The seminar will examine the politics and poetics of English humanism in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. In particular, we will be measuring the political versatility of humanist discourse, which could construct a stance of resistance, underwrite unseemly ambition, or bolster a traditional vision of order. In doing so, we will consider humanism in texts of both "high" and "middle" ranks, literary and didactic, that address issues of education, poetics, monarchy, society, and subjectivity. We will also be reading Romantic, Christian, and materialist constructions (and critiques) of humanism in order to evaluate our own political stake in rereading Renaissance humanism. Texts to be read will include: Erasmus, Praise of Folly and "On the Early Liberal Education of Children"; Thomas More, Utopia; selections from Thomas Elyot, The Governour, Roger Ascham, The Scholemaster; Puttenham, The Arte of Englishe Poesie; Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus and Tamburlaine; selections from Ben Jonson's poems and literary criticism; Philip Sidney, Defence of Poesy and Stephen Gosson, School of Abuse; William Shakespeare, The Tempest.