The Story of English: Medieval to Modern (online)--1st 8-wk session [***]

History of the English language, explored through literature, with an emphasis on its development from the early Middle Ages through the Early Modern period (ca. 500-ca. 1700). In this course, we will explore the history of the English language through the history of English literature. We will trace the development of English from its earliest written documentation in Old English to the flourishing of Middle English to its more familiar form of Early Modern English. We approach this language history through the focused study of literary texts representative of distinct linguistic stages of English, such as Old English prose writings and poems, selections from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Middle English lyrics, or Shakespeare’s sonnets. The goal is to use the linguistic changes in phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, lexicon, and graphics that occurred in the English language between ca. 500-ca. 1700 C.E. to better understand English literature. In addition, we will study the historical contexts and cultural forces that have conditioned and shaped the linguistic changes of English.