Courses

This class is an introduction both to the study of the literature of the English Renaissance or early modern period, and to the study of the history of sexuality. While we will be looking at issues of sexuality in the literary texts that are at the center of this class, we will also be thinking about the history of sexuality as a field of study in its own right, how it’s been conceived of and practiced, its promises and pitfalls. We will be examining the humanist histories and methodologies that inform much Renaissance thought about  human sexuality – theories about bodies, desire, relationships between and among the sexes, materialism, and spirituality – as well as more recent critical approaches. We will think closely about the genres that (we think) privilege sexuality – eclogues, plays (especially those performed by boy players), erotic verse, verse letters, utopia and creation stories.