Seventeenth-Century Studies
Term 1
TTh, 2:00 – 3:30 p.m.
17th century England had itself a homosexual king, a military coup, new colonies, plays about incest and werewolves, women preaching sedition, and preachers describing their mistress’s breasts. It was a weird and complex era in which power and bodies were constantly interacting. We’ll focus on the most interesting examples of this: in the embodied devotions of Donne, Herbert, and Wroth; in the assertive textuality of Philips and Lanyer; in the blood-lust of Webster; in the drinking poems of Herrick and Jonson, and in narratives about virginal colonies. We’ll work interactively on these materials, with presentations, workshops, and (maybe) Rare Books field-trips. Text: a custom Broadview anthology. Assignments: small-group workshop presentations, research paper, final exam.
