ENGL 2121
British Literature I
Additional Supplemental Material for Tudor Period Literature (16th and early 17th century)
This first page is the British TV Channel 4's site on the Tudor Period (The Arts). It is focused on the general historical elements of the period, so it should provide some interesting background. There are additional links down the right side to other areas of interest within the time period.
Time traveller's guide to Tudor England
This next page provides an list of articles that give an overview of the influences of many elements of the Renaissance view on English life and literature of the period. Scroll down to see all of the interesting topics.
Sixteenth Century Renaissance English Literature: Background Information
Here are my notes for the background of the period that I presented in class.
Intro to the Tudor Years (1485-1603)
This next page is the Wikipedia page that identifies the basics of the sonnet in its many forms as it developed in this period.
In addition, here are my notes (with key ideas underlined) on the poetic form of sonnets.
This page looks in more detail at a variety of Elizabethan poets who used and developed the sonnet form.
This page is a nice and useful overview of the gender situation in Elizabethan England.
This page will give you a useful overview of the political situation and its impact on life during the Elizabethan timeframe. Make sure you use the links at the bottom to move forward through the pages. Not all of this has a direct impact on the literature, but much of it did.
Here are two sites that look at the impact of the religious struggles of the 16th century.
Life in Elizabethan England 7: Religion
and
This link looks earlier than Elizabeth's reign and explores the beginnings of the religious changes in England during this time.
Britannia History: The Religious Policy of King Henry VIII
Here is a page from the [Christopher] Marlowe Society site that has some useful summaries of his background and influences.
Christopher Marlowe's Life and Career
There is such a lot of material available about Shakespeare that I have decided to limit my links to this one. it is to the Shakespeare Resource Center and should offer quite a bit of material and links to material for you to explore.