Courses

This course will investigate what constituted early modern tragedy, not so much by having recourse to theories of tragedy (though we will do some of that), but by looking at what theater practitioners produced under that generic rubric. Shifting focus from individual playwrights to communities of practice, we will trace how evolving conventions, memes, and theatergrams traveled from company to company, paying particular attention to the theatrical “inventions” that fueled the affective power and popularity of tragedy in its many manifestations. Shakespeare will be considered as part of, rather than separate from, the theater culture in which he was embedded. Plays will include early tragedies such as Gorboduc, revenge plays from The Spanish Tragedy to Hamlet and The Revenger’s Tragedy, domestic tragedies from Warning for Fair Women to Othello, Roman tragedies such as Julius Caesar and Sejanus, tragedies of ancient Britain such as Bonduca, and later sensational tragedies such as The White Devil and Tis Pity She’s a Whore. Critical reading will focus fairly heavily on recent theater history by Tiffany Stern, Natasha Korda, Holger Symes, Jeremy Lopez, and Lucy Munro, as well as by older critics such as Andy Gurr. We will scout around for early modern tragedies we can see together next semester. Red Bull is doing a full production of The White Devil; Glenda Jackson is doing Lear; TFANA is doing Julius Caesar. We will make seeing them part of our work as I get the funds to subsidize us.