Representing War in Early Modern Literature
Over the last
two decades and a half, scholars and critics of sixteenth- and
seventeenth-century literature have investigated and invested attention on
representations and traces of war in English literature of the period.
England’s involvement in what amounted to a world-wide conflict with Spain from
the 1570s until the reign of James I, a proliferation of popular pamphlets on
soldiering in the late 16th and early 17th century, the beginnings of
colonization and proto-imperialism on the margins of England’s dominion and in
the New World, and the cataclysmic civil conflict that overthrew all the
institutions of monarchial government in the mid-seventeenth century and the
subsequent Restoration are the contexts within which literature of the period
can be viewed as haunted by war, whether through direct or indirect
representations, rhetorical addresses to audiences affected by or enlisted into
soldiering, or simply militarized metaphors and tropes. Although our joint
examination of representations and traces of war will focus on canonical texts
and writers, work in the course will be otherwise open-ended and exploratory,
and your seminar paper may focus on these works and these writers, or others,
or texts that are not normally thought of as literary at all.
Our
investigation of early modern literature of war will fall into three phases.
First, a brief introduction (about 3 weeks), directed by me, to the most
important critical work of the period, Sidney’s Apology for Poetry, and the most important and
influential work focused on war and empire during the early modern period,
Vergil’s Aeneidas translated by John Dryden after the English Civil War
and during the monarchial Restoration. Second, reading and study of More’s Utopia,Marlowe’s Tamburlaine, Parts
OneandTwo; Shakespeare’s Henry V; Spenser’s
Faerie Queene, Books 1 and 5; Milton’s Areopagitica, Of Education,
The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates,and selections from Paradise Lostas
well as some Civil-war related poetry (sonnets by Milton, lyrics by Cavalier
poets, works by Andrew Marvell); Dryden’s Annus Mirabilis,and selections
from Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan.During these 6–7 weeks, each of you will
be giving a report on one or two critical essays examining one of these works
or writers from a war-related perspective. Finally, during the final 5-6
weeks of the seminar, you will be giving a presentation on your research
project and preparing a draft of it that will be critiqued by a classmate and
by me prior to final submission.
Course Learning Objectives:
1. Guiding you to
analyze canonical 16th-century and 17th-century English literary works and
writers from the perspective of England’s involvement in war during this
historical time period and with regard to ethical and political issues
associated with early modern and subsequent wars (e.g., imperialism and
colonialism, just-war theory, trauma theory)
2. Enabling you to critically present and
analyze your own reading of at least one text and one or more professional
interpretations of that text from such a perspective in an oral representation
and subsequent short paper (4–6 pages).
3. Requiring you to devise a research question
focused on representations or reflections of war during this period and to
conduct independent research to pursue and develop that question into a
substantial (15–20 page) draft paper.
4. Asking you to present your research project
in-class for feedback and commentary by other students and for written feedback
and critique by one student reader and myself.
5. Encouraging revision and completion of your
paper in a final form that might be revised or considered for subsequent
professional presentation orally at a professional conference or submission for
publication
Course Requirements:
1. Attendance and effective participation (20%)
2. Oral and written interpretation of at least
one required reading and critique of related scholarly article (30%)
3. Research project: presentation, peer
critique, revision, final submission (50%)