This course examines the key texts of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English literature in the socio-historical contexts. An introduction outlining the historical events of the period and important literary development will be followed by guided reading of selected texts by John Donne, John Milton, Jonathan Swift, Joseph Addison, Alexander Pope, to name a few. The reading follows chronological order while emphases are placed on the intellectual, generic, and cultural background of the texts and the performance of narrative personae.