Seminar 2:
Trajectories of the Sonnet in Sidney and Shakespeare
Rui Carvalho Homem (Universidade do Porto)
TOPIC DESCRIPTION
This inquiry into the Early Modern English sonnet aims to foster a productive discussion of the fortunes of the longest-lived of lyrical ‘fixed forms’ in the literary culture of a period that proved decisive towards the delineation of modern literary sensibilities, even of the modern experience of reading. The seminar will find its textual focal points in (arguably) the two key sonnet sequences of the age – Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella and Shakespeare’s Sonnets – which will be read against the designs proper to literary transmission and canonisation. Further, the group will be prompted to acknowledge and discuss the imbrication between the discourses of love accommodated by the sonnet sequences and the power relations and acquisitive dynamics that centrally define the Early Modern period.
Topics to be considered include:
- Petrarchanism: its English fortunes; emulation and resistance;
- lover, courtier, soldier, merchant: lyrical representation and scenarios of material ambition; the erotics and economics of love discourses;
- hetero- and homoeroticism, misogyny – and the challenges posed to present-day readers by Early Modern discourses of desire;
READING LIST
Primary sources:
1. a selection of sonnets and other poems (to be made available in early February);
2. Philip Sidney, ‘Astrophil and Stella’, Katherine Duncan-Jones (ed.), Sir Philip Sidney: the Major Works. Oxford: O.U.P., 2002.*
3. William Shakespeare, ‘The Sonnets’, John Kerrigan (ed.), William Shakespeare: The Sonnets and a Lover’s Complaint. Harmondsworth: Penguin,1986.*
* the seminar leader suggests these editions, but students should feel free to bring other critical editions – should they already have their own;
Some secondary sources:
BOYD, Brian. Why Lyrics Last: Evolution, cognition, and Shakespeare's sonnets. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2012.
INNES, Paul. Shakespeare and the English Renaissance Sonnet: Verses of Feigning Love. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997.
MACFAUL, Tom. Poetry and Paternity in Renaissance England: Sidney, Spenser, Shakespeare, Donne and Jonson. Cambridge: C.U.P., 2010.
PARKER, Tom W.N. Proportional Form in the Sonnets of the Sidney Circle: Loving in Truth. Oxford: Clarendon, 1998.
SOUTHALL, Raymond. Literature and the Rise of Capitalism. London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1973.
SPILLER, Michael R.G. The Development of the Sonnet: An Introduction. London: Routledge, 1992.
VENDLER, Helen. The Art of Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard U.P., 1997.
WALLER, Gary. English Poetry of the Sixteenth Century. Harlow: Longman, 1986.
WARLEY, Christopher. Sonnet Sequences and Social Distinction in Renaissance England. Cambridge: C.U.P., 2005.
SEMINAR SCHEDULE
Session 1: overview and introductory contribution by seminar leader, followed by a critical discussion of a selection of poems – from Wyatt to Donne (specific reading list to be provided to students during the preparatory stage);
Session 2: five-minute contributions by all students in the group, followed by discussion; textual focus: Sidney’s ‘Astrophil and Stella’;
possible follow-up research chores (with a view to final presentations);
Session 3: five-minute contributions by all students, followed by discussion; textual focus: Shakespeare’s sonnets;|
possible follow-up research chores (with a view to final presentations);
final roundup.
ASSESSMENT
The first seminar grade expresses the activity in the seminar discussion. It can range from 0 to 10, the pass limit is 5. The second seminar grade assesses the quality of paper proposals (300 words minimum), the share of the student in the preparation of the final presentation, its contents and standard. It can range from 0 to 15, the pass limit is 8. The final essay grade is expressed in points from 0 to 30, the pass limit is 15. Deadline for the submission of the essay: 15 July 2013. Length of the essay: 3000-4000 words. The maximum number of points acquired for the 2 seminars and an essay is 80 (25+25+30).
For the participation in a workshop 5 points are acquired (10 points for two workshops). For the the submission of an internship application 5 points are acquired and 10 points fort the shortlisting for the internship.
