Module description
This module focuses on the rich and diverse range of literary and non-literary texts written in England during the early modern period (1500-1700). In this era, national populations exploded, international travel brought different peoples into contact, religious and political divides erupted into outright warfare – and increased literacy, access to print, and availability of paper meant that difference and debate could be published more readily. This course focuses on various kinds of 'contested voices' – including contests that were domestic, public, and international; life-and-death contests or those put on for purposes of diversion; contested ideas about gender, race, class, religion, and ideology. The course is designed to be flexible and to allow students to develop their own sense of the different kinds of argument, discord, and debate that characterized this period, and the many rich voices in which those contests were articulated.
This module is also distinct in making space for invited guest speakers from outside King's. We try to bring in both early career and more established scholars to speak about 'live' problems on which they are working, to give you a sense not only of a topic but how a scholar is thinking it through, how it fits into their own career path, and how you might model your own research topics on their process, as well as their findings.
Assessment details
1 x 4000-word essay
Teaching pattern
1 x 2-hour seminar, weekly