Schedule

January 25: Introductions

Readings: No Readings this week. We will have a general introduction to the seminar.

February 1: What was the Sixteenth Century?

Readings: Everyone should read “The Sixteenth Century,” by Colin Burrow, start to finish. The other two assigned readings (selections from The Later Tudors and The English and their History) should be read selectively according to the topic you were assigned in seminar last week. Please come to class with a brief summary of the readings on your topic, along with 3-4 quotations (also from the readings) that you think are especially important or illustrative.
Seminar Starter(s)  None this week

February 8: King Arthur and Legends of England

Readings: Selections from Le Morte Darthur

“How Uther Pendragon begot the Noble Conqueror King Arthur” (3-32); “Of Nenive and Morgan le Fay” (58-81); “The Tale of Sir Lancelot and Queen Guenivere” (403-467); “The Death of Arthur” (468-527)

Background materials on Malory and the publication history of Le Morte Darthur; William Caxton, the printer who brought these stories to the public; and Caxton’s 1485 Preface to Le Morte Darthur (original) and (modernized)

Seminar Starter(s) (2): Kristina and Meghan
 Assignment:

February 15: Richard III and Ruptures with the Past

Readings: Shakespeare, Richard III and Schwyzer, “Trophies, Traces, Relics, and Props: The Untimely Objects of Richard III
Seminar Starter:  Brendan Tanner
 Assignment:  First Short Assignment Due Friday, 2/17

 

 February 22The Faerie Queene I: Reformation

Readings:  Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Book I, Cantos 1-6 and selections from Foxe’s Acts and Monuments
Seminar Starter(s) (2):  Mike Marks

Christina Carmosino

 

March 1: The Faerie Queene II: Spenser and the Bible

Readings:  Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Book I, Cantos 7-12 and Jamie Ferguson, “The Bible and Biblical Hermeneutics”
Seminar Starter(s) (2):  Bethany Mahoney

Jonas Black

 

March 8: Montaigne and The Essays

Readings:  Seminar visit this week from Dr. Dustin Peone, Emory University

Selections from Montaigne’s Essays

March 15: CLASS CANCELLED DUE TO SNOW

SECOND SHORT ASSIGNMENT DUE (by Friday, 3/17)

March 22: NO CLASS, SPRING BREAK

March 29: More’s Utopia

Readings: Utopia and Greenblatt, from Renaissance Self-Fashioning

Instead of the secondary reading, please prepare for seminar by looking at assigned dimension of Utopian culture (see email to the seminar)

Seminar Starter:

 

 

 

Ashley Frazier

 

 

April 5The Tudors Today

Readings:  Hillary Mantel, Bring Up the Bodies 
Seminar Starter(s) (2):  Michael Drago

Sarah Pepe

April 12Shakespeare’s Tudors

Readings: Shakespeare, All Is True (Henry VIII)
Seminar Starter(s):  Christine Urio

April 19: Comedy of Errors

Readings: The Menaechmi (selections)

Shakespeare, Comedy of Errors

Seminar Starter(s) (2):  Kelsey Logan

Chris Page

 Assignment:  THIRD SHORT ASSIGNMENT DUE BY 4/21 (FRIDAY)

April 26: Titus (class meets from 6:00-10:15 in JFT 1010)

Readings: None: We will watch and discuss Julie Taymor’s film adaptation of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus in class.
Seminar Starter:  Vince Fino
Assignment:  Abstract for Final Presentation Due

May 3: The Sixteenth Century in the Twenty-first 

Wed., May 17 (7:15): Seminar mini-conference