Forms of Love module (EN42031)

You will read a range of early modern texts, including selections of poetry, prose, and drama. You will also read material drawn from literary criticism, critical theory, and philosophy. The module will stress the persistent presence of ideas of love drawn from classical influences in the early modern period and our own.
 

What you will learn

In this module, you will:

• engage with a range of literary texts and forms from the early modern period
• explore key areas of critical debate in relation to the authors, texts, and genre studied, organised around approaches to the topic of love
• reflect critically on creativity and its contexts, with emphasis on form, themes, and literary aesthetics, and the consequences of formal choices
• address questions of poetics, rhetoric, and representation in the context of current theoretical models for understanding love, desire, and affect
   

By the end of this module you will be able to:

• show an appreciation of the range and scope of early modern writing on love
• evidence an understanding of the terms of current debates in the study of the period
• understand the construction of a range of literary and critical forms, including (for example): sonnet, epyllion, elegy, ode, dialogue, essay, comedy, tragedy, fragment, aphorism
• analyse a range of modes of expression, combining critical focus and close analysis
• engage in-depth with a series of critical debates surrounding writing about love

integrate theoretical and critical modes of analysis, with a particular emphasis on modern French thought

Assignments / assessment:

• essay 1 (40%)
• essay 2 (60%)

Teaching methods / timetable:

You will have one 2-hour workshop lecture and one 1-hour seminar per week on this module.