ENGL 2322: British Literature Fall 2024

If your first research project asked you to examine crime before the police, this project asks you to investigate the dethroning, death, and/or dismemberment of a reigning monarch, fancily known as regicide, and put it in dialogue with early modern literary representations of your chosen royal. You may look at the demise of Richard III, Mary I (aka “Bloody Mary”), Charles I, or Anne Boleyn. Unlike the others, Anne Boleyn was not a monarch by blood, but at the time she was beheaded, she was the Queen of England. You will first do some historical research on whatever figure you choose, and then see how early modern writers represented them – favorably or not – in some poetry, prose, and drama of the day.   Your project will have four parts: an introduction, a short annotated bibliography, a short close reading assignment, and a reflection. A sample will be provided.  

The task: 

1. Pick which historical figure about which you’re interested in learning more.  

2. Begin researching; your sources must come from the library databases.  

3. Read the selected literature. 

4. Complete your project. 

The Project: 

• Part 1: This is the introduction to your topic. Explain, in personal terms, why you chose one historical figure over the others. Discuss what you learned.  

• Part 2: Complete a short, annotated bibliography with three library sources. The bibliography should have a short summary – following the prescribed formula – followed by a short paragraph explaining what you learned. Does this source present the incident as a crime? A sin? A mistake? A success? A positive historical development? Why or why not?  Your sources must come from the library, and they should focus on the historical event. 

• Part 3: A close reading assignment. In the module, I will provide some excerpts of literary texts that address the deceased monarch in some fashion. Highlight positive words in green, negative in red. Provide a glossary of unfamiliar words. Discuss whether or not the representation of the monarch is positive or negative based on the red/green highlighting. Support your claims. Does this poetry justify, celebrate, mourn, or condemn the execution of the monarch? Do you think the author viewed this as a crime or was the dethroning and execution punishment for crimes the monarch committed? The literature might not answer that question, but .you can probably make an inference. Always support your answer. Make sure you write something that is well-developed. Short, cursory answers will lose points.  

• Part 4: In a well-developed paragraph, reflect on whether or not your historical research and the literature of the period paint a similar picture of the monarch. What differs? What’s the same?  In a second paragraph, discuss whether you personally think the extermination of a specific monarch was a crime or it was necessary to preserve the state.