How to Use this OER Text
A Brief Overview for Students
This educational resource is provided free to ENGL 2323* students in lieu of a traditional course textbook. It contains readings for the second half of a two-course British literature survey, as well as discussion and research questions designed to help you probe the selections more deeply.
To get the most out of this virtual text, you should take notes as you read each selection. You can do this using a word-processing program (like Microsoft Word or Google Docs), or with an old-fashioned pen-and-paper notebook by your laptop or tablet. Write down characters (if applicable), settings, major ideas, and your personal responses to what you’re reading. You should also keep a list of unfamiliar words, people, places, or historical references, to research/define. This will help you better understand what the author is saying, as well as the world in which the author and audience lived.
You may use the discussion and research questions as a jumping-off point for personal journaling or discussions with your classmates. Your instructor may also supplement these questions with additional prompts, activities, and materials of their own.
The readings themselves are organized into three sections:
- The Romantic Era – This runs from the late 1700s to the early 1800s. Because Romanticism was more of an artistic and intellectual movement than a period of time, it overlaps somewhat with the reign of Queen Victoria.
- The Victorian Age – This section includes literature produced during Queen Victoria’s reign.
- The Twentieth Century – This section includes texts produced in 1900 or later. It coincides with the rise of modernism and the decline of the British empire, as well as two World Wars and the dawn of the nuclear age. You can put these readings in conversation with 21st century books, popular film and/or other media as your instructor sees fit.
Good luck, and welcome to the second half of your British literature sequence!
* Note: ENGL 2323 is the Texas common course number for an undergraduate survey of the development of British literature from the Romantic period to the present, under Texas Education Code 61.832. If you are taking a literature course in another state or country, your course numbering may vary from this.
