ENG 5800 - Early Modern Literature

This course examines the literature of early modern England in the context of its tumultuous intellectual, historical, political, and cultural developments during the 16th and 17th centuries. The course will pay particular attention to the Renaissance movement in England, with consideration given to related developments in Europe. Students will explore how classical motifs and innovative forms characterized Early Modern aesthetics; how authors wrote for both public expression and private meditation; how print culture emerged as the dominant means of literary production; and how poetry, prose, and drama encouraged audiences to discover and define their social identities in new ways. Authors central to this course are Sir Thomas Wyatt, the Earl of Surrey (Henry Howard), Sir Philip Sidney, Mary Sidney, Elizabeth I, Edmund Spenser, Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, John Donne, William Herbert, Aemilia Lanyer, Lady Mary Wroth, Ben Jonson, John Webster, Robert Herrick, Andrew Marvell, and John Milton.

Credit Hours: 3

Term Offered: Fall of odd years

Locations

Locations

ENG 5800 - Early Modern Literature