ENGL 2202 / GSWS 2202. Renaissance Sexualities

How do Renaissance authors represent sexual desires and dilemmas? What strategies do authors use to represent, for instance, drives that have not been codified and labeled according to modern epistemologies? Topics include the inarticulacy of homoeroticism and other forms of attachment as they shape Shakespearean comedy, minor epic, and tragicomic romance, with special attention to the poetics of same-sex desire and the erotics of theatrical performance by boy actors on the London stage. Authors include Shakespeare, Thomas Middleton, John Ford, Thomas Crashaw, and Margaret Cavendish, with secondary readings by Eve Sedgwick, Jonathan Goldberg, and Laurie Shannon, among others. Note: Fulfills the pre-1800 requirement for English majors.