ENGLISH 736 / Rhetoric and Subject in Early Modern Devotional Poetry

3 unit(s)

M. Silcox

This course will explore relationships between language -particularly as it is schematized in rhetoric - and subjectivity in early modern devotional poetry. Drawing on various theoretical models of religious subjectivity, we will consider such topics as: vocabularies of the inner life; the influence of rhetorical notions of the poet; the construction, reconstruction and deconstruction of relationships with God and society; the gender of devotion to God; and the effects of sectarian and political allegiances on religious poetry.