7203X (3158) Early Modern Drama Exclusive of Shakespeare

Tanya Pollard

Spring 2018

4129 Boylan

T. 6:30-8:10

e-mail: Tpollard@brooklyn.cuny.edu

website: http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/tpollard

Office: 3108 Boylan

phone: 718-951-5000 x6216

hours: T 5:30-6:30, and by appointment

What were Shakespeare’s contemporaries, friends, and rivals doing while he was writing the plays that went on to dominate the literary canon? Their plays have much in common with his, but are (among other things) frequently more bloody, racy, and generally extravagant. This course will explore some of the popular conventions that attracted large crowds to the period’s commercial playhouses: the severed body parts (including tongues, skulls, and fingers) of revenge tragedy; the con-men and transvestites, male and female alike, who peopled city comedy; colorful drugs such as poisons, beauty potions, and virginity-testing tonics; and the parodies of other plays that showcase competitive and collaborative relationships between playwrights. Readings will include Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy; Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine The Great, Part One; Thomas Middleton, The Revenger’s Tragedy; Frances Beaumont, Knight of the Burning Pestle; Middleton and Thomas Dekker, The Roaring Girl; Jonson, The Alchemist; and Middleton and William Rowley, The Changeling. Regular presentations and short papers will focus on close readings of the plays’ language, and a final paper will develop skills in research, analysis, and writing.

 

Date

Reading

Group

1

1-30

Introduction

 

2

2-6

Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy

 

3

2-13

Spanish Tragedy; Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine

1

 

2-20

No class – CUNY runs Monday schedule

 

4

2-27

Tamburlaine

2

5

3-6

Thomas Middleton, The Revenger’s Tragedy

3

6

3-13

Revenger’s Tragedy; Frances Beaumont, Knight of the Burning Pestle

1

7

3-20

Knight of the Burning Pestle

2

8

3-27

Middleton and Thomas Dekker, The Roaring Girl

3

 

4-3

No class – Spring Break

 

9

4-10

The Roaring Girl; Jonson, Alchemist

1

10

4-17

Alchemist; proposal due for research paper

2

11

4-24

Changeling

3

12

5-1

Changeling; presentations on research paper

 

13

5-8

presentations on research paper

 

14

5-15

peer-editing workshop; draft of research paper due

 

15

5-22

final research paper due

 

Course Requirements and Expectations:

Attendance

Because your presentations and contributions to class discussion are a central part of your coursework, attendance is crucial.  If you miss more than two classes, your overall grade will drop; at four absences, you will fail the class. Arriving late, leaving early, or leaving and returning during class, will count as a partial absence.

Texts

I have ordered copies of the plays at Akademos, the college online bookstore, but you are welcome to use other editions if you prefer; if purchasing the books is a problem, you can find texts in the library.  Because this class is based on close reading, it is important that everyone has a copy of the play in class.  If you forget your copy, stop by the library on the way to class.  Recommended secondary readings will be available through online databases or Blackboard.

Participation

Learning is a collaborative process, which works best when each of you engages fully with the texts and with each other.  To this end, I will expect you to participate actively in class discussions, and you will be required to make frequent presentations.  In order to build a classroom atmosphere of courtesy and concentration, please avoid behavior that is disrespectful and interferes with others’ learning, including rudeness, talking while others are speaking, and ringing from cell-phones, pagers, watches, etc. Please keep all digital devices turned off in class.

Writing

Over the course of the semester you will write three short (2 page) papers accompanying in-class presentations, as well as one longer (10-12 pages) research paper.  All written work should have a central claim that is well argued, clearly written, and directly supported by close readings of textual passages; the research paper will also incorporate, and respond to, at least five secondary sources.  All papers should be typed, double-spaced, in a 12-point font, with one-inch margins on all sides.  Written work is due at the start of class, and lateness will result in lowering of the grade; in event of printer trouble, you can e-mail me papers before class and follow up with a hard copy within 24 hours.  All written work must be submitted in order to pass the course. Any use of others’ ideas must be fully acknowledged in footnotes; speak to me if you are unsure about what this means.  Plagiarism is a serious offense, and will result in failing the class and being reported to the Dean’s Office.

Coursework and grading:

Presentations and participation

3 short papers (10% each)

Research proposal

Research paper draft

Final research paper

 

20%

30%

10%

10%

30%

Selected recommended secondary readings:

 

Spanish Tragedy:

            Barry B. Adams, “The Audiences of The Spanish Tragedy,” JEGP 68:2 (1969), 221-236.

            Gregory M. Colon Semenza, “The Spanish Tragedy and Metatheatre,” The Cambridge Companion to English Renaissance Tragedy, ed. Emma Smith and Garrett Sullivan Jr (Cambridge, 2010), 153-162.

 

Tamburlaine

            Tom Rutter, “London: The Success of Tamburlaine” The Cambridge Introduction to Christopher Marlowe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 11-14 & 22-24.

            Holger Schott Syme, “Marlowe in his Moment,” in Christopher Marlowe in Context, ed. Emily C. Bartels and Emma Smith (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 275-284.

 

The Revenger’s Tragedy

            Michael Neill “Bastardy, Counterfeiting, and Misogyny in The Revenger’s Tragedy,”

SEL 36:2 (1996), 397-416.

            Heather Hirschfeld, “The Revenger’s Tragedy: Original Sin and the Allures of Vengeance,” The Cambridge Companion to English Renaissance Tragedy, ed. Emma Smith and Garrett Sullivan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 200-210.

 

The Knight of the Burning Pestle

            Lucy Munro, “The Knight of the Burning Pestle and Generic Experimentation,” in Early Modern English Drama: A Critical Companion, ed. Garrett A. Sullivan, Jr., Patrick Cheney, and Andrew Hadfield (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 189-199.

            Wendy Wall, “Tending to Bodies and Boys: Queer Physic in The Knight of the Burning Pestle,” in Wall, Staging Domesticity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 161-188.

 

The Roaring Girl

            Valerie Forman, “Marked Angels: Counterfeits, Commodities, and The Roaring Girl,” Renaissance Quarterly 54:4 (2001), 1531-60.

            Natasha Korda, “The Case of Moll Frith: Women's Work and the ‘All-Male Stage’,” Early Modern Culture (2004) http://emc.eserver.org/1-4/korda.html

 

Alchemist

Andrew Gurr, “Who is Lovewit? What is He?.” Ben Jonson and Theatre: Performance, Practice, and Theory (1999), 5-19.

            Robert N. Watson, “The Alchemist and Jonson's Conversion of Comedy,” in Renaissance Genres, ed. Barbara K. Lewalski (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1986), 332-367.

 

The Changeling

            Marjorie Garber, “The Insincerity of Women,” in Desire in the Renaissance: Psychoanalysis and Literature (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994), 19-32.

Mary Floyd-Wilson, “Tragic Antipathies in The Changeling,” Occult Knowledge (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 91-109 & notes.

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