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59750
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Lecture-Discussion
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1G
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2:00PM
-2:50PM
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MWF
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259 English Building
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Stevens, A
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- Part of Term:
- 1
- Date Range:
- 08/26/13-12/11/13
- Credit:
- 4 hours
- Section Title:
- Shakespeare & Contemporaries
- Section Info:
- Topic Section 1G: Shakespeare and His Contemporaries ?He was not of an age, but for all time.? We all know the role Shakespeare continues to occupy within the Western canon; this class, however, takes a close look at Shakespeare-the-theater-professional as opposed to Shakespeare-the-Bard. Shakespeare?s fellow actors, the physical spaces of the Globe and the Blackfriars theaters, and any number of material factors necessarily shaped the plays he wrote. So too did Shakespeare influence, and was influenced by, the many talented writers who also supplied plays to the various theater companies of early modern London. Shakespeare clearly modeled Hamlet on Thomas Kyd?s early blockbuster The Spanish Tragedy, for example, and Thomas Middleton in turn drew upon both of these plays when he wrote The Revenger?s Tragedy. At other times, the relationships amongst the plays we read might appear to be more allusive than direct?did John Ford have Romeo and Juliet in mind when he wrote a very different tale of forbidden love, ?Tis Pity She?s a Whore? Which play about jealous tyrants and the women they love came first?Middleton?s The Second Maiden?s Tragedy or Shakespeare?s late romance The Winter?s Tale? We will cover the following groupings or pairs of plays: The Spanish Tragedy (1587), Hamlet (1601), and The Revenger?s Tragedy (1606); Romeo and Juliet (1596) and ?Tis Pity She?s a Whore (1632); and The Second Maiden?s Tragedy (1611) and The Winter?s Tale (1611). We will conclude the course by reading William Heminge?s shocking, compulsively allusive, and perhaps unwittingly hilarious The Fatal Contract (1639), a play dismissed as ?the most obvious and detailed example of plagiarism of Hamlet in the seventeenth century? but more usefully understood as illustrating the imitative mode of early modern dramatic authorship. With the sole exception of The Winter?s Tale, our primary focus on tragedy?in particular, on revenge tragedy?will allow us to consider a range of important questions about genre, authorship, gender, the performance of violence, and the transformation of key theatrical conventions from the early days of the popular theater to the last years before the theaters go dark during the English civil wars. The class will be conducted as a seminar-discussion. Evaluation will be based on participation, including a willingness to read lines out loud and block scenes in class; one group performance project; one midterm; and two to three short papers. It is recommended?but not necessary?that you take this class already having some familiarity with Shakespeare, or drama, or Renaissance literature and culture. Graduate students can enroll for graduate credit with the permission of the instructor. TEXTS: TBA, likely single editions of the plays, and one course text, Peter Womack?s English Renaissance Drama.
- Restriction(s):
-
Restricted to Graduate - Urbana-Champaign.
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59749
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Lecture-Discussion
|
1U
|
2:00PM
-2:50PM
|
MWF
|
259 English Building
|
Stevens, A
|
- Part of Term:
- 1
- Date Range:
- 08/26/13-12/11/13
- Credit:
- 3 hours
- Section Title:
- Shakespeare & Contemporaries
- Section Info:
- Topic Section 1U: Shakespeare and His Contemporaries ?He was not of an age, but for all time.? We all know the role Shakespeare continues to occupy within the Western canon; this class, however, takes a close look at Shakespeare-the-theater-professional as opposed to Shakespeare-the-Bard. Shakespeare?s fellow actors, the physical spaces of the Globe and the Blackfriars theaters, and any number of material factors necessarily shaped the plays he wrote. So too did Shakespeare influence, and was influenced by, the many talented writers who also supplied plays to the various theater companies of early modern London. Shakespeare clearly modeled Hamlet on Thomas Kyd?s early blockbuster The Spanish Tragedy, for example, and Thomas Middleton in turn drew upon both of these plays when he wrote The Revenger?s Tragedy. At other times, the relationships amongst the plays we read might appear to be more allusive than direct?did John Ford have Romeo and Juliet in mind when he wrote a very different tale of forbidden love, ?Tis Pity She?s a Whore? Which play about jealous tyrants and the women they love came first?Middleton?s The Second Maiden?s Tragedy or Shakespeare?s late romance The Winter?s Tale? We will cover the following groupings or pairs of plays: The Spanish Tragedy (1587), Hamlet (1601), and The Revenger?s Tragedy (1606); Romeo and Juliet (1596) and ?Tis Pity She?s a Whore (1632); and The Second Maiden?s Tragedy (1611) and The Winter?s Tale (1611). We will conclude the course by reading William Heminge?s shocking, compulsively allusive, and perhaps unwittingly hilarious The Fatal Contract (1639), a play dismissed as ?the most obvious and detailed example of plagiarism of Hamlet in the seventeenth century? but more usefully understood as illustrating the imitative mode of early modern dramatic authorship. With the sole exception of The Winter?s Tale, our primary focus on tragedy?in particular, on revenge tragedy?will allow us to consider a range of important questions about genre, authorship, gender, the performance of violence, and the transformation of key theatrical conventions from the early days of the popular theater to the last years before the theaters go dark during the English civil wars. The class will be conducted as a seminar-discussion. Evaluation will be based on participation, including a willingness to read lines out loud and block scenes in class; one group performance project; one midterm; and two to three short papers. It is recommended?but not necessary?that you take this class already having some familiarity with Shakespeare, or drama, or Renaissance literature and culture. Graduate students can enroll for graduate credit with the permission of the instructor. TEXTS: TBA, likely single editions of the plays, and one course text, Peter Womack?s English Renaissance Drama.
- Restriction(s):
-
Restricted to Undergrad - Urbana-Champaign.
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