ENGL 610
Studies in Renaissance Literature
Fall 2026 · “Of Myself”: Renaissance Life Writing
Topics
- Renaissance autobiography
- Diaries and spiritual self-examination
- Gender and self-representation
- Classical models of life-writing
- Sonnets and inwardness
Readings
- Margaret Cavendish, A True Relation of My Birth, Breeding and Life.
- Elizabeth Freke, Some Few Remembrances of My Misfortunes.
- Anne Bradstreet, Occasional Meditations.
- Abraham Cowley, “Of Myself.”
- Montaigne, essays.
- Anne Clifford, diary.
- Augustine, Confessions.
- Plutarch, Lives and Moralia.
- Sidney, Wroth and Shakespeare, sonnets.
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- Official course page ↗Fall 2026
- Departmental seminar description with reading information when supplied; not a full syllabus. These works are named in the seminar description; editions and specific selections are not specified.