Out of this life, the early English created their stories. The works we will read with some attention to Old English, include Beowulf, The Seafarer, The Wife's Lament, and The Dream of the Rood. The Divine Comedy is perhaps the supreme literary masterpiece of the Middle Ages, and it is one of the most influential poems for literature in English from Chaucer right through to the present day. We will read all three books of the Divine Comedy considering it in its historical context and examining some recent criticism of the poem. We will also spend some time looking at how various authors incorporate Dante into their own work.
All texts are in translation.
I A study of the remarkable range of verses written by men and women of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in response to their turbulent times. We will trace the development of different genres and will attend to some of the major debates in which this verse is engaged - debates over the nature and purpose of poetry, the relationship between man and woman, and that between humanity and God. I A study of Shakespeare's Lancastrien Tetralogy and of his comedies of the 1590's. I A study of plays chosen from the second half of Shakespeare's career as a playwright. A study of theatrical conventions and dramatic form in representative Elizabethan and Jacobean plays, exclusive of Shakespeare.