English 433

ENGL 433
Renaissance Literature

Catalog Entry

ENGL 433. Renaissance Literature
Three hours lecture (3).

Prerequisite: ENGL 111 and ENGL 112.

Study of selected writers, themes and genres in 16th century England.

Detailed Description of Content of Course

This course focuses on the study of English literature in the 16th century, with attention given to (1) the genres and the conventions governing those genres; (2) the literary criticism of the age; (3) the key authors of the period, with particular emphasis on Edmund Spenser; (4) the changes taking place in the language and in attitudes toward English as a vehicle for literature; and (5) the background of the literature of that age, including political, religious, economic, and cultural contexts. Readings will be drawn from primary sources as well as from both sixteenth-century and contemporary criticism.

Detailed Description of Conduct of Course

ENGL 433 uses a wide variety of instructional strategies, which may include any number of the following: lecture, discussion, collaborative group work, and individual or group student presentations; informal writing activities such as in-class focused writing exercises in response to writing prompts and out-of-class readers’ logs or journals; and formal writing assignments such as critiques of primary or secondary readings, analytical essays, and research papers. Both instructor and students may make use of pertinent audio-visual and web resources as part of the above assignments and activities.

Goals and Objectives of Course

The primary objective of this course is to make students knowledgeable about the literature of 16th Century England—its writers, themes, and genres, and the literary conventions governing these genres. To develop a broader perspective on this body of literature, students should also acquire some familiarity with the culture and history of the period. Finally, to deepen their understanding of and appreciation for this literature, students should become acquainted with a variety of critical approaches commonly applied to the works of this period (e.g. formalist, historical, feminist, new historicist, etc.).

Assessment Measures

ENGL 433 uses a variety of assessment measures, which may include, but not be limited to, the following:

• informal writing activities such as readers’ logs, journals and discussion questions;
• in-class student oral presentations and recitations;
• reading quizzes and examinations on the assigned readings;
• in-class or take-home essay examinations on the assigned readings;
• researched or non-researched essays on the literary works and authors examined in the course;
• research project and/or final essay focused on a single work or several works examined in the course;
• short critical essays examining individual literary works within an historical, biographical, cultural or literary context;
• short critical essays using specific literary strategies to analyze a literary work;
• short critical essays to analyze the formal qualities of particular literary works; and
• short imaginative/creative pieces that imitate a literary work or style or that extend or revise the point of view of a literary work.

Other Course Information

Review and Approval

October, 2009

March 01, 2021