Renaissance Poetry (331-0-20)

Topic

Sex, Scandal, And Sonnets: Love Poetry in the Age

Instructors

Wendy Wall

Meeting Info

Parkes Hall 223: Tues, Thurs 2:00PM - 3:20PM

Overview of class

Fantasy, confusion, seduction, despair, faith: these burning topics flourished in the famous love poetry of the English Renaissance. Why, we will explore, did people serving in the court of Queen Elizabeth become obsessed with writing sonnets about frustrated desire? How did poets link the confusion caused by tortuous love with other issues-- how to express feeling in writing, how to get ahead in the world, or how to "possess" others imaginatively? How were the "private" issues of love deeply intertwined with politics, religion, race, nationalism, and gender identity? When did love cement social bonds and when was it an unruly force that seemed to unravel the very fabric of the self or the community? We'll tackle these questions by reading poetry in the context of religious controversies, court politics, colonialism, same-sex desire, feminism, medical theory, and early modern science.

Teaching Method

Discussion.

Evaluation Method

Class engagement; quizzes; papers; oral presentations.

Class Materials (Required)

The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Sonnets and Poems (which includes Venus and Adonis and the Sonnets. You should buy this book (ISBN: 9780199535798).

Romeo and Juliet. You may read this play in any scholarly edition that has notes, such as the Norton, Riverside, Bevington, Signet or Arden. Editions online without notes will not allow you to understand the language.

Class Attributes

Advanced Expression
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline

Enrollment Requirements

Enrollment Requirements: Pre-registration -- Reserved for English and Creative Writing students.