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Reformation, Restoration, Revolution explores the ways that literature from the 1580s through to the end of the seventeenth century engaged with dramatic upheavals in social, political, and religious culture.

The module looks at writing from the period c. 1588 to c.1688, a time that saw the end of one ruling dynasty – the Tudors – and the beginning of another – the Stuarts. This was an era that saw major debates over national identity, religious doctrine, politics and government.

Reformation/s defined and redefined religious practice. Hundreds of thousands of people died in a series of bloody civil wars. One king was executed, another deposed in a bloodless, ‘glorious’ revolution. A republic was inaugurated, and a monarchy restored. These events took place in a wider context of emergent colonialism, the rise of capitalism, and a scientific revolution that paved the way for what we now think of as ‘modernity’: modern subjectivities, sexualities, politics, and cultures.

Drawing from a variety of drama, poetry, and prose from the period, this module invites you to explore the different ways that works of literature imagined and engaged with the tumultuous events of the century. This was a period of immense creativity and experimentation: the primary texts studied on this module will open up a range of literary forms from canonical and less-studied writers alike through which you will develop a sense of the spirit of the early modern age.

LO1: Identify and critically reflect upon key, textual, thematic, and generic shifts within early modern literature
LO2: Develop an awareness of key contexts for the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, encompassing the religious, political, and cultural frameworks in which early modern texts were written
LO3: Respond critically and imaginatively to a wide range of poems, plays, and prose
LO4: Develop skills in the close reading of early modern literature
LO5: Acquire skills for navigating subject-specific digital archives