Introduction - History of
English Language and Literature
Hello everyone, Let me give you a brief overview about this
course - the history of English language and literature.
This is going to be the story of English language and the
story of English literature and we should be talking about both these aspects
simultaneously as the course progresses and who will be interested in this
course this is one of the core courses of for any student of English literature
but this could also be of use and interest to you if you have a gentle interest
in literature and if you are one of those who are interested in knowing a
little bit more about the historical context and the other sequential and
chronological details of how the literature came into being how it influenced a
different kinds of people and how it's a historical positioning has been.
Let me also try to give you few more details about how the
course is going to be structured and what and how we would be covering this
entire course so to begin with let me try and answer a few questions for you so
that the course structures and the intentions of the course become Clear.
So what exactly is this course about this course is a
chronological and narrative history of English literature and when I say
English literature I have in mind English and whatever literature has been
produced by the English people and whatever has evolved from the land of
England. So we use English in the very limited sense throughout this course we
should be focusing on -The history of England, how literature emerged in
England and how it went on to become a global kind of literature in the later
centuries and which period and do we have in mind when did all of this history
happen in that sense we should be looking at a very vast history from Wulf to Woolf with our being the old texts Beowulf
and this is Virginia Woolf.
So in that sense we are covering a very broad history from
the time of a WULF to the time of VIRGINIA WOOLF. It would also be pretty broad
from the Anglo - Saxons to the postmodern period and in terms of language we
should also be looking at the evolution of language from the Old English time
to the Modern English.
So how do we propose to go about this cause, we should be
framing this course in multiple ways and especially the highlights of the
course we will focus on various Non - literary features and how they went on to
shape and redefine literature at particular points of time. So we'll be looking
at religion, politics, society, culture and all other related aspects that
inform the framing of society and also the framing of the literature.
In this course we'll be talking about not just about authors
we will be talking about authors, Kings, rulers, commoners and even about
scientists, artists and a whole set of people who have contributed to the
emergence of a particular kind of writing or a particular kind of dissemination
of literature which is going to be our location where has all of these things
happen.
Interestingly if you are a student of literature and if you
are interested in knowing a bit more about literature it would be a matter of
much curiosity for you to know that all of these even happen in battlefields,
in Church, at courts, in coffee houses,
in theatres, in publishing houses and even on the streets.
So this is the kind of rage and with this kind of
versatility that or we should be trying to bring into this course and we now
address the final and perhaps the most important question for you why is this
course important for you this course is important for you and anyone who has
got an inclination towards literature because it's very important to see the
connections it Build. The more important to see how text and context have been
framed at different historical points of time and it also enables us to see the
continuity which has been built into this entire historical narrative so here
is this course for you history of English language and literature we would try
and give you a very holistic perspective of how literature's have and how they
have come to mark and define the ways of being itself.
I hope this course
will be of much interest and used to you and we look forward to seeing more of
you in this course thank you .
