ENG 641

ENG 641 R. McDonald

Renaissance Drama Spring 2002

SCHEDULE

January 16 Introduction to the Course

23 Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy

Early Modern Rhetoric

30 Christopher Marlowe, The Jew of Malta, Doctor Faustus

Black Verse ca. 1590

February 6 Ben Jonson, Volpone

The Early Modern Stage

13 Jonson, Bartholomew Fair

Religious Orthodoxy and Dissent

20 Thomas Middleton or Cyril Tourner, The Revengers Tragedy

The Court of James I

27 Middleton, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside

Commercial London

March 6 John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi

The Ideology of Order

13 Spring Recess

20 No Class: Work on Papers

27 Francis Beaumont, The Knight of the Burning Pestle

Argument of Paper Due

Ideas of Gender

April 3 Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, A King and No King

Women Writers in Early Modern England

10 No Class: Work on papers

17 Thomas Middleton and Samuel Rowley, The Changeling

The Court Masque

Rough Draft of Paper Due

24 Philip Massinger, A New Way to Pay Old Debts

Rural England in the early seventeenth century

May 1 John Ford, Tis Pity Shes a Whore

England and the Foreign

3 Term Paper due at my office by noon

INSTRUCTOR

Russ McDonald

McIver 126; Phone: 334-4694 (voice mail)

e-mail address: r_mcdona@uncg.edu

web page www.uncg.edu/~r_mcdona/home.html

Office Hours: Monday 3:30-4:30; Wednesday 1:00-2:00; also by appointment. You are encouraged to consult me about any problems related to the seminar, or just for general conversation about graduate work.

READINGS AND OTHER REQUIREMENTS

You must attend every meeting of the seminar and must read the assigned text (s).

Each week one member of the seminar will be responsible for presenting a report on some aspect of early modern culture. This report will last twenty minutes; it should be done extemporaneously, with notes. Handouts or other aids are encouraged: you might conceive of this assignment as teaching the topic to your colleagues in the seminar.

Each week all members of the seminarexcept the person responsible for the cultural reportwill write a response of no more than 250 words to the primary text of the week. This response may take the form of an argument, or a series of reflections, or a collection of notes and questions. It will not be graded but is designed, specifically, to allow you to demonstrate a knowledge of the weeks reading; the response is due at 9 a.m. on the day of the seminar, placed under the door of my office, or in my mailbox, or by email (either pasted into the message or sent by attachment.)

Members of the seminar will read, in addition to the primary texts, an article or a chapter from a relevant theoretical or critical work, at the rate of about one every other week. These will be assigned two or three weeks in advance of their being due; these readings will, in some cases, help you to think about the primary texts; in some cases they will serve to illustrate recent developments in Renaissance criticism or theory.

The term paper will be an analysis of an early modern, non-Shakespearean play not covered in the seminar. You have freedom of choice, and your paper may address any aspect of the play. Please consult the instructor before settling on a text. The paper should run from fifteen to twenty pages. Note the dates for stages of preparation and submission.

Your grade will be computed on the following scale: the term paper will count about 50%, the oral report about 25%, and participation (including response papers) about 25%.

TOPICS FOR REPORTS

Early Modern Rhetoric

Blank Verse ca. 1590

The English Theatre ca.1600: Spaces, actors, companies, conventions