Topics will vary by semester. Consult the Course Descriptions provided by the Department each semester for current offerings. Example: X-Files of the Seventeenth Century. During the 17th century, ghosts, monsters, prodigies, demons, and other strange phenomena-many of so-called "preternatural" occurrences-were becoming the object of overlapping (and sometimes conflicting) forms of explanation. Whereas some of these phenomena could be explained philosophically-with reference to natural causes-others belonged to religious debate or seemed exclusively to exist in the imagination. Using a broad range of texts, we will examine the widespread interest in the preternatural in seventeenth century culture, exploring the political, religious, and ideological consequences of this fascination. Texts will include images of natural "marvels" and "monstrosities," collections of "curiosities," plays by William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, utopian fiction by Margaret Cavendish, selections from Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene, seventeenth century crime pamphlets, philosophical texts by Francis Bacon, Robert Hooke's images from the microscope, readings in Renaissance and classical poetics, and various religious texts. Students can expect the reading for this class to be demanding but interesting.
Topics will vary by semester. Consult the Course Descriptions provided by the Department each semester for current offerings. Example: X-Files of the Seventeenth Century. During the 17th century, ghosts, monsters, prodigies, demons, and other strange phenomena-many of so-called "preternatural" occurrences-were becoming the object of overlapping (and sometimes conflicting) forms of explanation. Whereas some of these phenomena could be explained philosophically-with reference to natural causes-others belonged to religious debate or seemed exclusively to exist in the imagination. Using a broad range of texts, we will examine the widespread interest in the preternatural in seventeenth century culture, exploring the political, religious, and ideological consequences of this fascination. Texts will include images of natural "marvels" and "monstrosities," collections of "curiosities," plays by William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, utopian fiction by Margaret Cavendish, selections from Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene, seventeenth century crime pamphlets, philosophical texts by Francis Bacon, Robert Hooke's images from the microscope, readings in Renaissance and classical poetics, and various religious texts. Students can expect the reading for this class to be demanding but interesting.
