Theme Courses Theme Events Theme Links

The word “network” is more likely to call to mind computer connection than the “glittering net-work” of a spider-web (E. Darwin, The Botanic Garden, 1781) or a “Mantle of blacke silke” (Book of Robes, 1600). What is the link between such “curious Piece[s] of network” (Addison, Spectator 275, 1712) and contemporary social networking? These older uses of network illuminate the development of early modern techniques of loose connection. By contrast with a chain-of-being model, networks are versatile, allowing for manifold modes of association. We will explore early modern networks of both human and nonhuman actors in areas such as knowledge production, religious practice, international trade, infrastructure development and others. We speculate that social networking, in the broad sense that we are using it, lies behind many of the transformations of the three centuries after 1500.

Early Modern Social Networks, 1500-1800 Courses

(Spring 2012) ENGL 15: Introduction to Shakespeare (Undergraduate)
   
(Spring 2012) ENGL 101: English Literature from the Medieval Period to 1650 (Undergraduate)
   
(Spring 2012) ENGL 157: English Renaissance Drama (Undergraduate)
   
(Spring 2012) ENGL 162: Milton (Undergraduate)
   
(Spring 2012) ENGL 23: Renaissance Drama and Historiography (Graduate)
   
(Spring 2012) ENGL 231: Milton (Graduate)
   
(Winter 2012) ENGL 165EB: Early Modern Media (Undergraduate)
   
(Winter 2012) ENGL 105B: Shakespeare: Later Plays (Undergraduate)
   
(Winter 2012) ENGL 231: Early Modern Women (Graduate)
   
(Winter 2012) ENGL 165PC: Popular and Elite Culture in Early Modern England (Undergraduate)
   
(Fall 2011) ENGL 105A: Shakespeare's Poems and Early Plays (Undergraduate)
   
(Fall 2011) ENGL 231: Some Shakespeare, Some Theory (Graduate)
   
(Fall 2011) ENGL 15: Introduction to Shakespeare (Undergraduate)
   
(Fall 2009) ENGL 105A: Shakespeare: Poems and Early Plays (Undergraduate)
   

Early Modern Social Networks, 1500-1800 Links

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