Productivity and Early Modern Poetry

Catalog description

What metrics or conceptions of value must be in place to recognize the significance of literary criticism to the body politic? Students in this course will experiment with idioms that describe the modes of productivity in which they themselves participate as they read and respond to the period's poetry. Readings may include longer works relating to indolence, perpetual activity, and/or decisive action (King Lear, Hamlet, Samson Agonistes), shorter poems that deal with the creation of virtual personae, byproducts, and waste (Marvell, Pope, Swift, Montagu), and verbal artifacts produced against long odds by laboring class and enslaved poets (Stephen Duck, Mary Collier, Phillis Wheatley).Note: Enrollment by department consent. Priority given to graduating seniors. Email Vivian Beebe Sana ([email protected]) for permission code.