THE WORLDLY

Oct. 15

Lecture Topic
The Court and the Courtier

Readings
Selection from Castiglione's The Courtier

Discussion Topics and Questions
  1. Early modernity has been credited with giving birth to the "society of the spectacle," a society in which being is not based on doing but on seeing and being seen. How does the courtier produce and how is he produced by spectacles?
  2. Please consider Castiglione's vision of the ideal court as a utopia.

Oct. 27

Lecture Topic
Courtly Poetry and Sir Thomas Wyatt

Readings
Wyatt's poetry: "They flee from me" and "Whoso list to hunt"

Assignment
Bibliography Excercise

Discussion Topics and Questions
  1. With particular attention to poetic and rhetorical devices, please formulate an interpretation of "They flee from me."
  2. How does Wyatt envision relations between the sexes?

Oct. 29

Lecture Topic
Wyatt in Henry VIII's Court

Readings
"Farewell, Love," "My lute, awake!" "With serving still," "In court to serve," "Quondam was I," "Who list his wealth and ease retain," "In mourning wise," "If waker care," "The pillar perished is," "Lucks, my fair falcon," "Sighs are my food," and "Throughout the world, if it were sought"

Discussion Topics and Questions
  1. Identify three different types of discourse running through Wyatt's poems.
  2. Drawing upon his poetry, why do you think Wyatt is so disillusioned with the court?
  3. What kind of reader(s) is Wyatt addressing his poems to?

Nov. 3

Lecture Topic
Hans Holbein's Vision of the Court

Assignment
Consulting either the library's resources or the WWW's, please take notes on the biography of Hans Holbein the Younger and generate a commentary on either the painting "The Ambassadors" or the woodcut "Death and the Miser."

See The Worldly Links for sites on Holbein, in particular the painting "The Ambassadors" and the woodcuts The Dance of Death.

Discussion Topics and Questions
How does Holbein as a court painter participate in the spectacle of the court? How does he resist the lure of the visual?

Nov. 5

Lecture Topic
Sir Philip Sidney and the Elizabethan Court

Readings
Selections from Fulke Greville's Life of the Renowned Sir Philip Sidney and Sidney's "Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show"

Discussion Topics and Questions
  1. How does Sidney's death enact Castiglione's vision of the ideal courtier?
  2. Explain the ways in which Sidney's sonnet "Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show" betrays signs of Castiglione's courtier?

Nov. 10

Lecture Topic
The Sonnet as a Vehicle for Sexual Desire

Readings
All selections from Astrophil and Stella

Discussion Topics and Questions
  1. Through which rhetorical figures does Sidney inscribe desire?
  2. What are the gender politics between Astrophil and Stella? Does courtly love place the woman in a position of a power over the man?

Nov. 12

Lecture Topic
Sonnet as a Vehicle for Political Desire

Readings
All selections from Astrophil and Stella

Discussion Topics and Questions
  1. Apart from Lady Rich, who else or what else might Stella represent?
  2. For whom are the sonnets written?