The course will survey seminal figures in early modern literary culture and sample key texts including works by Sydney, Spenser, Puttenham, Queen Elizabeth, Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Donne. Specific focal points for the course will be the connections among rhetorical skill, power (ideology), and gender––especially in relation to monarchic writing. The course will also pay close attention to poetry from the period with significant consideration of the basic elements of prosody will be discussed.). Reading-intensive course.