Department of English

Although nearly every age in English history could lay claim to being a period of significant transformation, the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in England were especially tumultuous. By examining literary and non-literary texts in their historical contexts, we will focus on several key areas of conflict and change during this period: power politics, freedom of religion, class mobility, and gender roles. Among others, our topics will include royal absolutism, resistance theories, and nascent republicanism; the persecution of heresy, and the Reformation; the enclosure crisis, class mobility, and the inflation of honors; female rule, and marital conduct. We will be reading a wide variety of literary texts from both well-known and less well-known authors of the period.