Renaissance Literature A

Module code: EN2020

This module introduces you to the landmark texts of the English Renaissance (excluding drama). These works reflect the impact of the new humanist learning pioneered in Italy, of the new medium of print, and the turbulent politics and religion of the time. The texts you will study include Thomas More’s Utopia, a work that pioneered a genre that inspires writers to this day; Christopher Marlowe’s Hero and Leander, a dazzling example of the Elizabethan erotic narrative that came into vogue in the 1590s; and Paradise Lost, by John Milton, perhaps English literature’s greatest radical and revolutionary.