3.0

credits

Average Course Rating

What did the English Renaissance think humans were capable of? What worlds could they build, how far could they travel, and what limits could they transgress? In his Oration on the Dignity of Man, Pico della Mirandola asserted that, in contrast to vegetables, animals, or even angels, “man is granted to have what he chooses, to be what he wills to be.” While Renaissance humanism was enthusiastic about the seemingly limitless abilities of the “Renaissance man,” English literature of the period from roughly 1500-1700 is often more skeptical of this optimism. If humans could activate their divine potential and achieve godlike status, they were still always in danger of regressing into one of the baser states of animality or vegetation. This course examines literary explorations of the ways that individual ambition fails or the ideal society proves unattainable. The course is divided into three units: utopia and early science fiction, theater, and poetry. Topics for discussion may include political ambition, gender inequality, ecological dangers, and Renaissance magic; authors will include Thomas More, Margaret Cavendish, William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Amelia Lanyer, and John Donne, among others.