2016 - 2017

0626-4187-01
  Early Modern English Prose Writing                                                                   
FACULTY OF HUMANITIES
Noam ReisnerWebb - School of Languages105Mon1200-1400 Sem  1
Webb - School of Languages105Mon1200-1400 Sem  1
 
 
University credit hours:  4.0

Course description
Early Modern English Prose                                          פרוזה אנגלית בתקופה בעת החדשה המוקדמת
MA Seminar                                                                                                                 סמינר אם איי
Dr. Noam Reisner                                                                                                     ד"ר נועם רייזנר
 
The English Renaissance of the sixteenth century is mostly famous today for its groundbreaking achievements in poetry and drama, but this was also a period for bold new experimentation with creative prose writing. In this seminar we will consider the development of English prose in this seminal period of cultural and artistic exploration across a wide range of genres and styles. We will look at euphuistic romances, satirical lampoons and invectives, early examples of crime fiction and travel narratives, a selection of utopian fictions, and a few examples of non-fiction prose in polemical, philosophical and religious writings. Throughout, we will consider questions of rhetoric and style, as well as of genre and form, as we grapple with a number of overarching questions about the status of prose writing as an art form in the period, and the emergence of the ‘author’ as a creative, authoritative presence in the prose text.
 
Primary texts: The seminar will require careful reading of the following selection of prose texts from the period. These texts will include (provisional list): John Lyly’s 'Ephesus: The Anatomy of Wit', Thomas Lodge’s 'Rosalynde', Robert Greene's 'Groatsworth of Wit', Thomas Nashe’s 'Pierce Penniless', Thomas Dekker’s 'The Belman of London', Walter Ralegh’s 'The Discovery of Guiana', Francis Bacon’s 'New Atlantis' and select 'Essays', Margaret Cavendish’s 'The Blazing World', Thomas Browne’s 'Religio Medici', John Milton’s 'Areopagitica', and select sermons of Lancelot Andrewes and John Donne.
 
Requirements: Active class attendance and participation, a midterm assignment (20%), and either a referat or seminar paper (80%).
 

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