EN5308 The Forms of Renaissance Literature
Academic year
2026 to 2027 Semester 1
Curricular information may be subject to change
Further information on which modules are specific to your programme.
Key module information
SCOTCAT credits
30
SCQF level
SCQF level 11
Planned timetable
To be arranged
Module Staff
Team taught
Module description
This module explores key works of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century literature in relation to the cultural forms that shaped early modern writing. Here the term ‘forms’ includes literary forms (tragedy and comedy, the sonnet and the Spenserian stanza, the essay and other kinds of prose discourse) but also the forms and institutions of literary culture (including the court, the grammar school and university, the theatre, and a range of popular or demotic conventions). The module considers how literary forms signify differently across our period of study and in conversation with their circumstances of production, transmission, and reception. Texts studied may include the plays, poems, and other writings of Wyatt, Surrey, Sidney, Wroth, and Lanyer; of Shakespeare, Jonson, Spenser, and Milton; of Donne, Herbert, Marvell, and Philips; and of other anonymous or lesser-known writers.
Assessment pattern
100% coursework
Re-assessment
100% coursework
Learning and teaching methods and delivery
Weekly contact
2 hour seminar
Scheduled learning hours
18
Guided independent study hours
280