In this course we will together define and explore the Renaissance, the 1500s and 1600s in England when everything changed--there were reformations in education, religion, and ways of knowing oneself, and eventually a turbulent Civil War and a short-lived republican government. From the double point of view of history and literature, we will survey a broad range of Renaissance texts, art, and events. We will ask how people of different classes, genders, religions, and politics thought about the self. What assumptions about the nature and rights of self operated in their identities? Some historians have argued, indeed, that the Renaissance is the birth of "the self" in a modern sense. In particular, we will look at the ways in which kingship and queenship were fabricated to represent both English national identity and the person behind the role. We will examine English Puritan conceptions of the relationship between self and world. We will consider the growth of knowledge about humans in relation to the world and the cosmos. And we will explore the developing language of human rights as it helped people to think about themselves as individuals and citizens.

We will meet once a week in the IBM-TQ Teaching Theater to use interactive technology, digitized images, and the World Wide Web to enhance our exploration of the Renaissance. We will meet once a week in discussion groups that will be permanent, with one of the two teachers. Students will be responsible for readings ahead of time and for active participation in both kinds of classes. We will also arrange for two class trips, one to the theater, one to a museum.