Jacobson, Miriam
TR 9:35 AM
Park Hall 0250
Course Descripion
Poisoned skulls, Incestuous marriages, wax corpses, cross-dressed lesbian lovers, Turkish pirates, topsy-turvy universes: the world of Renaissance Drama does not belong to Shakespeare alone. In many cases, plays by his contemporaries and successors Ben Jonson, John Lyly, Thomas Middleton, John Webster and John Ford had crazier plots, more biting satire, and certainly reached more heights of dramatic violence, humor, ridiculousness and all-out chaos on stage. We will read seven plays from a collection of playwrights, supplementing our reading with some history of Renaissance stagecraft and materials of performance, filmed performances of plays, and our own interpretations. We’ll spend the most time on Revenge Tragedy, but also explore the genres of City Comedy and Court Comedy. Throughout, we’ll examine the big questions these plays raise about the social order, gender, religion, race, and the power of performance.
The course is organized into three sections based on genres of plays: City, Court, and Revenge. Many of the themes in these plays (cross-dressing and gender roles, revenge, court corruption, urban life) will intersect in provocative ways. Our goal will be not only to understand the major themes and imagery of each play, but also to ascertain how the plays comment on, and participate in early modern culture and society. To that end, your two short papers will involve both investigative research and close reading based on your own individual interests. Also important to this course is an understanding of what these plays looked and sounded like on the early modern English stage, and how directors and theatrical companies have reinterpreted them in later epochs. Over the course of the semester, we will be viewing performances of some of these plays online, as well as imagining our own stagings, films, and productions.
Requirements
1. Two short papers (2-3pp; 20% each): 40% total.
2. One longer final paper (5-8pp): 30%
3. Group Project: 15%.
[Your group will either conceive of a production of one of these plays, write a missing scene, or provide a supplementary document (like a character’s diary or missing letters) to one of the plays we have read. You’ll sign up in the third week of classes. The projects will be shared in the last week of classes].
4. Engagement: 15%.
[“Engagement” is an umbrella term that includes doing the reading, responding to video lectures and discussion questions posted on eLC, engaging with your classmates’ ideas through small and large group discussion, reading passages aloud and acting out scenes in class.
Reading Material
There are two required textbooks for the class:
English Renaissance Drama: A Norton Anthology, edited by David Bevington, Lars Engle, Katherine Eisaman Mauss, and Eric Rasmussen
A Companion to Renaissance Drama Ed. Arthur Kinney (Wiley Blackwell, 2004)
Articles and other plays etc. on eLC
All supplementary reading will be posted online on the course’s eLC page in lieu of a course pack. Complete readings for the first two weeks will be posted on eLC.