Course for international guest/part time students
- Faculty
- Faculty of Humanities
- Organization
- BTK Department of English Studies
- Code
- BBI-ANG22-227E.14
- Title
- Reading Literary Texts: Estates of Mind: Country houses and poetry from the Jacobean to the early Georgian period
- Usual semester
- Both
- Published semester
- 2026/27/1
- ECTS
- 3
- Language
- en
- Learning outcomes
- The course aims to provide students with a thorough understanding of English country house poetry, its historical, social, and literary contexts, and its major authors and works from the beginning of the 17th to the early 18th century. Students will become familiar with key concepts such as utility, landscape, power, hospitality, English identity, and the relationship between poetry and ‘social order’. Students will develop close-reading and critical analysis skills through the interpretation of poetic texts. The course enhances abilities in literary interpretation, comparative analysis, academic discussion, and written argumentation in English. The course encourages an open and reflective attitude toward early modern literature, and an appreciation of how literary texts engage with social values, ideology, and aesthetics. Students are encouraged to approach canonical texts critically and thoughtfully. Students are expected to read assigned readings week by week, actively participate in class discussions, and write reflection papers.
- Course content
- The course introduces the tradition of English country house poetry. Topics include the representation of country estates, the idealization of rural life, the politics of patronage, social hierarchy, gender roles, class differences and the tension between nature and artifice. Selected poems will be analyzed in their historical and cultural context, with attention to form, imagery, and literary devices.
- Assessment method
- Assessment is based on a combination of continuous evaluation throughout the semester. This includes: Two short (300-word) reflection papers (20%) Midterm test (20%) End term test (40%) Class participation (20%) Regular attendance is mandatory; you may miss three classes without any consequences.
- Bibliography
- Required Reading: Selected poems: Ben Jonson ‘To Penshurst’ Emilia Lanyer ‘The Description of Cooke-ham’ Thomas Carew ‘To Saxham’ Andrew Marvell ‘Upon Appleton House’ Alexander Pope ‘Epistle IV’ Recommended Reading: Richard Gill. Happy Rural Seat: The English Country House and the Literary Imagination. Yale UP, 1972. o Malcolm Kelsall. The Great Good Place: The Country House and English Literature. Columbia UP, 1993. Kari Boyd McBride. Country House Discourse in Early Modern England: A Cultural Study of Landscape and Legitimacy. Routledge, 2001.