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English 350-771-001
Literature of the English Renaissance: Nations, Classes,
and Colonies
Instr:
Mark Netzloff
Office:
CRT 484, 229-6992
e-mail:
netzloff@uwm.edu
Office hours: by appointment
Course Information:
Tuesdays 4:30-7:10 CRT 286
Course Description
Although the increasing primacy in contemporary literary and cultural
studies of issues related to postcolonialism and "globalization" would
seem to indicate concerns of recent provenance, these terms themselves
emerge out of a much longer history. This course offers a broader historical
understanding of our own postcolonial era through an analysis of an
earlier period of globalization, examining the intersections and divergences
of histories of nationalism, capitalism, and colonialism through an analysis
of a wide range of literary and non-literary writings from the early modern
period (ca. 1500-1700). The seminar intends to expand the historical breadth
and theoretical training of graduate students interested in questions relating
to such topics as colonialism and postcoloniality, critical race theory,
the literature of empire, and Marxist analysis of class and economics.
The course also provides an introduction to historicist and materialist
criticism, discussing critical work that not only historicizes the study
of literature, but also expands the range of textual material encompassed
within literary and cultural studies.
Among the topics to be discussed in the course:
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Marxist and materialist approaches to history and culture
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theories of nationalism
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-the historical foundations of race and the Black Atlantic
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nationhood and the history of sexuality
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Orientalism and empire
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histories and theories of capitalism
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travel, transculturalism, and cosmopolitanism
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colonialism and early modern Ireland
Alongside early modern texts by Aphra Behn, Christopher Marlowe, Lady Mary
Wortly Montagu, Thomas More, Thomas Nashe, Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare,
and others, we will also discuss contemporary texts that address the historical
legacies of the early modern period by Julie Dash (Daughters of the Dust),
Derek Jarman (Edward II), and John Montague (The Rough Field). Critical
texts will include the work of Benedict Anderson, Homi Bhabha, Robert Brenner,
James Clifford, Michel Foucault, Henry Louis Gates, Paul Gilroy, Karl Marx,
Edward Said, Eve Sedgwick, Max Weber, Raymond Williams, and others.
Course work will consist of weekly informal e-mail responses, the leading
of discussion for part of one class session, and a final paper (20-30 pages).
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