Renaissance Studies
Term 1
MWF, 10:00 – 11:00 a.m.
Love and sex are different things: although they may be combined, they must never be confused. In this course we’ll look at poetic treatments of love and sex in the works of seven17th-century poets: John Donne, Lady Mary Wroth, Thomas Carew, Andrew Marvell, Katherine Philips, Aphra Behn, and John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester. We’ll focus on the variety of viewpoints rather than try to establish a consensus. We’ll consider such questions as the relationship of love and sex, at both good and bad love and sex, and the relationship of love and sex to power, gender, and humanity. This course contains mature themes and subject matters, as well as a good deal of extremely obscene language. You’ve been warned.
