Combining the terms “renaissance” and “bodies” allow us to explore a variety of ways in which material bodies became the focus of literary attention between the 14th and17th centuries. From the rituals of the court to the backstreets of growing cities, bodies were performed and represented in increasingly ceremonial and grotesque manners. In this course, our goal will be to trace the key political, religious, cultural and literary transformations of the body in the early modern English world, while paying close attention to continuities with medieval and broader European traditions. Throughout, we will place our literary texts in conversation with different genres of prose writing and examples of visual culture.