Early Modern Roll Call

[JustPoesieAlong]

Inspired by a similar post for folks in comparative lit, I wonder how many early modern/renaissance applicants are currently waiting on responses. I'd love to know where everyone applied and what your focus is. I haven't heard from anyone yet--but got an implied rejection from Emory when interviews went out. My background is primarily in seventeenth century poetry and prose, especially John Donne. As a PhD student, I'm hoping to specialize in early modern medicine and medical rhetoric.

Looking forward to hearing from others! Best of luck to everyone!

[punctilious]

Husband is not an early modernist (tbh I don't actually fully understand what time period that refers to), but I wanted to mention that he LOVES John Donne. He actually read a John Donne poem at our wedding (I cried when I first heard the poem so he had to read it at the wedding). I'm pretty sure he wrote an essay on John Donne in his transatlantic renaissance poetry course in college.

Good luck to you!

[JustPoesieAlong]

@punctilious That's awesome! What poem did he read? I first encountered John Donne in an undergraduate course on early modern literature and religion, and that's when my love for the period clicked. It helped, of course, that my professor was hands down one of the best professors I've ever worked with. 

[punctilious]

4 minutes ago, JustPoesieAlong said:

@punctilious That's awesome! What poem did he read? I first encountered John Donne in an undergraduate course on early modern literature and religion, and that's when my love for the period clicked. It helped, of course, that my professor was hands down one of the best professors I've ever worked with. 

He read The Good-Morrow. It's so beautiful! Similarly, his professor for the course was outstanding. I don't think he expected to enjoy transatlantic renaissance poetry as much as he did!

[JustPoesieAlong]

@punctilious Ahhh such a wonderful choice.  

[BlessMeWithSnow]

I haven't applied to any American MAs so I'm not sure if this is relevant (Canadian universities only), but I'm interested in late 16th cen. and early 17th cen. drama, focusing especially on Revenge Drama (The Spanish Tragedy up till 'Tis Pity), rhetoric and law.

I've been lurking here for a long time but haven't seen many Early Modernists, good luck!

 

[FreakyFoucault]

34 minutes ago, JustPoesieAlong said:

especially John Donne.

I love Donne, but I'd be lying if I said my brain doesn't nearly explode from the effort required to read his poems. 

[JustPoesieAlong]

@BlessMeWithSnow Thanks for commenting! It's certainly relevant! I don't have much knowledge of your topic, but I hope to learn more. I haven't seen many early modernists either, and am super curious as to many are actually here. Best of luck to you as well!

[JustPoesieAlong]

3 minutes ago, FreakyFoucault said:

I love Donne, but I'd be lying if I said my brain doesn't nearly explode from the effort required to read his poems. 

Yeah, I have to agree with you there--but I'm a masochist and that's kind of what I love about him. 

[FreakyFoucault]

2 minutes ago, JustPoesieAlong said:

but I'm a masochist and that's kind of what I love about him. 

That’s exactly right. In fact, it kind of reminds me of my first exposure to Cubism:

I have no clue what this is, but I like it...

[BlessMeWithSnow]

7 minutes ago, JustPoesieAlong said:

@BlessMeWithSnow Thanks for commenting! It's certainly relevant! I don't have much knowledge of your topic, but I hope to learn more. I haven't seen many early modernists either, and am super curious as to many are actually here. Best of luck to you as well!

It's mainly an obsession with Renaissance drama, specifically focusing on the revenge drama as a genre/paradigm. And Marlowe. Always Marlowe.

By the way, on the last day of term, my favourite Prof. read us Donne's "The Relic." It's beautiful.

[JustPoesieAlong]

@BlessMeWithSnow Hands down, one of my very favorite poems. 

[FreakyFoucault]

3 minutes ago, BlessMeWithSnow said:

my favourite Prof. read us Donne's "The Relic." It's beautiful.

Thirded 

Edited January 24, 2018 by FreakyFoucault
Technically JustPoesieAlong seconded it first...

