The Renaissance sees literature not as some fiddly ornament, but as fundamental to civil society: it moves readers to want to do well, then teaches them what is best to do, and always delights them, so they desire to be moved and taught. This module explores all the leading genres and authors from 1580 to 1640, to find out how literary texts try to change their society. We will analyse the aims and formal features of the sonnet, the masque, the city pageant, the romance, the religious lyric, the epigram (both panegyric and satirical), prose (Senecan and Ciceronian), and the three main genres of plays (history, tragedy and comedy).

• analyse works by a range of canonical authors
• evaluate the affordances of the principal genres of the period
• engage critically with scholarly discussions of the aesthetics of the period

This module will be delivered through a mixture of synchronous and asynchronous activities, as part of this programme’s blended provision, which will include on-campus and online teaching and support.

The precise mode of delivery and details – subject to Welsh Government and Public Health Wales guidance – of the teaching and support activities will be made available at the start of the semester via Learning Central.

Academic skills: the particular skills of the module involve reading closely and critically; analysing texts and discourses, while responding to the affective power of language and using appropriate approaches and terminology. Students will develop independent and imaginative interpretations of literary, critical, linguistic or creative material. It will be important to articulate a critical understanding of complex texts and ideas, and of their historical relations where appropriate, by writing clearly, accurately and effectively.

Employability skills: these include the ability to synthesise information, participate in group-based discussion, to negotiate different and conflicting standpoints, to communicate ideas and to produce clear, informed arguments in a professional manner. Student-led research will encourage skills of information collation, selection and synthesis. Employers are actively seeking graduates who can assess complex texts rapidly, independently and precisely, then present their findings clearly and concisely.

The methods of summative assessment for this module are detailed in the table below.

Formative work to be submitted before each summative assessment: you can choose between submitting, as appropriate, an essay plan/structure, synopses of essay topic options (if undecided) or sample paragraph/s; for creative assignments, you can submit working drafts of parts of your composition, as arranged with the workshop convenor.

THE OPPORTUNITY FOR REASSESSMENT IN THIS MODULE:
As with School policy, failed or unsubmitted assessments can be retaken during the August resit period.

Indicative Syllabus:

• History and tragedy: William Shakespeare, Coriolanus (1609)
• The masque and the city pageant: Ben Jonson and Thomas Middleton
• Prose (Ciceronian and Senecan): John Donne, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (1624); Francis Bacon, Essays (1597)
• The religious lyric: George Herbert, The Temple (1633); John Donne, The Holy Sonnets
• The romance: Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queen (1590), Book I, cantos 1–12
• The comedy play: William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night (1602)
• The sonnet sequence: Philip Sidney, Astrophil and Stella (1591)
• The epigram (satirical and panegyric): Ben Jonson, Epigrams (1616)
• Tragedy: Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus (1592)