Unit information: Writing the Margins in 2019/20

Unit name	Writing the Margins
Unit code	ENGL20109
Credit points	20
Level of study	I/5
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Dr. Sebastiaan Verweij
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None.
Co-requisites	None.
School/department	Department of English
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This unit will introduce students to another kind of early modern period: that which played out on the relative margins of society, texts, gender, politics, race, sexuality, class, and geography. If the first-year core unit ‘Literature 1550-1740’ presents (to some degree) a broad and canonical overview, it is the purpose of this unit both to complement and to problematize this period, by attending to the several kinds of decentred or marginalized voices, texts, and genres.

Examples of subjects that will be explored in this unit include:

• conditions of authorship (men v. women; professional vs. elite);
• representations of sex and gender on the page and stage (masculine v. feminine);
• geographical locations (city vs. the country, London vs. the provinces);
• representations of class and race (English white vs. the ‘racial other’);
• religious persuasions (Protestant v. Catholic; Conformist vs. Non-Conformist);
• the early modern canon vs. the unknown, unedited, or unpopular.

Students will read a wide range of marginal texts from the period, sometimes alongside more canonical or central texts, in order to develop a deeper and more critical understanding of one of the most rewarding periods of English literature.

Intended Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the early modern period and its development from c. 1500 onwards;
2. demonstrate understanding of historical, cultural and intellectual contexts that underpin literary texts, authorial practice, and publication;
3. demonstrate understanding of what might constitute a ‘marginal text’ as opposed to a canonical one;
4. identify and present pertinent evidence to develop a cogent argument in oral and written discourse, as appropriate to level I;
5. demonstrate skills in textual analysis, argumentation, and critical interpretation using evidence from primary texts and secondary sources.
6. demonstrate skills in presentation

Teaching Information

1 x two hour seminar weekly

Assessment Information

1 x joint presentation (15 mins) and handout (25%) [ILOs 1-6]

1 x 3,000 words essay (75%). [ILOs 1-5]

Reading and References

Wendell V. Harris, ‘Canonicity’, PMLA, 106 (1991), 110–21

Jane Stevenson and Peter Davidson, eds. Early Modern Women Poets 1520-1700 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001)

Elizabeth Cary, The Tragedy of Mariam, ed. Ramona Wray (Arden: Bloomsbury, 2012)

Andrew Hadfield, Amazons, Savages and Machiavels: Travel and Colonial Writing in English, 1550-1630. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001)

Race in Early Modern England: A Documentary Companion, ed. Ania Loomba and Jonathan Burton (Basingstoke: Palgrave 2007)