Course Topical Outline:
Unit One Anglo-Saxon and Old English Literature – The Book of Exeter, “The Wanderer,” “The Seafarer,” “The Wife’s Lament”
Unit Two Middle English Literature – “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”
Unit Three Early Modern English Literature – Elizabethan Theater, Shakespeare – sonnets, Swift
Unit Four Romanticism – Wollstonecraft, poets, Shelley’s Frankenstein
Unit Five Victorian Era Literature – E. B. and Robert Browning, Dickens (as time allows)
Unit Six Modern English Literature – Yeats, Woolf, Eliot (as time allows)
A more detailed description and weekly reading schedule is offered below.
English 2322
Fall 2026 Weekly Course Reading and Exam Schedule
(subject to change)
Week 1 Introductions. Review syllabus, course policies and procedures. Discuss
08/10 – 14 Old English and Anglo-Saxon literature and the geography and brief history of the time period.
Weekly Readings: Introduction to The Book of Exeter (notes)
Week 2 Continue discussion on Anglo-Saxon literature.
08/17 – 21 Weekly Readings: “The Wanderer” handout
“The Seafarer” handout
“The Wife’s Lament” handout
Week 3 Continue discussion and review on Anglo-Saxon literature.
08/24 – 28 Test Number 1: Anglo-Saxon literature (“The Wanderer,” “The Seafarer,” “The Wife’s Lament”).
Week 4 Introduction to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
8/31 –09/04 Weekly Readings: Fitts I-III.
Week 5 Continue Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
09/07 – 11 Weekly Readings: Fitt IV.
Test Number 2: In-class written response over Sir Gawain.
Test Number 3: Multiple choice over Sir Gawain.
Week 6 Discuss Sixteenth Century literature and the Elizabethan Era.
9/14 - 18 Weekly Readings: Shakespeare, pgs. 540 – 543 and handouts.
Week 7 Discuss the Restoration, Eighteenth Century literature, and satire.
09/21 -- 25 Weekly Readings: Swift’s A Modest Proposal, pgs. 1199 – 1205
Test Number 4: Elizabethan Era, Shakespeare, Swift.
Week 8 Discuss the Romantic Period and early feminism.
9/28 – 10/02 Weekly Readings: Wollstonecraft, pgs. 1506 -- 1525
Percy Bysshe Shelley, pgs. 1787 – 1791
Week 9 Continue discussion over Romanticism and introduction to Frankenstein.
10/05 - 09 Weekly Readings: Frankenstein (book provided).
Test Number 5: Romanticism, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Wollstonecraft.
Week 10 Continue discussion on Romanticism and Frankenstein.
10/12 - 16 Weekly Readings: Frankenstein.
Week 11 Continue Frankenstein. Begin introduction to Romantic poets.
10/19 – 23 Weekly Readings: Burns, Blake (poems found in Norton, on line, and/or supplied on Blackboard)
Test Number 6: Frankenstein
Test Number 7: In-class written response over Frankenstein.
Week 12 Continue discussion over Romantic poets.
10/26 – 30 Weekly Readings: Wordsworth, pgs. 1532 – 1536; 1585 – 1586
Week 13 Introduction to Victorian Era.
11/02 – 06 Weekly Readings: E.B. Browning, pgs. 1993 – 1999
Robert Browning, pgs. 2117 -- 2129
Week 14 Introduction to the Modern Era.
11/09 – 13 Weekly Readings: Yeats, pgs. 2465 – 2470
Woolf, pgs. 2503 – 2510
Eliot, pgs. 2706 – 2713
Test Number 8: Romantic and Victorian poets.
Week 15 Continue discussion on the Modern Era.
11/16 – 20
Week 16 Thanksgiving Break.
11/23 -- 27
Week 17 Final Exam.
11/30 – 12/04
Final Exam Date – 12/3/2026. The final exam will be given during the regularly-scheduled class period (date subject to change).