The module will give you an opportunity to become familiar with Elizabethan England, the significance of discovery and colonial expansion, and the importance of monarchic power around the figure of the virgin queen, when the questions of succession and political stability were public concerns. You will have the opportunity to study the expectations and responses of the Elizabethan/Jacobean audiences at a time when there was a deep reliance on the imagination. Since the central figure was that of Shakespeare, there will be a strong focus on the stage and major dramatic forms with references to plays by Shakespeare, and also to contemporary playwrights like Christopher Marlow and Ben Jonson. The position of poetry will be considered in a study of the tradition of courtly love poetry, the use of the sonnet, the romance and metaphysical poetry in poets like Edmund Spenser and John Donne. Shakespeare remains relevant today, both in Britain and internationally, and a study of the responses of critics to him and his contemporaries through time, will enable you to understand his continuing appeal and bring you up to date with current critiques, endorsing Shakespeare's centrality to a study of literature.