English 630.001: Renaissance Drama |
Fall 2004 W 7:20-10:00 Robinson A107 |
Robert Matz Office Hours: M W 11:00-12:00, W 4:30-5:30, and by appointment Office: Robinson A422 Email: rmatz@gmu.edu Office Ph. #: 993-1169 home page: http://mason.gmu.edu/~rmatz |
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I have heard of your paintings, too, well enough. God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another. --Hamlet |
For Renaissance moralists, applying make-up ("painting") was a sin against God's natural order; for many of these same moralists so were plays, since in playing a part one altered one's very being. No wonder anti-cosmetic rants so often appear in Renaissance drama, as in this quotation from Hamlet. In this course, we will consider how the remarkably brilliant and self-conscious Renaissance theater was energized by and played out anxieties about changes in a supposedly "natural" order, not only in the content of the plays (frequently satiric, dark and/or spectacularly violent) but also in their very form as "made-up" works of human art. We'll consider the plays' treatment of gender relations (note in the woodcut that there is no husband here; the woman being made-up by the devil looks instead to her own face in the mirror, while the woman in the foreground bears a rod, symbol of male social and sexual authority). We'll consider too how anxieties about gender relate to new forms of social mobility and political authority during the period, which might also seem to upset a "natural" order. And finally, we'll consider the theater itself as a place apart from the everyday, a place of fun, holiday, riot or license, of "play" rather than rule. |
Along with the plays, we'll read a number of essays from an anthology of criticism that reinterprets Elizabethan and Jacobean drama under the rubric "staging the Renaissance." We'll explore some of the common (or divergent) qualities and assumptions of these reinterpretations, and the ways in which "staging" in this anthology is seen as integral to "the Renaissance." In doing so we'll become familiar with some of the historicist, feminist and poststructuralist impulses that have shaped the reinterpretation of the Renaissance stage and Renaissance culture over the past two decades. Additionally we'll work throughout the semester on the process of writing your final research paper. Required Texts: Course requirements: Class participation, weekly
reading responses, a presentation, a close reading (5-7 pp.), a prospectus
(1-2 pp.) an annotated bibliography and a final paper (15-20 pp.) Note: Schedule subject to change (I will give warning, however). |
Date | Assignments | Events and due dates |
Sept. 1 | Course introduction | |
Sept. 8 | Jonson, Volpone; Steven Mullaney, "Civic Rites, City Sites: The Place of the Stage" (SR, 17-26); Peggy Knapp, "Ben Jonson and the Publicke Riot: Ben Jonson's Comedies" (SR, 164-80) | |
Sept. 15 | Dekker, Shoemaker's Holiday; David Scott Kastan, "Workhouse and/as Playhouse: The Shoemaker's Holiday" (SR, 151-63) | |
Sept. 22 | Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor; Jean E. Howard, "Women as Spectators, Spectacles and Paying Customers" (SR, 68-74); and from Stephen Gosson, The Schoole of Abuse (online) and from Thomas Nashe, "Defense of Plays" (from his Pierce Penniless) (online) | Close reading essay assigned |
Sept. 29 | Jonson, Bartholomew Fair; Leah S. Marcus, "Pastime and the Purging of Theater" (SR, 196-209) |
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Oct. 6 | Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy; James Shapiro, "'Tragedies naturally performed': Kyd's Representation of Violence" (SR, 99-113) | Close reading essay due Annotated bibliography assigned |
Oct. 13 | Marlowe, Doctor Faustus; Jonathan Dollimore, "Subversion Through Transgression: Doctor Faustus" (SR, 122-32) | |
Oct. 20 | Marlowe, Edward II; Jonathan Goldberg, "Sodomy and Society: The Case of Christopher Marlowe" (SR, 75-82) | 1 -2 page prospectus due |
Oct. 27 | No Class: conferences | |
Nov. 3 | Webster, Duchess of Malfi; Frank Whigham, "Incest and Ideology: The Duchess of Malfi" (SR, 263-74) | Annotated bibliography due |
Nov. 10 | Cary, Tragedy of Miriam; Margaret W. Ferguson, "The Spectre of Resistance: The Tragedy of Miriam"(SR, 235-50) | |
Nov. 17 | Middleton, Women Beware Women; Jonathan V. Crewe, "The Theater of the Idols: Theatrical and Anti-Theatrical Discourse" (SR, 49-56) | |
Nov. 24 | No class: Thanksgiving Break | |
Dec. 1 | Paper Exchange | Fifteen-page first version of paper due |
Dec. 8 | Overflow, recapitulation and wrap-up | Final paper due |
Course Policies: Readings: Participation and Attendance: Reading Responses: Presentations: Paper Deadlines: Papers: • The first paper should be about five to seven pages and provide
a close reading of some moment or a set of related moments in one of the
plays. It is due on October 6.
