This course outline summarizes a British and American Studies course on British Literature from the 16th to 20th centuries. The course will provide an overview of major developments, periods, and writers in British literature, helping students understand individual works in their broader historical contexts. Students will read selections from classics like Shakespeare, Austen, and Forster. Through lectures, discussions, and essays, students will develop skills in analyzing genres and expressing critical arguments about literary texts in appropriate academic English. Assessment will include classwork, a midterm exam, and a final exam.

1. British and American Studies International Programme
Course Outline
Course Code and Title: BAS 251 Introduction to British Literature
Section/Group: 25/02
Semester: 1 / 2001
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1. Instructor’s Name: Aj. Dennis Lewis______________________________
Section/Group: 25/02
Class Time: Days: Mon. / Weds. Time: 10.00-11.30 Room No.: 201
Office Hours: Days: Tues. / Thurs. Time: 9 – 11, 14.00 – 16.30
Office Room No. _2_ Floor: __4__ Building: __Liberal Arts Building_____
Course co-ordinator: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Boonruang Chunsuvimol
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2. Course Description: This course introduces the literature of Britain in its historical
contexts from the late 16th century to the early 20th century. It provides an
understanding of the way that British literary texts of each period reflect the social,
political, ethical, and cultural concerns of the period; the importance of poetry in the
British literary canon, including the contributions of Shakespeare; the different
genres, including satire, romanticism, melodrama, and realism; and the major themes
of British literature, such as class relationships, the role of women, urbanization and
the rural lifestyle, and moral perspectives.
Course Objectives: The course will provide students with an overview of some of
the major developments, periods, and central writers in British literature from the
Elizabethan period to modern period. It is designed to cultivate in the students an
understanding of each individual work and writer within the broader context of British
literature and culture. At the same time, it will give students an appreciation of the
variety of literary genres. Students will read selections from classics in the British
literary canon. They will be encouraged through their assignments to develop the
abilities to analyse literary texts in a variety of genres and express themselves in
appropriate academic English. They will be expected to write essays that make critical
arguments about the literary texts they study.
Teaching/Learning Methods: lectures
class discussions
essays
Teaching Aids: handouts
videos
Assessment: Class work 10%
Midterm Exam 40%
Final Exam 50%
Main Texts: 1. William Shakespeare: Macbeth
2. Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice
3. E.M. Forster: Howard’s End
4. Greenblatt, Stephen, ed.: The Norton Anthology of
English Literature. Vols. 1 & 2. 6th
ed. New York:
W.W. Norton & Company, 1996.
Tentative Schedule:
Week 1: Introduction: the English Renaissance
Shakespeare: Sonnets 18, 20, 29, 116, Romeo and Juliet
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3. Week 2: Shakespeare: Macbeth
Week 3: Shakespeare: Macbeth
Week 4: John Donne: “The Flea,” “The Sun Rising”
Ben Jonson: “To Pensonhurst”
Week 5: John Milton: “On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity”
Paradise Lost: Book I
Week 6: John Bunyan: Pilgrim’s Progress
Jonathan Swift: Gulliver’s Travels: “Part 1. A Voyage
to Lilliput”
Week 7: Alexander Pope: The Rape of the Lock
Thomas Gray: “Elegy Written in a Country
Churchyard”
Week 8: William Wordsworth: “Tintern Abbey”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge: “This Lime-tree Bower My
Prison”
Week 9: Shelley: “Ozymandias”
John Keats: “Ode on a Grecian Urn”
Week 10: Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice
Week 11: Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice
Week 12: Charles Dickens: Hard Times
Week 13: Siegfried Sassoon: “Everyone Sang”
Wilfred Owen: “Dulce Et Decorum Est”
Week 14: D.H. Lawrence: “The Prussian Officer”
Virginia Woolf: “Mrs. Dalloway”
Week 15: Dylan Thomas: “The Force that through the Green Fuse
Drives the Flower”
“Do Not Go Gentle into that Night”
Week 16: E.M. Forster: Howard’s End
Week 17: E.M. Forster: Howard’s End
Review and Catch-up
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