the equivalent. Master's degree required.

Textbooks Resources

1. Required Greenblatt, S. General Editor. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Major Authors, Volume 2, 10th (latest) ed. New York: W. W. Norton Company, 2019 2. Required Ondaatje, Michael. The English Patient, (Classic) ed. Vintage Books, 1993 Rationale: TBD 3. Required Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness, (Classic) ed. Readers Library Classics, 2021 Rationale: TBD 4. Required Ishiguro, Kazuo. The Buried Giant, (Classic) ed. Vintage International, 2015 Rationale: TBD 5. Required Rushdie, Salman. Haroun and the Sea of Stories, (Classic) ed. Penguin, 1991 Rationale: TBD 6. Required Barnes, Julian. The Sense of an Ending, (Classic) ed. Vintage Books, 2012 Rationale: TBD 7. Required Carter, Angela. Nights at the Circus, (Classic) ed. Penguin, 1986 Rationale: TBD 8. Required Le Guin, Ursula. Left-Hand of Darkness , (Classic) ed. Ace Books, 1987 Rationale: TBD 9. Required Smith, Ali. Summer, (Classic) ed. Anchor Books, 2021 10. Required Project Gutenberg . Various online texts , ed. (OER), 2023 11. Required Bonnie J. Robinson . British Literature II: Romantic Era to the Twentieth Century and Beyond, (OER) ed. University System of Georgia, University Press of North Georgia, 2018 Rationale: TBD

Other Resources

1. Instructor prepared materials.