English 5323.01
Non-Shakespearean
Renaissance Drama
CLAS 237
Thursday: 9:30-12:00
Professor: Greg Colón Semenza
Office: 132 CLAS
Office Hours: Wednesday: 1-2:30; Thursday: 12:10-1:45
Phone: 486-4762 (Home) 456-1580
Email: semenza@uconn.edu
Course Description:
An introduction to non-Shakespearean Renaissance drama. Following a brief analysis of the most influential dramatists of antiquity, Plautus and Seneca, we will explore stage plays written by several of the most important and popular playwrights of the period 1567-1642. We will focus carefully on the historical, literary, ideological, and even architectural contexts within which the plays were written and performed. Primary texts will be supplemented each week by critical/theoretical readings chosen specifically to broaden your knowledge of the professional workings of literary scholarship and, of course, the drama itself.
Texts:
Bevington, ed., English Renaissance Drama
Plautus, Four Comedies
Seneca, Four Tragedies and Octavia
Mousley, Renaissance Drama and Contemporary Literary Theory
Gurr, Playgoing in Shakespeare's LondonCourse Packet (provided by me)
EEBO Readings (see course schedule)
Assignments and Requirements:
Every assignment in this class is designed to achieve two goals: first, to increase your knowledge of Renaissance drama; second, to cultivate reading, research, and writing skills that will be vital to you both as a graduate student and, eventually, as an assistant professor. While you will receive grades on all materials that you turn in, I would prefer for a variety of reasons not to “weigh” assignments in terms of a percentage value. Your final research paper is, needless to say, the most important piece of work you will turn in, but all assignments should be approached with the same level of diligence and seriousness. Assignments and their due dates are discussed below in greater detail. You are welcome, of course, to turn in most assignments early and, in some cases, it is advisable to do so. I will be happy to read any draft given to me at least one week prior to the due date.
1) Attendance, Preparation, and Spirited Participation
2) 1500-Word Book Review with Cover Letter
3) 500-Word Article Review and Presentation
4) Critical Heritage Report
5) 750-Word Proposal (for Final Essay) with Cover Letter and Presentation
6) 20-25-Page Critical Essay with Cover Letter
7) “Final Exam” Attendance and Participation
Book Review with Cover Letter:
Please note that 1500 words equal approximately 6 double-spaced pages. You must review a book on Renaissance drama published in 2003 or 2004, which you may eventually submit to an appropriate journal for publication.
Reviews should analyze the argument of the essay, its general persuasiveness, theoretical methodology, and significance. Please do not fall into the trap of assuming that a harsh critique of an author demonstrates intellectual rigor. Focus less on what you perceive to be flaws and more on what you perceive to be strengths. I tend to associate the process of book reviewing with the process of grading student papers; it’s much more useful (and difficult) to be constructive than it is simply to point out weaknesses.
You should research appropriate journals (begin by researching the MLA Guide to Periodicals), choose one that seems appropriate for your review, and model your review—stylistically and rhetorically—on the reviews you find therein (I am requiring 1500 words for this assignment, though you may need to cut the review down prior to submission). An appropriate cover letter on UConn letterhead should be addressed to the editor of the chosen journal. We will discuss the cover letter in more detail in class. Reviews are due on April 15, but it would be wise to get them done early on in the semester. Feel free to see me for recommendations about journals and/or books
Article Review and Presentation
Each of you will sign up on the first day of class to review a secondary reading scheduled on the syllabus. Your goals—isolating the argument, assessing its persuasiveness, and discussing its significance—are similar to those you will pursue for the book review assignment (see above). In addition, you are responsible for providing copies of your review to each member of the class and then reading it aloud. Due on the day of the given reading.
Critical Heritage Report:
Each of you will sign up on the first day of class to review a primary work of literature, choosing a play on which you’ll also write your final paper. Doing so will allow you to spend most of the semester focusing on a single work, which should, in turn, result in a more informed final paper. This is simply the first step of writing that paper. Prepare a comprehensive presentation of the major criticism written on the text you choose. You may wish to focus most of your attention on recent criticism, but you are required to look much further back and to attempt to construct a loose historical outline of the critical heritage dating back to the seventeenth century. It is your job to teach yourself and me what we should know about a particular sixteenth- or seventeenth-century text and about the criticism that’s been written on it. We will discuss the Report in greater detail in class. The Reports will be due on March 18. (See me if you’d like a model for this type of report).
