ATS3486 - Renaissance literature: Power and desire - 2018

A study of the literature of the English renaissance (roughly 1560-1660) through an examination of works illustrating a variety of treatments of the themes of power and desire in political, social and religious contexts.

On successfully completing this course students will be expected to have developed:

1. A knowledge of the outlook - philosophical, religious, political and social - of the Renaissance and of the changes in it which characterize its sensibilities and inform its literature.
2. An understanding of the ways in which a variety of poetic and dramatic texts explore the concepts of power (political, social and sexual) and of love (divine, courtly, neo-Platonic and sexual) in the Renaissance period.
3. The ability to respond imaginatively and critically to texts of a period of English literature whose traditions and conventions are very different from those of the present yet which have a significant influence on it.
4. An understanding of the differing attitudes to women in the Renaissance as they are expressed in its literature.
5. The ability to apply different critical approaches to Renaissance texts and to the preoccupations and themes which they embody.
6. The ability to argue, interpret and analyse coherently both in written work and orally in seminar discussion.
7. The capacity to meet the general learning objectives of the department.

Within semester assessment: 100%

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. A unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

See also Unit timetable information

Literary studies