Course Resources Archive

The module will introduce students to a range of texts from the renaissance up to 1800 focusing on how literature of this period encounters and attempts to understand emerging ‘new worlds’ – not only in a geographical sense but through social, cultural, and political contexts.

This module will open up a magnificent series of texts to enable students to analyse developing literary landscape(s) from within the cultural moment. We will explore the evolving notion of Englishness through Arcadia and Country House writings, colonialism, and the scientific revolution in order to understand how encounters with new peoples, places, and ideas, were reflected in, mediated by, and sometimes created in, literature.

Key texts explored include:

Arcadia:  Philip Sidney (The Defense of Poesy and Arcadia), Edmund Spenser (The Shepheards Calendar),

The Country House: Ben Jonson To Penshurst, Marvell, Upon Appleton House, Aemelia Lanyer Description of Cookeham Alexander Pope, Windsor Forest, Sarah Scott Millenium Hall.

Scientific: Ben Jonson (News from the New World Discovered in the Moon), J. Wilkins The Discovery of a World in the Moone (1638), Margaret Cavendish (The Blazing World),

Colonial: William Shakespeare (The Tempest), Aphra Behn (Oronooko), Olaudah Equiano's 'Narrative',

A student passing this module should be able to demonstrate that they have achieved the following:

1. An understanding of the pastoral genre, colonial writings, and evolving literary landscapes from 1560 – 1800;
2. The ability to interpret texts in light of their historical, scientific, and cultural contexts;
3. A sophisticated awareness of the complexities of literary language and an ability to use this sensitivity in close reading;
4. Clarity and cogency of argument appropriate to Level 6 and the ability to communicate eloquently in both written and oral forms;
5. The ability to productively organise and manage your own learning experience including practice of advanced independent research.

The Library Catalogue contains full details of the current reading list for this module. Further details may also be found in the Module Guide.