ENGL 322 Renaissance Literature

This class explores early British literature with an emphasis on literary representations of punishment and the passions. The Renaissance and Reformation in England witnessed the emergence of more centralized institutions to police sin and illegality in society to tame passions whether devotional or political that could unsettle the developing sovereignty of the modern state. We will examine how literary texts represent and respond to such larger political and theological shifts in punishment. Some of the most innovative and exciting works of drama poetry and prose in this period struggle with the purpose and effects of confinement imprisonment slavery and penance. Topics will include: the normalization of punishment through legal centralization; the relationship between punishment and the humanistic culture of teaching; the relationship between domestic and colonial punishment; revenge and forgiveness; race gender sexuality and punishment; punishment and class hierarchy; violence and equity; sin and salvation; self-punishment and penance; punishment and spectacle; the ethics of witnessing punishment; slavery and revolt. Authors include: Machiavelli Thomas More Anne Lock Spenser Shakespeare Donne Milton Hobbes and Aphra Behn.