ENG 255 - Studies in the Renaissance

What do we do with melancholy? How do fear and sorrow drive racial politics? How did understandings of melancholy develop alongside emerging knowledge about race in the early modern period? These questions frame this seminar in early modern studies. It explores manifestations of melancholy in 16th-17th Century literature and how they both cultivate and problematize racial categories. Our readings will examine how constructions of blackness and whiteness co-produced ideas of disability, gender, sexuality, health, climate, religion, and class. These readings comprise multiple literary genres by writers such as Marlowe, Shakespeare, Donne, Milton, Spenser, Jonson, Cary, Behn, and Webster to curate a wide vision of the racial work of melancholy in the period. Our seminar pairs this literature with focused attention to scholarship in Premodern Studies as well as Black Studies, Affect Theory, Queer Theory, and Disability Studies. Assignments over the semester consist primarily of engaged discussion, essays, and presentation.

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