Proposal with Cover Letter and Presentation:
The second step of writing the final paper. Think of the proposal as a concise “sell” of your final paper argument. Make sure that your argument is clearly stated and situated in relation to previous critics who have written on the text/subject. Also make sure that the pay-off of your contribution is clear. 750 words equal about 3 double-spaced pages. An accompanying cover letter on UConn letterhead should be addressed to an appropriate conference panel chair. Please make copies of the proposal for each of your classmates, and be prepared to read aloud. Be prepared to answer questions about the critical heritage as well. We will discuss the proposal and cover letter in some detail in class. Proposals are due on the day of the given reading.
Final Critical Essay with Cover Letter:
Your goal should be to produce a potentially publishable article. While I have specified
as a general guideline that the article should be 20-25 pages, reasonably longer or shorter essays can be justified. Along with the essay, please provide a professionally written cover letter on UConn letterhead. The cover letter should be addressed to an appropriate journal that you have researched and singled out for an initial submission. This assignment will be harped on endlessly in class. Please be sure to use the Chicago Manual’s “End Notes” format for documentation. The essay is due in my box by 5 PM on May 9.
Exam:
Since I’d rather that you focus on the final paper than on an exam, I’m asking for three things here: 1) that you come to the final; 2) that you bring a serious question that you think might be appropriate for a final exam on non-Shakespearean Renaissance Drama; 3) that you lead a serious discussion about the question’s underlying assumptions, merits, flaws, etc. This format will allow you to ponder the sorts of questions that will serve you well in preparing for MA and PhD exams, but it will also allow you the time you’ll need to write a wonderful paper. We will meet for the exam discussion on May 6.
Class Schedule:
(HO) = Handout
(EEBO) = Early English Books Online database
Jan. 22
Introduction to course; Background History of English Renaissance
Jan. 29
Background History of Classical Drama; read Plautus, The Brothers Mènaechmus (c. 200 BCE); Gurr, pp. 1-118.
Feb. 5
Read Seneca, Intro and Thyestes (c. 60 CE); Gurr, pp. 119-96.
Feb. 12
Background History of Early English Drama; read Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy (1587); Semenza, “The Spanish Tragedy and Revenge” (HO); from Sidney, “An Apologie for Poetrie,” pp. 36-39 on drama (EEBO).
Feb. 19
Marlowe, The Jew of Malta (1589); Bartels, “Malta, the Jew, and the Fictions of Difference: Colonialist Discourse in Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta” (HO); from Mullaney, The Place of the Stage (HO).
Feb. 26
Marlowe, Doctor Faustus (1592); Marcus, “Textual Instability and Ideological Difference: The Case of Doctor Faustus” (HO).
March 4
Anonymous, Arden of Faversham (1591); Belsey, “Alice Arden’s Crime” (HO); Jardine, from “Boy Actors, Female Roles, and Elizabethan Eroticism” (HO).
March 11
Spring Break: No Classes
March 18
Critical Heritage Reports due; Dekker, The Shoemaker’s Holiday (1599); Mousley, “Introduction” and “Marxism”.
March 25
Middleton or Tourneur, The Revenger’s Tragedy (1606); Gosson, The Schoole of Abuse (EEBO); from Heywood, An Apology for Actors (HO).
April 1
Beaumont, The Knight of the Burning Pestle (1607); Mousley, “Semiotics”.
April 8
Jonson, Epicoene (1609); Newman, “City Talk: Women and Commodification” (HO); Howard, from “Women as Spectators, Spectacles, and Paying Customers” (HO).
April 15
Book Reviews Due; Dekker and Middleton, The Roaring Girl (1611); Mousley, “Feminism”.
April 22
Webster, The Duchess of Malfi (1614); Mousley, “Structuralism” and “Poststructuralism”.
April 29
Ford, ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore (1632); Mousley, “Psychoanalysis”; from Prynne, Histrio-mastix: “To the Christian Reader” and “The Prologue” (EEBO).
May 6:
Final Exam Session
May 9:
Final Papers Due
Primary Texts:
The Spanish Tragedy
The Jew of Malta
Doctor Faustus
Arden of Faversham
The Shoemaker’s Holiday
The Revenger’s Tragedy
The Knight of the Burning Pestle
Epicoene
The Roaring Girl
The Duchess of Malfi
’Tis Pity She’s a Whore
Article Review/Presentation:
Bartels on The Jew of Malta
Mullaney on the Stage (see me)
Marcus on Doctor Faustus
Belsey on Arden of Faversham
Jardine on Boy Actors (Read full text)
Newman on Epicoene
Howard on “Women as Spectators” (see me)