ENG 255 - Studies in the Renaissance

This seminar will examine representations of real life domestic murders in England circa 1550-1650, with a view to how a  disrupted household threatened political ideologies characterizing the family as a microcosmic state. Over the course of the semester, we will read chronicle accounts of various crimes alongside the broadside ballads, prose pamphlets, and theatrical tragedies they inspired. In doing so, we will interrogate the enduring taste for sensationalist reportage in uncertain times, and consider parallels between these materials and the rhetoric surrounding such crimes in our own historical moment, especially in relation to female victims and perpetrators. Assigned texts will include Medea, Arden of Faversham, A Yorkshire Tragedy, The White Devil, various ephemera, and modern literary criticism. For English majors, this course satisfies the D-1 requirement. For English minors, this course counts as a 200-level English seminar. This course can be repeated with a different topic.

Prerequisites: Prerequisites: One 100-level English literature course (ENG 100-199) or permission of instructor

Anticipated Terms Offered: Periodically