Department of EnglishEarly British Literature

Early British Literature faculty offer courses in Medieval and Early Modern literatures and cultures that cover early Britain and beyond to encompass premodern global studies. Faculty are experts in Old English, Middle English, and early modern poetry, prose, and drama, including Beowulf, monsters, Arthurian romances, Shakespeare, and Milton. We teach and study travelogues, medieval romance, manuscript studies, theatrical performance, and the history of religious thought in Europe.

A specialization in premodern studies aims for students to foster a deep engagement with literature as a significant cultural force over time, with past texts that have, in part, shaped our present societal preoccupations. We emphasize how literary works lead us to embrace the ambiguity, nuance, and complexity of meaning. And, at the same time, we consider literature’s power to reflect and shape its own historical moment. In our courses, students learn to cultivate sustained, critical reading and to use literary theory and criticism to illuminate the challenges and rewards of interpretation.

We study premodern literature of the British Isles (c. 600-1700) with an additional focus on global connections and modern adaptations/approaches. From the Beowulf poet to Shakespeare and the Gawain poet to Milton, our faculty are experts in such areas as Tolkien’s medievalism, Arthurian romances, crusader narratives, manuscript studies, metapragmatics, performance theory and game theory, and Christian political thought. Our graduate offerings also contribute to a Graduate Certificate through the Medieval and Renaissance Studies Center at TTU.

Faculty

Early British Literature faculty have published scholarship on Shakespeare’s style, Milton’s political thought, reading Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as a game, Old English monsters, and Tolkien’s medievalisms. They have helped to host conferences, such as the 2023 international conference on Premodern Global Studies at Texas Tech, and they have served as officers in national organizations.

The faculty's commitment to teaching is reflected in various teaching awards and in membership in the Texas Tech Teaching Academy. Graduate students of early British literature can take advantage of 4 seminars per year, as their MA or PhD requirements permit. PhD students may choose to specialize in a particular area of early British literature, in which case they must take up to 18 hours of courses directly relevant to the area of specialization.