Reformation and Revolution: Early Modern literature and drama 1588-1688
| Code | School | Level | Credits | Semesters |
| ENGL3072 | English | 3 | 20 | Spring UK |
- Code
- ENGL3072
- School
- English
- Level
- 3
- Credits
- 20
- Semesters
- Spring UK
Summary
Moving from the Spanish Armada of 1588 to the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688, we will read a range of prose, verse, and plays by both male and female authors. Each week’s reading will focus on a key theme of the period’s literature, such as witchcraft, foreignness, and scientific knowledge. We will visit local archives to view the manuscripts of Margaret Cavendish and Lucy Hutchinson, who were prominent women writers with ties to Nottinghamshire. And in your final assessment, you will have the opportunity to design and pursue your own research question, blending close analysis of the period’s literature with discussion of its historical contexts.
Target Students
Only available for final-year students on SH and JH English programmes; including 2+2 programmes; students participating in exchanges from the School partner institutions; and final-year students on the Liberal Arts programme.
Classes
- One 1-hour seminar each week for 11 weeks
- One 2-hour lecture each week for 11 weeks
Assessment
- 100% Coursework 1: One 3500-word essay
Assessed by end of spring semester
Educational Aims
1. Literary: to be able to discuss trends in early modern England’s prose, verse, and drama.2. Historical: to become familiar with the key political, religious, philosophical, and scientific debates that shaped the period’s literature.3. Case-specific: to acquire an in-depth understanding of a selection of the period’s texts.Learning Outcomes
Knowledge and understanding of
- The key textual, thematic and generic shifts within the literature of the early modern period
- The historical contexts of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
- The religious, philosophical, political and commercial frameworks in which early modern texts were produced.
Intellectual Skills
- The ability to develop integrated research questions
- The ability to relate texts to their appropriate historical, political and cultural contexts
Professional Practice Skills
- The ability to negotiate original source material and electronic archives and draw appropriate conclusions
- The ability to discuss and apply relevant critical or theoretical concepts and terms
Transferable key skills
- The ability to communicate effectively verbally and in writing
- The ability to work in a group
- The ability to present a logical and sustained argument
- The ability to conduct research, evaluating and employing secondary sources in a scholarly manner