In this course we will examine literary texts before the end of the seventeenth century alongside sources describing the material conditions that produced them. We will start with some Old and Middle English texts, including The Dream of the Rood and The Battle of Maldon, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, some Chaucer and some Malory, paying attention to the shift from manuscript and print cultures. Then we read four plays and a masque to understand the changing conditions of public entertainment. Finally, we track the course of sponsored literary works from the 15th through the 18th centuries, considering songs and sonnets and signature pieces from Wyatt and Surrey to the late 17th Century.
Coursework: three quizzes and a class presentation

Texts:

• 8th edition, ed. by Stephen Greenblatt. A-C: The Middle Ages Throug the Restoration and the Eighteenth Century. The Norton Anthology. [0393928330]
• Elizabeth L. Eisenstein. The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge University Press;, 2005. [0521607744]
• Michael Camille. Image on the Edge: The Margins of Medieval Art. 2004. [ 0948462280]