[JustPoesieAlong]

Don't know if said person is active on the forum, but congratulations to the early modernist who received an OSU acceptance! 

[rrk686]

I'm an early modern/Renaissance person. Gonna focus on Milton, though not sure yet what specifically. I'm interested in the way politics and theology shaped some of Milton's writing.

[colin_cloute]

Hi, just saw this thread and I'm checking in as well. I'm doing early modern, emphasis on Spenser, women's writing, poetry and poetics, some combination of the sort. Always probing into some digital humanities work on the side, but I think I'm most at ease writing about how bizarre and generative are poems by the likes of Wyatt, Gascoigne, Shakespeare, Philips, Herrick, Donne, etc. 

[FreakyFoucault]

3 minutes ago, colin_cloute said:

but I think I'm most at ease writing about how bizarre and generative are poems by the likes of Wyatt, Gascoigne, Shakespeare, Philips, Herrick, Donne, etc.

Man, if anyone can write artfully about getting an erection, it's Robert Herrick... 

Also, speaking of Wyatt, "Whoso list to hunt" is one of my all time favorite sonnets! 

[JustPoesieAlong]

Wow, I'm sorry I didn't see the updates here! Good to hear from other early modernists. Congrats on your acceptances, @colin_cloute and @RK092089! I too have been fascinated by Donne's generative verse; it's, at least in part, the focus of my master's thesis. 

[punctilious]

Sorry to pop in here, but can someone explain what the different research area names mean? Like early modern, modern, late modern... I know postmodern because that's what husband studies but I'm not sure what time periods the other 'areas' are?

[ThePandaBard]

I'm an early modernist. I apply Poststructural Marxist Feminism to Shakespeare's comedies (though I also do other playwrites like Marlow for comparison) to look at how class and gender conflicts manifested during the transition between feudalism and capitalism. Marx himself wrote that Shakespeare was a great critic of capitalism so that's what I decided to study, along with women (or the consrructed concept of women filtered through the male gaze versus records of actual women and gender politics) of the period as well.

[JustPoesieAlong]

29 minutes ago, ThePandaBard said:

I'm an early modernist. I apply Poststructural Marxist Feminism to Shakespeare's comedies (though I also do other playwrites like Marlow for comparison) to look at how class and gender conflicts manifested during the transition between feudalism and capitalism. Marx himself wrote that Shakespeare was a great critic of capitalism so that's what I decided to study, along with women (or the consrructed concept of women filtered through the male gaze versus records of actual women and gender politics) of the period as well.

Oh wow. That sounds intensely cool. I had wondered if you were early modern when I saw your user name. If you don't mind me asking, what schools have you applied to/heard back from? (Feel free to PM me if you'd rather). 

[JustPoesieAlong]

36 minutes ago, punctilious said:

Sorry to pop in here, but can someone explain what the different research area names mean? Like early modern, modern, late modern... I know postmodern because that's what husband studies but I'm not sure what time periods the other 'areas' are?

No worries at all. The way I'm using it, early modern refers to a general period of study--roughly 15th century to 18th. 

[mads47]

1 hour ago, punctilious said:

Sorry to pop in here, but can someone explain what the different research area names mean? Like early modern, modern, late modern... I know postmodern because that's what husband studies but I'm not sure what time periods the other 'areas' are?

Ok I am going to geek out here and attempt to do this question justice. I want to give a few caveats first: many time periods have different names depending on the region (ie. Victorian vs. 19th century American); larger eras of study include a multiplicity of subdivisions; these eras are largely based on canonical interpretation of literature, so many more recent scholars push against these dates of separation between eras and the idea that these eras are typically defined by British and American literature. Also, I am going to define these eras in the way that English scholars typically do, but I think Comp Lit people define the eras slightly differently, because many important literary trends and eras did not start in English. So please, please, please correct me if I am spreading any misinformation.

