EL2046:04
*NOTE* Heroism and Humanism: The English Renaissance
Cairns
Prerequisites: At least 6 units of EL subjects which must include 3 units of literature subjects
Inadmissable Subject Combination: EL3046
12 lectures, 24 tutorials. First semester.
Staff: Dr R Lansdown.
This subject is about the first golden age of English literature: the seventeenth century, from Shakespeare to Milton. It makes sense of a wealth of material by following across the period changing attitudes to the heroic ethos, on the one hand, and to humanistic values, on the other. It watches feudalism give way to the bourgeois and faith being modified by science. Above all it sees the Renaissance ideal coming up against the limits that ideal itself discovered.
Learning Objectives:
- to broaden and intensify the literary-critical skills and understanding attained by students at earlier levels, particularly where essay writing is concerned;
- to attain a full and close understanding of particular set texts;
- to develop a reasonable understanding of some of the cultural, historical and intellectual background to the English Renaissance;
- to map the development of English literature from the accession of Henry VIII in 1509 to the publication of Paradise Lost in 1674.
Assessment by participation in discussion (20%); one assignment of 1,500 words (30%); one essay of 3,000 words (50%).