LINK BACK TO MAIN PAGE FOR T. DIPASQUALE'S COURSES English 338 Seventeenth Century Literature
Spring 1999
11 M,Tu,Th Olin 315
Professor Theresa DiPasquale
Olin 232 Office Hours T, Th 8-9 and 10-11; W 1:15-2:15; and by appointment
Office Phone: 526-4710
Email username: dipasqtm
Course Description:
English 338 is designed to familiarize students with the literature and culture of seventeenth-century England. Most class periods will be divided between discussion and lecture; some classes will also include creative student presentations by individuals or groups (see requirements below). We will read texts by a wide range of authors, considering works in groups arranged thematically. Through background readings on culture and through careful attention to the form and content of poems, plays, and prose works, we will strive to appreciate the unique characteristics of individual writers and, more broadly, the spirit of the century. It is a century charged with change and controversy; indeed, it might be said to encompass at least three different "periods": the early Stuart era (1603-1642), when King James I and his son Charles I ruled the newly united kingdoms of England and Scotland in unprecedented splendor; the English Civil War and the Interregnum (1642-1660) when the forces of parliamentary politics and religious dissent overcame the monarchy and the Established Church; and the Restoration (1660-1700), the period of fin-de-siecle decadence after the monarchy was reestablished under Charles II. The writing of this century is muscular and energetic. The love poems are filled with challenging thought as well as feeling; the sex poems are blunt, even angry at times, but always clever and witty; the satires are scathing, uncompromising; the religious poetry strikes at the heart of human frailty; and the prose works range from the pithy and didactic to the inspiring and the mystical. | |
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