It�s easy to think about the 1500s and 1600s as a time of starched ruffs, strict morals, and silenced women. This class seeks to complicate this story by asking how Renaissance Englishmen and -women wrote about and imagined sex. Studying drama, poetry, recipes, letters, ballads, and more, we�ll explore an erotic landscape full of surprises. How did women describe their desire for other women? Was heterosexual intercourse between consenting partners the norm? In what ways could writers express a desire for intimacy with the dead, or nature, or man-made objects? Could they experience asexuality? Did Renaissance authors recognize or celebrate trans identities? We�ll pursue these questions and more, inviting each other to test out new ways of reading, writing, and sharing our ideas as a community.
