ENGL 40231 - Renaissance Woman

Institution:

University of Notre Dame

Subject:

English

Description:

This course is designed as an introduction to the study of women and literature of the Renaissance period in Europe. It will treat the subject of the Renaissance woman" in three ways. First, there will be a brief historical overview of the condition of women of different social classes during this period, focusing on topics such as their education, the role of marriage, and the convent as an alternative to married life. Secondly, it will survey how women were viewed in the literature written by men in various European countries. Here we shall read excerpts from Dante and the courtly love tradition, Petrarch and the Petrarchists, Shakespeare, and Rabelais, among others. We shall also consider the portrayal of women in artistic works of this time, comparing this to their literary representation. Next, we shall study the literature created by women during the Renaissance in Europe. During this part of the course, we shall consider some of the problems generated by women's writing, using Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own as a point of departure for our discussions. At the end of the course, we will resume our study of the image of woman in the Renaissance by reading a modern play set at that time (Peter Whelan's The Herbal Bed on the trial of Shakespeare's daughter) that treats some of the issues facing women at that time. All foreign texts will be read in English translation.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.nd.edu

Phone Number:

(574) 631-5000

Regional Accreditation:

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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