The Second Shepherd's Play is pretty interesting, or even Everyman. The language is challenging but not Canterbury Tales challenging. Again these may not be fantasy per se.
British Literature Suggestions
- Thread starter Blondie Bear
- Start date
The Second Shepherd's Play is pretty interesting, or even Everyman. The language is challenging but not Canterbury Tales challenging. Again these may not be fantasy per se.
Blondie Bear
Zydrate Addict
Oh, and Piers Plowman is right out. I had to read that for my Medieval Dream Visions class last year, and I had trouble with it. I'm not making a bunch of 19-year-olds try to slog through it.
I don't think that is even too bad, ok it's hard work but it's time that I think will cause you most trouble. The time you need to get through some of these texts is pretty substantial, especially when people have trouble with the middle English, one semester just doesn't provide it.
What translation of Beowolf are you going to use?
Blondie Bear
Zydrate Addict
Don't know yet. I haven't started gathering books yet. I'll probably ask the resident Medieval Lit professor which one she suggests.
I read the Seamus Heaney version. It's very easy to read but as translations go it's horrible. He throws in more than a few Hiberno-English words that really do not belong in the text at all.
Blondie Bear
Zydrate Addict
^ Apparently I karmified you last. Boo. Thanks for the warning. 🙂 The one I use (for me) is edited/translated by George Jack, but it's still in Old English with a whole lot of footnotes and marginal notes. Won't work for my poor sophomores.
L
Lindsey McDonald
Lol, it would be now that I notice that you said it earlier... Thanks!
Lindsey McDonald
Spirit Boy
How old are sophomores? Sorry, I'm not familliar at all with the American school system.
B
Blondie Bear
19 or so.
J
JenniferAlice
Guest
ILLYRIAN
Druish Pervonian Wizard
Some of the early works of Aleister Crowley are good.
H.C.Agrippa has some good stuff. It just depends on if you can get their stuff and how rigid you are on the fantasy trip as A. Crowley tended to write about actual magic and H.C. Agrippa wrote his views on occultism.
My personal favourite is the book by Brian Bates, The Way Of Wyrd. About the Tales of an Anglo-Saxon Socerer, written as a study by a christian scribe seeing and learning of their way of life. Unfortunately it isn't exactly fantasy, as it is based on 'factual' manuscripts in the British Museum.
H.C.Agrippa has some good stuff. It just depends on if you can get their stuff and how rigid you are on the fantasy trip as A. Crowley tended to write about actual magic and H.C. Agrippa wrote his views on occultism.
My personal favourite is the book by Brian Bates, The Way Of Wyrd. About the Tales of an Anglo-Saxon Socerer, written as a study by a christian scribe seeing and learning of their way of life. Unfortunately it isn't exactly fantasy, as it is based on 'factual' manuscripts in the British Museum.
J
JCC
Guest
OUT YOU GO.
LEAVE NOW.
RIGHT NOW.
Also, re: Sophomore issue, I doubt their age will be a problem if they're five years my senior.
Didn't notice that the course was fantasy though. Wilde's 'Dorian Gray' would be a great choice for that, I think.
Blondie Bear
Zydrate Addict
You all are awesome. Here's what I've got so far (if your suggestion isn't on this list, it's not cause I don't love you, but probably because I haven't read it or because I think it's a bit too advanced for a sophomore literature class). I'm aiming for at least one example from each of the major stages of British Lit:
The Anglo-Saxon Period (449-1066)
Beowulf
"The Monsters and the Critics"
The Medieval (Middle English) Period (1066-1485)
Chaucer's Dream Visions (one or two)
Le Morte D'Arthur (pieces of it)
The Renaissance (1485-1660) (Where we all sculpt and paint and stuff)
A Midsummer Night's Dream
The Restoration (1660-1798)
This one's hard. The Restoration was a time of logic, reason, and satire more than fantasy and the fantastic. Suggestions for this era are welcome.
Romanticism (1798-1832)
Frankenstein
"Kubla Khan" and "Ancient Mariner"
Possibly some Blake
Victorian (1832-1900)
Dracula
The Faerie Queene
Maybe some Kipling
Modern (1900-1980)
The Hobbit
The Magician's Nephew
Contemporary (1980 to now)
Stardust
Harry Potter (maybe)
Questions? Comments?
The Anglo-Saxon Period (449-1066)
Beowulf
"The Monsters and the Critics"
The Medieval (Middle English) Period (1066-1485)
Chaucer's Dream Visions (one or two)
Le Morte D'Arthur (pieces of it)
The Renaissance (1485-1660) (Where we all sculpt and paint and stuff)
A Midsummer Night's Dream
The Restoration (1660-1798)
This one's hard. The Restoration was a time of logic, reason, and satire more than fantasy and the fantastic. Suggestions for this era are welcome.
Romanticism (1798-1832)
Frankenstein
"Kubla Khan" and "Ancient Mariner"
Possibly some Blake
Victorian (1832-1900)
Dracula
The Faerie Queene
Maybe some Kipling
Modern (1900-1980)
The Hobbit
The Magician's Nephew
Contemporary (1980 to now)
Stardust
Harry Potter (maybe)
Questions? Comments?
Blondie Bear
Zydrate Addict
I think that's technically classified as satire, not fantasy, but it might be the closest we can get. Maybe I'll have them read about the Liliputians or the Hyunyunhymintqyiotnejows (I can never spell that word). Good suggestion. Thanks!
Yeah you are going to be hard pushed to find fantasy from the Restoration. I had a look through my Norton anthology (yes I am that pathetic🙂) and Gulliver's Travels is pretty much it, well as far as stretching it for fantasy anyway.
Blondie Bear
Zydrate Addict
I need to get an anthology, but I think I'm gonna get a Longman instead of a Norton. I don't plan to assign an anthology, though; just the novels and I'll photocopy poems and shorter pieces out of my books and whatever anthology I get.
To be honest the anthology only makes sense if every text you plan to use is in it. Alot people will never use it again and they are so expensive to buy. Also I find that when people see the sheer size of an anthology like Norton it puts them off the course.
Blondie Bear
Zydrate Addict
AND they have to haul around a HUGE book all semester instead of having a bunch of smaller ones and only needing to bring what they're actually reading. Yep, unless the anthology is broken up (I've seen them separated into 3 volumes), they're just too much hassle.
Oh the broken up version is so much easier to handle and much more practical, I mean the complete volume is the same size as my Buffy Chosen Collection! That's ridiciulous for a text book.
J
JCC
Guest
Okay choices, I guess. The Dream of the Rood from the Vercelli Book might be a better choice than Monsters and the Critics.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight should be in here, wonderful poem.
Paradise Lost is 7 years out of the timeframe you've set down, but I still think it would be worth a look, it's one of the more iconic of British literature.
If you don't want it in Renaissance, Paradise Lost. Or the folklore stories such as Tom Thumb and Dick Whittington.
Wordsworth and Coleridge's book Lyrical Ballads might be a good choice, just select a few of the poems from there. William Blake is always a good choice, however, I hate Frankenstein. How about Lord Byron and John Keats?
Maybe something by George Eliot? I don't like Dracula, I've never heard of the Faerie Queene but it's probably alright. OSCAR WILDE. OSCAR WILDE. OSCAR WILDE.
Nothing by James Joyce?
If you include Harry Potter I will fly over to wherever you are and boycott your course, missus. I've heard that David Mitchell is a fantastic author, try that.