ENGL9912 · English

PhD Seminar: How Philosophy turned into Science: Literature and Knowledge in Early Modern England.

Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences

Sixteenth and early Seventeenth-Century England saw enormous changes in understanding what knowledge was and how it could be attained. These changes shaped the construction of modern attitudes towardthe environment, race, gender, religion, and politics--toward our sense of what human beings are and what their role innature should be. In this seminar we will read primary texts that reflect and participate in these changes, and secondary works that bring different methods and approaches to understanding them. Readings will include works by More, Shakespeare, Donne, Bacon, Cavendish, and others. There will be space for students to pursue research projects relevant to their own fields and interests.