Love, Sex, and Marriage in Renaissance Europe (FYS)
RL&L 123F
Fall 2021 not offered
|
| Crosslisting:
COL 123F, FGSS 123F, MDST 125F, WLIT 249F |
This seminar compares literary depictions of love, sex, and marriage from the 14th to the 17th centuries by writers from England, France, Germany, Italy, the Low Countries, Spain, and Sweden. (Students will be able to study writings from other parts of Europe over the course of the semester should they so choose.) We will read texts composed by women and men in genres including poetry, theater, the short story, the essay, the maxim, the travel narrative, and the sermon. Though the seminar is focused on literature, we will also consider painting, engravings, sculpture, and the decorative arts (e.g., wedding chests). We will explore questions such as: How were love and marriage related during the Renaissance? What roles did sex, gender, race, class, and violence play in relationships between couples and within society, and how were they represented in literature and art? How do gender and genre affect the ways in which love, sex, and marriage are depicted? How did cultural differences influence writers' and artists' interpretations of love, sex, and marriage? And what about homosexual love, same-sex unions, and depictions of dissident sexualities and genders? Finally, how do contemporary (21st-century) writers reimagine Renaissance representations of love, sex, and marriage, and why do Renaissance texts and images matter today? Other topics will include virginity and celibacy, friendship, erotic literature and pornography, religion, family and class structures, and divorce. This seminar engages students with university-level research by navigating search engines and databases (beyond a Google search!), honing their analytical skills, and polishing their academic prose. Students will also have the opportunity to write creatively should they so choose. |
|
| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA RLAN |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
|
Fulfills a Requirement for: (FRST)(MDST-MN)(MDST)(MDST-Art/Arch)(MDST-History)(MDST-Lang/Lit)(MDST-Phil/Reli) |
Major Readings:
Martin Luther, "The Estate of Marriage"
Montaigne, "On Some Verses of Virgil," ESSAYS, book 3
Shakespeare, ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL (ed. Paul Werstine, 2006, ISBN-10: 0743484975)
Selections from:
Anna Bijns, REFRAINS
Boccaccio, DECAMERON
Louise Labé, POEMS
Luis de León, LA PERFECTA CASADA
Marguerite de Navarre, HEPTAMERON
Montaigne, TRAVEL JOURNAL
Petrarch, CANZONIERE
Mary Wroth, PAMPHILIA TO AMPHILANTHUS
|
Examinations and Assignments:
Students will post/share weekly reaction papers on Moodle, give a group presentation, and they will complete two short papers (3-4 pages) with a mandatory rewrite and one longer research paper (8-10 pages). There will also be one session devoted to critiquing peers' papers as part of a writing workshop, and students will meet with the instructor at least once during the semester in a one-on-one tutorial. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
All readings and discussion will be conducted in English. Students must buy ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL (ed. Paul Werstine, 2006, ISBN-10: 0743484975). The other texts will be provided. Students should expect to read no more than 100 pages per week. |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
|
|