Welcome to High School British Literature

Getting Started with High School British Literature Course

In this high school British literature course, students take an in-depth look at key periods in the history of British literature from Old English and medieval through modern and postmodern. Numerous classics are studied including Beowulf, Macbeth, the King James Bible, Pilgrim’s Progress, Paradise Lost, Gulliver’s Travels, Pride & Prejudice, Jane Eyre, The Screwtape Letters, Animal Farm, and various selections of poetry.

Course Outline for High School British Literature:

Unit 1: Old English & Medieval (449–1485)

Readings will include: Beowulf by Unknown; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by The Pearl Poet; The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (selected readings)

Unit 2: English Renaissance (1485–1625)

Readings will include: Macbeth by William Shakespeare; KJV Bible (1 Samuel & selected readings); poetry selected from the works of William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, Sir Philip Sidney, Sir Walter Raleigh, Edmund Spenser, John Donne, and George Herbert

Unit 3: 17^th & 18^th Centuries (1625–1798)

Readings will include: Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan; Paradise Lost by John Milton; Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift (selected readings); poetry selected from the works of John Dryden, Alexander Pope, John Milton, Anne Killigrew, Samuel Johnson, and Richard Lovelace

Unit 4: Romantic Period (1798–1832)

Readings will include: Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen; Charles Dickens; poetry selected from the works of Byron and Blake

Unit 5: Victorian Period (1833–1901)

Readings will include: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte; North & South by Elizabeth Gaskell; poetry selected from the works of Tennyson, Browning, and Kipling

Unit 6: Modern & Postmodern (1901–Present)

Readings will include: The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis; Animal Farm by George Orwell; poetry selected from the works of Yeats, Eliot; WWI poetry (Brooke, Owen, Rosenberg—The Soldier, Dulce et Decorum Est—compare and contrast)