ENG 316-01 - Studies in English Renaissance Literature

4 credits (Spring)

Renaissance Literature and the Habits of Mind. How do we behave intelligently in the face of problems we don’t fully understand, let alone know how to solve? As pressing as this question is for us, the upheavals of the early modern period made it just as urgent for writers back then. Students in this seminar will consider how writers like Thomas More, Michel de Montaigne, José de Acosta, John Milton, and Margaret Cavendish represented strategies for thinking with the unthinkable-from using all the senses to gather and retain information, to imagining and creating new knowledge and worlds. We’ll hone our own habits of mind through creative exercises, interpretive collaborations, and research.

Prerequisite: ENG 223 or ENG 273; with grade S, C, or better.
Instructor: Eklund