ENGL 4125 - [Literary Biography and Autobiography from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance]

(crosslisted) MEDVL 4125
(HB) (LA-AS)

Fall or Spring. Next Offered: 2020-2021. 4 credits. Student option grading.

This course may be used as one of the three pre-1800 courses required of English majors. Co-meets with ENGL 6125 /MEDVL 6125.

A. Galloway.

This seminar will sample from the works of a series of poets who were major contributors to a “cult of personality” that can be seen developing from the later fourteenth century through the Renaissance: from the origins of “lives” of literary makers to Chaucer, Gower, Hoccleve, Lydgate, Charles d’Orleans, Wyatt, Sidney, and Ben Jonson. How were these self-portrayals assisted by readers and followers? How did such a focus affect the idea of “literature” in general, and “English literature” in particular? What can current ideas about life writing contribute to our understanding of this pivotal span in literary history? Two small papers and a longer one; ongoing presentations and other inquiries.