English 190
Research Seminar: Metaphysical Poets from Donne to Vaughan
| Section | Semester | Instructor | Time | Location | Course Areas |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | Fall 2013 | Marno, David
|
TTh 2-3:30 | 206 Wheeler |
Book List
Colin, Burrow: Metaphysical Poetry
Description
This class focuses on a group of poets who were philosophical before there was philosophy. Four decades before the publication of René Descartes’ Meditations, John Donne began writing poems in which, in the words of a later critic, “he perplexes the minds of the fair sex with nice speculations of philosophy, when he should engage their hearts.” According to this summary judgment on Metaphysical Poetry, Donne’s new verse was a category mistake: he philosophized where he should have spoken amorously. Why did he do so? And why did numerous other poets follow suit in the first half of the seventeenth century?
In this class, we read the metaphysical poets and their contemporaries in order to figure out what they tried to achieve in their poetry. Did they try to solve philosophical problems? Was it for entertainment? Or to gain patronage? Were they seeking employment? Was it perhaps a kind of spiritual exercise for them? Answers may vary as we slowly parse through the beautiful and often weird poems of Donne, Herbert, Lock, Carew, Philips, Crashaw, Bradstreet, Traherne, Vaughan, and Marvell. Most of the poems are included in Burrow; additional poems and secondary literature will be available on BSpace.
This course satisfies the pre-1800 requirement for the English major.
Please read the paragraph on page 2 of the instructions area of this Announcement of Classes for more details about enrolling in or wait-listing for this course.
Please click here for more information about enrollment in English 190.
Other Recent Sections of This Course
spring, 2021 |
||
190/1 |
Research Seminar: Literary Collaboration: Samuel Coleridge and William and Dorothy Wordsworth |
|
190/2 |
||
190/3 |
||
190/4 |
||
190/5 |
||
190/6 |
Research Seminar: Black Postcolonial Cultures: Real and Imagined Spaces |
|
190/7 |
||
190/8 |
||
190/9 |
||
fall, 2020 |
||
190/1 |
||
190/2 |
||
190/3 |
||
190/4 |
||
190/5 |
||
190/8 |
||
190/9 |
||
190/10 |
||
spring, 2020 |
||
190/1 |
||
190/2 |
||
190/3 |
||
190/4 |
||
190/5 |
||
190/6 |
||
190/7 |
||
190/8 |
||
190/9 |
||
190/10 |
||
fall, 2019 |
||
190/1 |
||
190/2 |
||
190/3 |
||
190/4 |
||
190/5 |
||
190/6 |
Research Seminar: Literature on Trial: Romanticism, Law, Justice |
|
190/8 |
||
190/10 |
||
spring, 2019 |
||
190/1 |
||
190/2 |
||
190/3 |
||
190/5 |
Research Seminar: California Books and Movies Since World War I |
|
190/6 |
Research Seminar: Carnal Knowledge in Medieval and Early Modern Literature |
|
190/7 |
||
190/8 |
||
190/9 |
||
190/10 |
||
190/11 |
||
190/13 |
||
fall, 2018 |
||
190/1 |
||
190/2 |
Research Seminar: Laughter and Vision: Explorations in the Novel of Ideas |
|
190/3 |
||
190/4 |
||
190/7 |
||
190/8 |
||
190/9 |
Griffin, Ben
|
|
190/10 |
No instructor assigned yet.
|
|
190/11 |
No instructor assigned yet.
|
|
190/12 |
Research Seminar: California Books and Movies Since World War I |
|
190/13 |
||
190/14 |
||
spring, 2018 |
||
190/1 |
Research Seminar: Trials of Literature: Romanticism, Justice, and the Law |
|
190/2 |
||
190/3 |
||
190/4 |
||
190/5 |
||
190/6 |
||
190/7 |
||
190/8 |
||
190/9 |
Research Seminar: The Faerie Queene: The Ethics of Imagination |
|
190/10 |
||
190/11 |
||
190/12 |
Research Seminar: California Books and Movies Since World War I |
|
190/13 |
||
Back to Semester List
University of California, Berkeley
English Department
322 Wheeler Hall,
Berkeley, CA 94720-1030
general phone: 510-642-3467
©UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY ENGLISH DEPARTMENT