Studies in Renaissance Literature

This course will focus on the representation of the passions in early modern European literature and political theory. What role do the passions play in the history of mimesis, poetic imitation, and rhetorical figuration? What is the role of the passions in eliciting or frustrating political obligation?  What would it mean to think of the passions as historical? What light do early modern texts on the passions shed on the emergence of the disciplines of political science in the 17th century and of aesthetics in the 18th century? Reading knowledge of French desirable but not absolutely required.

Texts:

Machiavelli, The Prince

Montaigne, Essays

Descartes, Passions of the Soul

Hobbes, Leviathan

Milton, Samson Agonistes

Spinoza, Ethics

Hume, Essays

Rousseau, Letter to D’Alembert and Discourse on Inequality