English 394 - Seminar: Bondage and Discipline: The Sonnet's Erotics of Constraint

This seminar engages questions of literary history and theory through a consideration of one of the most popular and enduring poetic forms in the English (and European) poetic tradition: the sonnet. The course is not a survey of the form’s history. Instead, it explores the relationship between the sonnet’s tight formal constraints and its related affordances and pleasures. The course focuses on a handful of key episodes in the form’s history in light of theories of lyric from the Renaissance to the present and theories relating phenomenology, power, and eros. Prerequisite: ENG 199. Restrictions: Juniors and seniors only. Enrollment limited to 12. Instructor permission required.

[CE] JR/SR only; Prereq: ENG 199