Introduction to Graduate Study in Literature of the 16th Century |
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Autumn 2009 Call Number: 27032 Credit/Hours:UG 5
Instructor: Hamlin Location: Denney Hall 262
Days: Monday, Wednesday
Start Time: 11:30am Length: 2 Hours
Course Description:
Survey courses necessitate a certain amount of reductive generalization, so here goes. Sixteenth-century England was all about the two R?s: the Renaissance and the Reformation. These two cultural movements, often inextricably intertwined, revolutionized English literature in ways we are still trying to understand. This course will explore the development of English poetry from the singular verse of John Skelton to what C.S. Lewis called the ?golden? writing of Sidney, Spenser, Marlowe, and Shakespeare, by way of Wyatt, Surrey, Gascoigne, and Isabella Whitney. The Psalms of Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, are also gold (though not for Lewis), and we?ll read some of them too. English prose will be represented by Tyndale and English Bible translations, sermons, Sidney?s Defense of Poesie, and his Arcadia. We?ll also read More?s Utopia, but in a modern translation from the original Latin. Though our emphasis will be first on poetry, second on prose, we will also read Marlowe?s play, Doctor Faustus. Texts: Gordon Braden, ed., Sixteenth-Century Poetry (Blackwell); Thomas More, Utopia (Norton Critical; Philip Sidney, The New Arcadia (Oxford World?s Classics); Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus (Norton Critical). Requirements: Short analytical papers, In-class seminar presentation (more or less conference style). Substantial final research paper.
2 2-hr cl. Prereq: Grad standing in English or permission of instructor. Advanced undergrads may be admitted by permission of instructor.
