ENL 4220 - FALL 2026 - HAND

This class will focus on early modern popular texts, or “bestsellers”: the viral texts and genres that were widely read and circulated in early modern English culture, 1550-1660. We’ll find out what people were reading, what genres and forms were most common and widespread, and how readers interacted with their texts.

Renaissance readers read widely from genres including broadside ballads, almanacs, popular pamphlets, jest books, sermons and bibles, household and husbandry manuals, cookbooks, plays, local and international news, and more. Our objectives include reading these texts closely, becoming familiar with their conventions and the contexts in which our “bestsellers” were produced and consumed, considering varying definitions of popularity and the formation of the literary canon at the exclusion of “popular” and “genre” literature, and developing a nuanced view of early modern readerships and literacies.

Meets the pre-1800 and genre requirements for LMC.