The course will focus on Edmund Spenser, one of the major writers of the English Renaissance, beginning with his first work: The Shepheardes Calender, which inaugurated the passion for pastoral in England, and then moving on to selected parts of Spenser's epic romance: The Faerie Queene, one of the central works of the English Renaissance, to which the greater part of the course will be devoted. We will follow some of the twists and turns of the epic adventures, and discover that while it tells an exciting story, Spenser's romance also affords fascinating insights into the thoughts, beliefs and deep-rooted anxieties of the men (gender intentional) of the period, a time of immense political, social and intellectual activity and change.
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