Unit information: Poets and the Court 1400-1660 in 2011/12

Unit name	Poets and the Court 1400-1660
Unit code	ENGLM3038
Credit points	20
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Dr. Griffiths
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of English
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This unit will focus on the diverse and often contentious relationships between poets and the court from the time of Richard II to the Restoration. In particular, it will examine the way in which poets as different as Chaucer, Wyatt, Spenser, and Jonson try to balance authorial independence with the practical need to appeal to potential royal and aristocratic patrons. The unit aims to give students the opportunity to consider how such writers use their work to model both ideal and oppositional relationships between poet and court, to engage with changing perceptions of the king and court and of the writers authority, to provide an opportunity to consider well-known writers such as Chaucer and Spenser in the company of slightly lesser-known ones such as Hoccleve and Skelton, and to gain a fresh view of the emerging vernacular literary canon in the late medieval and early modern period.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Students taking this unit will gain a good knowledge of the varied and complex relationships between poets and the court from c.1400-c.1660 and of the different ways in which the poets re-imagined this relationship. They will be familiar with the periods changing perceptions of both the court and the writers own authority, and will have gained a greater understanding of the nature of the relationship between historical context and literary text.

Teaching Information

Seminars

Assessment Information

One summative essay of 4000 words

Reading and References

• D.A. Pearsall, ed., Chaucer to Spenser: A Critical Reader. Oxford: Blackwell, 1999.
• D.A. Pearsall, ed., Chaucer to Spenser: An Anthology of Writing in English, 1375-1575, Oxford: Blackwell, 1999
• Wilkin B. Hunter (ed.), The English Spenserians (1977)
• David Norbrook, Poetry and Politics in the English Renaissance, rev. ed. (2002)
• James Simpson, Reform and Cultural Revolution, Oxford English Literary History vol. 2, 1350-1547 (2002)
• Leah Marcus, The Politics of Mirth: Jonson, Herrick, Milton, Marvell and the Defense of Old Holiday Pastimes (1986)