Dennis Britton

The epic assignment

Dennis Britton's epic assignment asks students to collaboratively write an epic poem, considering the possibilities and limitations of the epic genre for defining who we are—or want to be—in our present moment. 

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Spenser and his racializing influences

Comparing episodes from The Faerie Queene with episodes from the works that inspired Spenser, in particular excerpts from Ariosto’s and Tasso’s works, is a productive way to draw attention to how racialization travels and mutates across national traditions.

Teaching the Reformation

A unit from Dennis Britton's "Survey of British Literature" course on the Reformation and the understandings of religious and racial difference in the period.

Religious conversion(s)

Teaching Jewish-to-Christian conversion helps broaden the understanding of religious and theological conflicts that characterize the Protestant Reformation.

Race in Spenser’s The Faerie Queene

The genre of epic has significantly defined what Muslims are in the white European imagination. Spenser’s allegory helps make racist tropes “stick” to Muslim bodies. 

Race and religious conversion

Bringing conversations about religious conversion into the classroom can help students see that religion was—and still is for some—more than just about what a person thinks and believes.