There are no pre-requisites for this module to be added

This module will introduce you to early modern literary culture. Spanning the Elizabethan, Jacobean, Caroline, and Restoration eras, the module will explore major issues that defined the times, including race and colonialism, gender and sexuality, the body and the self, and war and religion. We will survey a range of plays by Shakespeare alongside writing by some of his most significant direct and near contemporaries, such as Jonson, Cary, and Ford. The module will introduce you to a range of voices and literary modes from the period, including, for example, plays, prose, poetry, and masques. Our close readings of this material will be informed by a blend of historicist and theoretical approaches, such as premodern critical race studies, postcolonial, feminist, and queer theory. Using a range of digital archives, interactive websites, and film screenings, the module will encourage you to engage with both text and performance in order to consider how Shakespeare and Renaissance literature functioned in their earliest contexts, and how they continue to challenge readers and audiences today.

Upon completion of this module you will be able to

LO1: Critically discuss a wide range of plays and poetry published during the Renaissance.

LO2: Illustrate an understanding of the diversity in techniques and practices of dramatic and poetic forms in this period.

LO3: Explore the relationship of drama and poetry with contemporary political and cultural concerns of the time.

LO4: Develop an insight into the history of the stage and the position of the poet.

LO5: Locate and discuss relevant critiques from Shakespeare's time to the present day.

LO6: Illustrate an ability to work both independently and part of a group.