Thinking Forms: Worldmaking and Embodiment in Renaissance Literature - ENG00106H
Module summary
Renaissance transformations of classical works, the creation of new worlds, and the pleasures and risks of being in the world are some of the questions that animate this module.
Forms are plural, various in kind and scale, sliding from isolated metaphor or verbal echo to a synonym for the ‘body’, or even ‘institution’. In discussing the politics ofform, Caroline Levine emphasizesform’s capaciousness and functional range. It often involves conflicting categories: immaterial Idea and material shape, essence and ornament, abstract and particular, contingent and ahistorical. Forms can demarcate and constrain (thinkof Milton on the bondage of rhyme); they can overlap, coalesce and clash; they can traverse time, space and medium, and both shape and are shaped by their materials. Togetherwe might explore the strange self-scrutiny of allegory, the intimate artifice of lyric, the opportunisticirony of drama's material technologies, and the subtle play of echo and allusion.
Elective Pre-Requisites
These pre-requisites only apply to students taking this module as an elective.
A in A Level English Literature or equivalent qualification
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Semester 2 2026-27 |
Module aims
Thinking Formshas three principal and related aims. The first is to examine a selection of brilliant works of the English Renaissance – chiefly poetry and drama – paying special attention to interlocking questions of embodiment and identity, feeling and cognition, and embeddedness and intersubjectivity. The second is to consider how these texts are especiallyexciting in light of the renewed interest in the critical affordances ofform, whichhas energised literary studies in recent years. To this end, our enquiry will be grounded in close readings of primary texts, informed by classical precedents and contemporary criticism. The final aim is to develop a critical practice that analyses both how artistic forms are complicit in the making of orders and identities we take for granted, and how they might be used to interrogate, undermine or reimagine them.
Module learning outcomes
On successful completion of the module, you should be able to:
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Demonstrate an advanced understanding of and engagement with a range of classical and Renaissance literary and philosophical works.
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Demonstrate an advanced understanding of and engagement with formalist approaches and histories of the body and emotion.
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Evaluate key debates within the relevant critical fields dealing with literaryform, cosmopoetics and embodiment and identity.
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Produce independent arguments and ideas which demonstrate an advanced proficiency in critical thinking, research, and writing skills.
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100.0 |
Special assessment rules
None
Additional assessment information
Throughout the module, you will have the opportunity to pitch, road-test, and develop essay ideas. Feedback will be integrated into your seminars or the ‘third hour’ (i.e. the lecture or workshop).
You will submit your summative essay via the VLE during the revision and assessment weeks at the end of the teaching semester (weeks 13-15). Feedback on your summative essay will be uploaded to e:Vision to meet the University’s marking deadlines.
Indicative reassessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100.0 |
Module feedback
You will receive feedback on all assessed work within the University deadline, and will often receive it more quickly. The purpose of feedback is to inform your future work; it is designed to help you to improve your work, and the Department also offers you help in learning from your feedback. If you do not understand your feedback or want to talk about your ideas further you can discuss it with your tutor or your supervisor, during their Consultation & Feedback Hours
For more information about the feedback you will receive for your work, see the department's Guide to Assessment
Indicative reading
Primary textsinclude Philip Sidney'sDefence of Poesy, Edmund Spenser'sThe Faerie Queene,Book II, Christopher Marlowe'sDido,Queenof Carthage,Ben Jonson's masques of blackness, William Shakespeare'sThe Winter's Tale, John Milton'sComusand the poetry of John Donne, Mary Wroth, Andrew Marvell and Margaret Cavendish
Classical textsincludePlato's dialogues on love, Aristotle'sPolitics, Lucretius'On the Nature of Things, Virgil'sAeneidand Ovid'sMetamorphosesandHeroides