ENMTGR-The Global Renaissance

Module Provider: English Literature
Number of credits: 20 [10 ECTS credits]
Level:7
Terms in which taught: Spring term module
Pre-requisites:
Non-modular pre-requisites:
Co-requisites:
Modules excluded:
Current from: 2019/0

Email: c.houston@reading.ac.uk

Type of module:

Summary module description:

Aims:

This module will introduce students to a wide range of travel and utopian literature from 1516 to the 1660s, reading canonical texts such as More’s Utopia alongside less well known travel documents and political writings. We will also read other forms of literature, including drama, in order to consider the impact that travel and utopia had on early modern literary culture. Looking at different kinds of texts, and reading fictions of ideal societies alongside narratives of “real” journeys and experiences, will help us to explore the connections between utopia and travel in this period. We will consider the relationship between fact and fiction in these forms of writing as we examine the ways in which writers described both their own and imaginary worlds.

Assessable learning outcomes:

• exercise skills of close textual analysis and produce critical readings of the primary texts selected for study


• demonstrate an awareness of the historical, social and cultural contexts within which the primary texts are produced


• engage critically with readings of the primary material presented in criticism and in seminar discussion


• formulate critical questions


• organize and articulate a scholarly critical argument in writing


• conduct bibliographic research


• analyse and interpret texts independently


• synthesise a written argument

Additional outcomes:

The module will encourage students to develop their oral communication skills through discussions in seminars, to think critically both within and across disciplines, and to interrogate their own assumptions and arguments, as well as those of others including their peers and seminar leaders.

Outline content:

This module will examine range of utopian texts and travel literature from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries alongside other forms of literature and recent scholarship on utopia and the global Renaissance. It will consider the texts in their historical and political contexts, paying attention to a number of central questions. These may include: the origins of utopian writing and their influence on the genre; the use of irony in utopian writing; the development of travel writing as a genre; the influence of travel writing on utopian literature and vice versa; the relationship between fact and fiction in both forms of writing; the critical functions of utopian and travel literature; the development of dystopia; the influence of utopian and/or travel literature on other contemporary forms and genres; the relationship between travel writings and other forms of literature; the materiality of the text.

This module will make use of the travel writings held in the University of Reading Special Collections in order think about the materiality of the texts and their readerships.

We will study eight or nine texts across the term, including utopias, travel narratives, political writings and plays. Texts to be studied may include: Thomas More, Utopia (1516); Thomas Lupton, Sivqila (1580); Richard Hakluyt, The Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation (1589); William Shakespeare, The Tempest (1611); Thomas Coryat, Coryat His Crudities (1611); Samuel Purchas, Purchas His Pilgrimage (1613); Francis Bacon, New Atlantis (1627); Francis Godwin, The Man in the Moone (1638); Richard Brome, The Antipodes (1640); Gabriel Plattes, Macaria (1641); John Fletcher and Philip Massinger, The Sea Voyage (1647); Samuel Gott, Nova Solyma (1648); Gerrard Winstanley, The Law of Freedom in a Platform (1652); Edward Terry, A Voyage to East India (1655); John Harrington, Oceana (1656); Margaret Cavendish, The Blazing-World (1666); Henry Neville, The Isle of Pines (1668).

Global context:

The module will focus on works written by English and European authors, but it will seek to consider those texts in a global context. One of the critical questions for this module will be to reflect on the degree to which our own global society can find its roots in the global literature of the early modern period. Students will be able to incorporate texts written about a wide geographical range, and to think about early modern ethnography and globalisation, if they wish to do so.

Brief description of teaching and learning methods:

Summative assessment- Examinations:

Summative assessment- Coursework and in-class tests:

Students will choose one travel text held in the University of Reading Special Collections and will write a short critical description of that text (1,000 words). The critical description will constitute 25% of the module assessment and will be due in Week 11 of the Spring Term.

Students will also produce a 3,000-word essay on one or more of the set texts. The specific essay question or title will be determined by the student in consultation with the module convenor. This essay is worth 75% of the module assessment and is due Week 2 of Summer Term.

Formative assessment methods:

Penalties for late submission:
Penalties for late submission on this module are in accordance with the University policy. Please refer to page 5 of the Postgraduate Guide to Assessment for further information: http://www.reading.ac.uk/internal/exams/student/exa-guidePG.aspx

Assessment requirements for a pass:

50%

Reassessment arrangements:

Re-submission of coursework

Additional Costs (specified where applicable):

Last updated: 10 April 2019