Writing in Troubled Times:
English Literature in the Seventeenth Century
The seventeenth century was
one of the most troubled periods in English history: A civil war, a revolution,
the King beheaded, monarchy abolished, a revolutionary regime hoping to bring
about the end of the world, followed by the Restoration, which brought back the
monarchy, followed by yet another revolution. Add to this major disasters
afflicting London in a spectacular and utterly frightening manner, i. e. the
Great Plague, which killed off about a quarter of the capital´s population, and
the Great Fire, which destroyed most of the City of London. Add, furthermore,
exciting developments in the history of science which had the power to change
the way people perceived the world, and the beginnings of global trade,
exploration and exploitation.
How did authors respond to
all of this? In order to find out, this lecture course will cover a wide range
of texts and topics. You will encounter green thoughts, flying cows, a poet
with a pet pig, explicit erotic poetry and drama, Satan leading an army of
rebel angels, melancholy and madness, the first ever actresses on the English
stage, pioneering female authors, someone smoking spiders, a remarkable diarist
and much else besides. You will also get a chance to look at art and listen to
music of the period.
Almost all texts covered in
this lecture course are available in EEBO (Early English Books Online). You
should familiarise yourselves with this digital resource before the beginning
of the semester.
Just in case your
application is rejected by the LSF system: If you want to do this course
because you are genuinely interested, you will be most welcome, no matter what
LSF says. Please get in touch with claudia.hausmann@uni-due.de who will enrol
you manually. The worst that might happen to you is that you cannot do a Leistungsnachweis
if you lack the formal requirements.
