ENGL 634 Elizabethan and Jacobean Literature

The seminar focuses attention on a select number of English Renaissance works, representing various literary genres, ranging from the age of Elizabeth through the Jacobean era into the Caroline period. Writers such as Shakespeare, Spenser, Sidney, Elizabeth I (and other woman writers), Marlowe, Jonson, Drayton, Daniel, Donne, Marvell, Webster, Marston, Middleton, Ford, Chapman, and Milton are studied in the light of 1) modern critical and scholarly approaches to Renaissance themes and styles, 2) literary manifestations of Neoplatonism, Neostoicism, and political theory, and 3) parallels with developments in the graphic arts (emblem literature, visualized mythology, and the movement toward mannerist and baroque forms). Although the seminar concentrates on a select number of texts, it also provides an overview of the English literary Renaissance and its connections with the continental Renaissance. In short, the seminar serves as both a general grounding in and a specialized study of a major literary period.

Prerequisite(s): Graduate students in ENGL only

3 Credit(s)