Module Information
Module Identifier
ENM1120
Module Title
SPENSER & MILTON: NARRATIVE HIST. & LIT. IN ENGLISH RENAISSA
Academic Year
2008/2009
Co-ordinator
Semester
Intended for use in future years
Course Delivery
Delivery Type | Delivery length / details |
---|---|
Seminars / Tutorials | 5 x 2-hour seminars |
Assessment
Assessment Type | Assessment length / details | Proportion |
---|---|---|
Semester Assessment | 1 x 5,000 word essay Essay: | |
Supplementary Assessment | Resubmit any failed elements and/or make good any missing elements. Where this involves re-submission of work, a new topic must be selected. |
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module students should be able to:
Content
The works of Edmund Spenser (1552?-1599) and John Milton (1608-74) are rarely studied in detail on undergraduate modules because of their complexity and length. Nevertheless both writers played crucial roles not only in the development of the historical canon of English Literature but also in radical and oppositional British politics, Spenser as an English Protestant in Ireland, Milton as a republican activist, theorist and regicide.
This module seeks to introduce students with some familiarity with English Renaissance Literature to the literary and political writings of both authors and to look at the relationship between both writers: Milton acknowledged Spenser as his precursor, but resisted his influence in abadoning early plans to write an epic on the subject of King Arthur - as Spenser had done - in favour of a Biblical one. The aim will be to read substantial passages together so that the ways in which kinds of narrative work can be appreciated, especially the relationship between literary and non-literary texts. How closely must we relate Spenser's poetry to the events of Ireland in the last decades of Elizabeth's reign? Can we only read Milton's poetry in terms of the English Civil War? Both sought to be actively involved in politics and wrote substantial treatises about matters of state. These will be read in terms of their poetic work in order to consider such questions. We will try to determine what effect genre has upon the content of writing or whether content can be extracted from form without violently rupturing sense.
Other topics covered will include: sexual and political equality; the politics of genre and verse form: the development of English Protestant literature; literature and national identity; epic and allegory.
_Seminar 1: Protestantism and Allegory
_Seminar 2: Iconociasm and Sexuality
_Seminar 3: Spenser and Ireland
_Seminar 4: Liberty and Libertarianism
_Seminar 5: Narrating the Fall
This module seeks to introduce students with some familiarity with English Renaissance Literature to the literary and political writings of both authors and to look at the relationship between both writers: Milton acknowledged Spenser as his precursor, but resisted his influence in abadoning early plans to write an epic on the subject of King Arthur - as Spenser had done - in favour of a Biblical one. The aim will be to read substantial passages together so that the ways in which kinds of narrative work can be appreciated, especially the relationship between literary and non-literary texts. How closely must we relate Spenser's poetry to the events of Ireland in the last decades of Elizabeth's reign? Can we only read Milton's poetry in terms of the English Civil War? Both sought to be actively involved in politics and wrote substantial treatises about matters of state. These will be read in terms of their poetic work in order to consider such questions. We will try to determine what effect genre has upon the content of writing or whether content can be extracted from form without violently rupturing sense.
Other topics covered will include: sexual and political equality; the politics of genre and verse form: the development of English Protestant literature; literature and national identity; epic and allegory.
_Seminar 1: Protestantism and Allegory
- "The Faerie Queene", Books 1, 6 & 7.
_Seminar 2: Iconociasm and Sexuality
- "The Faerie Queene", Books 2 & 3.
_Seminar 3: Spenser and Ireland
- "The Faerie Queene", Book 5; "A View of the Present State of Ireland".
_Seminar 4: Liberty and Libertarianism
- "Comus" and Areopagitica.
_Seminar 5: Narrating the Fall
- "Paradise Lost".
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 7