Key Texts of the English-Language Literature

2025/2026

Academic Year

ENG

Instruction in English

4

ECTS credits

Delivered at:

School of Literature and Intercultural Communication

Course type:

Compulsory course

When:

3 year, 1, 2 module

Instructor

Barinova, Ekaterina

Course Syllabus

Abstract

This course is supposed to introduce the 3rd-year students to some of the most influential works of the Anglophone literature, certainly without laying a claim to a full overview. It builds on General English in the previous years, but shifts the focus to literary analysis. This class also complements the survey course in European and American literature, taught in Russian, by providing an opportunity for a closer examination of the original works written in English. The class consistently supports the program’s special attention to close reading of literary texts. Finally, the course is predicated on the students’ previous knowledge of literary theory and develops it in the way of comparing the essential terminology in the Anglo-Saxon and Russian traditions of literary criticism.

Learning Objectives

• • Introduction to the crucial works of the Anglophone literature
• Learning the Anglophone literary terminology
• Practicing close-reading skills when discussing the relevant works in the original
• Enrichment of the vocabulary of the course participants

Expected Learning Outcomes

• The students know the basic principles of Original Pronanciation (OP) and can explain its importance.
• The students are able to analyse Shakespeare sonnets in the original from the point of view of the meter, the content and to trace the further impact on world literature.
• A student knows the main features of metaphysical poetry, understands its philosophical background. Able to analyse John Donne's poetry from the point of view of the genre, mete and style. Able to trace legacy in further literature.
• Able to speak on different aspects of Paradise Lost: the contexts, theology, philosophy and politics; key backgrounds. Able to read and analyse chosen episodes. Able to speak on Milton's legacy and influence.
• Understands the main principles of Romantic poentry and is able to illustrate the knowledge through particular poetic works
• Knows the genesis and key stages of American poenry development. Understands peculiarities and stylistic specificity
• Reads and analyses modern poetry in English (meter, style, topics, key representatives)
• Able to speak on plays from Shakespeare and Elizabethan theater till the 20th century plays (Tom Toppard, Tennessee Williams): main featuresm genersm style, characters, topics and other peculiarities
• Understands the main trends of the 19th century prose in Great Britain and the USA.
• Understands the main trends of the 20th century prose in Great Britain and the USA.
• Reads and gives detailed analyses of short English stories, written in the 21st century

Course Contents

• The origins of Anglophone literature. Shakespeare in the Original Pronunciation
• Shakespeare Sonnets
• John Donne
• John Milton
• Romanticism
• American poetry
• Modern and contemporary poetry
• Analysis of theatre
• Analysis of 19th century prose
• Analysis of 20th century prose
• Modern English short stories

Assessment Elements

• Работа на семинарах
  Работа на семинарах, ответы на вопросы преподавателя, участие в дискуссии
• Мини-лекция
  Выступление с мини-лекцией (10-15 минут) по одному из аспектов курса из предложенного списка
• Теоретический тест
  Дать определение четырем терминам (на английском языке)
• Эссе
  Написание эссе по одному из аспектов курса (тему формулирует студент)

Interim Assessment

• 2025/2026 2nd module
  0.15 * Мини-лекция + 0.15 * Мини-лекция + 0.15 * Работа на семинарах + 0.15 * Работа на семинарах + 0.1 * Теоретический тест + 0.3 * Эссе

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• "Гамлет" Бориса Пастернака : версии и варианты перевода шекспировской трагедии, , 2002
• A concise companion to modernism, , 2003
• An anthology of the poetry of the age of Shakespeare, , 2013
• Anatomy of a short story : Nabokov's puzzles, codes," Signs and symbols", , 2012
• Britannica encyclopedia of art. Vol.4: Romanesque art- Romanticism, , 2005
• Contemporary poetry, Williams, N., 2011
• Great books of the Western World. Vol.29: Milton, , 2007
• James Joyce : texts and contextes, Platt, L., 2011
• Joyce's Ulysses : a reader's guide, Sheehan, S., 2009
• Metaphysical poetry, Willmott, R., 2005

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• Adorno's modernism : art, experience, and catastrophe, Hammer, E., 2017
• Art since 1900 : modernism, antimodernism, postmodernism, Foster, H., 2011
• Charles Dickens : a critical study, Gissing, G., 2007
• Charles Dickens his Tragedy and Triumph (Vol.1), Johnson, E., 1952
• Dialectic of Romanticism : a critique of modernism, Roberts, D., 2006
• Dickens's style, , 2013
• Dickens's women : his great expectations, Isba, A., 2011
• Ethics and enjoyment in late medieval poetry : love after Aristotle, Rosenfeld, J., 2013
• Free assess to the past : romanticism, cultural heritage and the nation, , 2010
• From romanticism to informal art : Turner, Monet, Pollock: tribute to Francesco Arcangeli, , 2006
• Joyce : a guide for the perplexed, Mahon, P., 2009
• Joyce in context, , 2009
• Kant and Milton, Budick, S., 2010
• Loving : poetry and art, , 1992

Authors

• Barinova Ekaterina Vitalevna