Course details

Name: ENGL - 604

Title: SEMINAR IN TEACHING LITERATURE - TEACHING THE RENAISSANCE: BEYOND SHAKESPEARE

Section: 01

Semester: Fall - 2019

Credits: 3

Description:
The Renaissance or early modern period, roughly spanning the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, was one of the most important, turbulent, and exciting times in the history of the world, and it gave rise to some of the most enduring works of literature ever written in any language, not least of all the plays of Shakespeare. Yet, outside of the college setting, Shakespeare’s plays often represent the only works of Renaissance literature to which students are exposed in the classroom.

This course is designed to explore the rich world of the Renaissance beyond Shakespeare, to think about not just the challenges but the abundant opportunities that teaching works from the period can present in an English classroom setting, and to interrogate some of the preconceptions about Renaissance literature that can discourage teachers from bringing it into the classroom in the first place. How difficult really is Renaissance literature? Is it all just dead white men? Is it boring? What sorts of unique opportunities does Renaissance literature provide for incorporating digital or multimedia resources into one’s teaching? How much history must students, or I as the teacher, really know in order to appreciate a work from the period? These are only some of the questions that the course will confront, as we range across exhilarating works by authors such as Thomas More, Anne Locke (author of the first published sequence of sonnets in English), Edmund Spenser, John Donne, Aemilia Lanyer, John Milton, and Margaret Cavendish. The class is designed both for those with an established interest in Renaissance literature and for those who hardly know anything about it, as well as for current and aspiring teachers as much as for those whose paths lie outside the classroom.

Schedule: Tuesday From 5:30 pm To 8:00 pm

Graduation requirements:

  • Any Literature (1e)
  • Genre Study (Poetry)
  • Pre-1700 (1a)
  • Pre-1800 (1b)
  • Pre-1900 (1c)
  • Women and Gender Studies (3c)
  • Pre-1800 British (TE 1b)
  • Graduate (BA/MA)

Teaching Faculty: Miller Jeffrey (millerje)

Is course canceled: No