Midieval Lit: This follows historically what is considered Midieval, so largely the fall of the Roman Empire until the Renaissance. In English, this includes Anglo Saxon literature (from about 500-1066) and Middle English (1066-circa 1500)

Early Modern Lit: This is literature from the Renaissance, Reformation, and Neoclassical eras (circa 1500-circa 1800).

Romanticism: Depending on who you consider the first Romanticists to be, this overlaps with the later Early Modern and Early Victorian Eras. (late 1700s to mid 1800s), this era includes the beginning of Gothic Lit

Victorian Literature: This is literature written during Queen Victoria's rule (1837-1901). This era contains realism, a significant amount of social satire and writing for social reforem, scientific writing, early nature writing and later Romanticism, etc. 

Modernism: This is an era that is tightly defined by 1901-1945, but more loosely encapsulates certain styles from the 1890s to 1950s. Maybe I am biased, because this is my era of study, but it seems an era more defined by certain literary and artistic movements than the time, though it most certainly contains the interwar time.

Postmodernism: This is a term used in so many different ways, it is largely believed to be unhelpful. Some theorists defined it as 1945 to the fall of the Soviet Union. Other people call everything since 1945 postmodern. There is a significant trend to discuss more recent literature in thematic categories instead of by time (ie. Post-colonialism)

Contemporary Lit: This is literature written now-ish. 

I hope this helped a little bit. There are undoubtedly gaps in this timeline, and I hope others will help fill them in (: 

Edited February 17, 2018 by mads47

[punctilious]

5 minutes ago, mads47 said:

Ok I am going to geek out here and attempt to do this question justice. I want to give a few caveats first: many time periods have different names depending on the region (ie. Victorian vs. 19th century American); larger eras of study include a multiplicity of subdivisions; these eras are largely based on canonical interpretation of literature, so many more recent scholars push against these dates of separation between eras and the idea that these eras are typically defined by British and American literature. Also, I am going to define these eras in the way that English scholars typically do, but I think Comp Lit people define the eras slightly differently, because many important literary trends and eras did not start in English. So please, please, please correct me if I am spreading any misinformation.

Midieval Lit: This follows historically what is considered Midieval, so largely the fall of the Roman Empire until the Renaissance. In English, this includes Anglo Saxon literature (from about 500-1066) and Middle English (1066-circa 1500)

Early Modern Lit: This is literature from the Renaissance, Reformation, and Neoclassical eras (circa 1500-circa 1800).

Romanticism: Depending on who you consider the first Romanticists to be, this overlaps with the later Early Modern and Early Victorian Eras. (late 1700s to mid 1800s), this era includes the beginning of Gothic Lit

Victorian Literature: This is literature written during Queen Victoria's rule (1837-1901). This era contains realism, a significant amount of social satire and writing for social reforem, scientific writing, early nature writing and later Romanticism, etc. 

Modernism: This is an era that is tightly defined by 1901-1945, but more loosely encapsulates certain styles from the 1890s to 1950s. Maybe I am biased, because this is my era of study, but it seems an era more defined by certain literary and artistic movements than the time, though it most certainly contains the interwar time.

Postmodernism: This is a term used in so many different ways, it is largely believed to be unhelpful. Some theorists defined it as 1945 to the fall of the Soviet Union. Other people call everything since 1945 postmodern. There is a significant trend to discuss more recent literature in thematic categories instead of by time (ie. Post-colonialism)

 

I hope this helped a little bit. There are undoubtedly gaps in this timeline, and I hope others will help fill them in (: 

THANK YOU SO MUCH! I felt really dumb since I didn't know what any of these referred to since I'm not in literature. This is incredibly helpful.  

[mads47]

7 minutes ago, punctilious said:

THANK YOU SO MUCH! I felt really dumb since I didn't know what any of these referred to since I'm not in literature. This is incredibly helpful.  

Haha you're welcome. And you really shouldn't feel dumb at all. It's strange, because these eras mostly don't quite line up with historical eras or artistic eras, so it gets quite confusing, even to those of us who have spent years taking lit survey courses.