• The 1-2 page prospectus should give a synopsis of the idea you
want to explore in your final paper, as well as questions that remained
to be answered, and/or speculation about further directions to develop
the topic. The prospectus should be based on your close reading and the
on-going work you are doing on the annotated bibliography. The 1-2 page
prospectus is due October 20. The following week there will be
no class. Instead, we will discuss your prospectus in scheduled conferences.
• The annotated bibliography will be a list of about 15 critical,
historical, literary or theoretical sources relevant to the play that
you are working on. They should also particularly focus on helping you
develop ideas discussed in your close reading. Work on the prospectus
and the annotated bibliography overlap and, ideally, will mutually inform
one another. The annotated bibliography is due on November 3.
• A 15-page first version of your term paper will be due
in class on December 1. This class will be devoted to sharing work
with other students. You are also invited to see me at my office with
your first version of the paper.
• Following the paper workshop, you will have time further to develop
and revise your work, based on the suggestions you have received from
your peer reviewer, on your own interests or discussion with me. Final
papers are due in class on December 8.
Please note: I encourage you to write
about any play on (or off: see me) the syllabus. I can give you synopses
of the subjects of plays you haven't read yet, and you may wish to dive
in and starting working on a play before we get to it in class.
Paper Helps: I would also suggest that you give yourself plenty of
time to work. Writing a paper at one sitting is, for most people, unpleasant,
and the results are not likely to be satisfactory. Start early!
Plagiarism: Also note that uncited sources will constitute plagiarism even if they ended up in your work without your conscious knowledge (e.g. you forgot you read the material; you confused your own notes with notes on a source), since part of the scholarly responsibility that comes with using secondary sources is keeping track of which words or ideas were yours and which came from a source. I will take all suspected cases of plagiarism to the Honor Committee. Grading:
Please come see me if you have any questions about grading, the syllabus or the class. I look forward to having the chance to meet you. Best wishes for a good semester!
GRADE CRITERIA FOR ESSAYS
B Specific thesis, thesis generally developed through the course of the paper, consistently good interpretation of text, competent prose, minor mechanical problems C Has a thesis, but one that needs greater specificity or complexity, thesis developed with some digression or repetition, some good interpretation, some mechanical problems D Very general thesis, thesis development digressive or repetitive, plot summary or thoughts/speculations not based on textual evidence, major mechanical problems F No thesis or thesis development ADDITIONAL CRITERIA FOR RESEARCH IN TERM PAPER A Paper astutely frames and develops or critiques current critical discussion of its topic. Paper includes a range of top relevant critical, historical and/or theoretical analyses to support its points B Paper includes current critical discussion of its topic. Paper contains a range of relevant critical, historical and/or theoretical analyses to support its points C Paper includes critical discussion of its topic but its own argument does not clearly relate to that discussion. Secondary sources in the paper are of low quality and/or lead to digression from the paper's focus rather than supporting it. D Few secondary sources; secondary sources not relevant to the argument of the paper F No secondary sources |