Studying at York
Spices & Spies: Renaissance Global Travel - ENG00108H
Module summary
Late Tudor and Stuart travel writing brims with the marvels of other places, from descriptions of Mughal Indian hospitality to rumours of cities of gold in the Amazon. This was a moment of imperial envy, as the English looked to the wealth of eastern empires, and intense rivalry, where agents and spies navigated borders and languages to gain knowledge and fuel claims of imperial possession. Even as the English benefited from the influx of new goods and information coming into the realm, travellers were also part of complex networks of commerce, diplomacy, and colonialism that brought dispossession and ecological devastation.
You will be encouraged to think about English and European writings about other cultures and societies alongside material created by those places – a colonial text about Virginia, for example, alongside Indigenous beads and tobacco pipes from the Jamestown archaeological site – in order to expand their understanding of ‘the Renaissance’ and to ask critical questions about the costs and consequences of global travel in this period. You will develop your visual literacy and the confidence to analyse objects alongside textual material. This module will explore a wide range of English travel writing alongside texts and objects from other continents to think about global mobility in the Renaissance and to ask: whose ‘golden age’ was it?
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Spring Term 2022-23 |
Module aims
The aim of this module is to examine a broad range of English literature that engages with travel and cross-cultural encounters in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, including poetry, plays, romances, and language manuals.
Module learning outcomes
On successful completion of the module, you should be able to:
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Demonstrate an advanced understanding of and engagement with different genres of travel literature in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
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Demonstrate an advanced understanding of and engagement with textual and object-based analysis
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Evaluate key debates within the relevant critical fields dealing with Renaissance global travel and colonialism
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Produce independent arguments and ideas which demonstrate an advanced proficiency in critical thinking, research, and writing skills.
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Special assessment rules
None
Additional assessment information
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You will be given the opportunity to submit a 1000 word formative essay for the module, which can feed into the 3000 word summative essay submitted at the end of the module.
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You will submit your essay to a Google Folder. It will be annotated and returned to you by your tutor within two weeks. Feedback on the essay will be uploaded to eVision.
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Your summative essay is submitted via the VLE by 12noon on Monday of week 1 of the following term. Feedback on your summative essay will be uploaded to eVision to meet the University’s marking deadlines
Indicative reassessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Module feedback
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You will receive feedback on all assessed work within the University deadline, and will often receive it more quickly. The purpose of feedback is to inform your future work; it is designed to help you to improve your work, and the Department also offers you help in learning from your feedback. If you do not understand your feedback or want to talk about your ideas further you can discuss it with your tutor or your supervisor, during their Open Office Hours
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For more information about the feedback you will receive for your work, see the department's Guide to Assessment
Indicative reading
William Painter, ‘Sophonisba’, from The Palace of Pleasure (1567)
Thomas Hariot, A brief and true report of the new found land of Virginia (1588)
Anne of Denmark’s court masques
Francis Bacon, ‘Of Travel’ and ‘Of Plantation’
John Fletcher and Philip Massinger, The Sea Voyage (1622)
John Fletcher, The Island Princess (1623)
Roger Williams, A Key into the Language of America (1643)
‘Guatemala’ section of Thomas Gage, The English American (1651)
Margaret Cavendish, ‘Assaulted and Pursued Chastity’ (1656)
Aphra Behn, The Widow Ranter (1689)
Additional sources: 16th century passports; Ottoman poetry; language dictionaries; an oral history by an Amazonian shaman; botanical specimens; Madagascan cornelian beads.
Secondary material
Simon Gikandi, Slavery and the Culture of Taste (2011);
Kim Hall, Things of Darkness (1995); Jyotsna Singh, A Companion to the Global Renaissance, revised edition (2021);
Travel and Travail: Early Modern Women, Drama, and the Wider World, ed. Patricia Ahkimie and Bernadette Andrea (2019);
Lauren Working, ‘Cannibalism & Politics: The English Renaissance Revisited’, Anthropology Today (2019);
Coll Thrush, ‘The Iceberg and the Cathedral: Encounter, Entanglement, and Isuma in Inuit London’ (2014).