The USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute Renaissance Literature Seminar will meet with Jessica Wolfe, Marcel Bataillon Professor of English and Comparative Literature at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, on Saturday, November 9. Professor Wolfe's talk, "Polyamorous Spenser" considers some of the more unconventional romantic liaisons in Spenser's Faerie Queene, with a particular focus on Book 3's Hellenore and the Satyrs, in light of Spenser's understanding of classical and early modern ideals of commonality and community. Despite the strong dynastic thrust of Spenser's epic, certain characters nonetheless enjoy unorthodox and extra-legal unions, or "counter-marriages," for reasons rooted in the poet's understanding of natural law and his trans-valuation of classical mythology, as well as his attitudes towards norms of human sexuality. 

All EMSI events are free and open to the public.