Studies in Renaissance Literature (338-0-20)
Topic
Rethinking Revenge
Instructors
Kathryn Sydney Evans
Meeting Info
Parkes Hall 214: Mon, Wed 2:00PM - 3:20PM
Overview of class
This course will survey dramatic revenge tragedy: a genre of plays that surged in popularity during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries in England (and elsewhere in Europe). Drawing on conventions established by Senecan tragedy—itself an adaptation of Greek tragedies by Euripedes, Sophocles, and Aeschylus—the Renaissance genre chronicles the inevitable spiraling of individual vows of revenge into widespread and spectacular violence. Often featuring ghosts and other supernatural agents, onstage depictions of madness, and outlandishly gory scenes of assassination, revenge tragedy might be framed as an early precursor of slasher/gore subgenres of horror. The first two-thirds of the course will immerse us in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century drama, while the final third will rush headlong toward the present, examining stories, novels, and films that adapt various elements of the early modern genre and examine the continuing fascination with the ethics and consequences of revenge. (N.B.: to count this course as a pre-1830 requirement for the English major, students must focus on an early modern text for the final project.)
Teaching Method
Seminar discussion, brief introductory lectures (often as Canvas videos to be viewed before class), group discussion and peer review.
Evaluation Method
Participation (online and in class); online annotation using Hypothes.is; frequent short writing assignments; final essay or project; peer evaluation and self evaluation.
Class Materials (Required)
William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Arden Shakespeare ISBN: 9781472518385
Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, Arden Shakespeare ISBN: 9781350030916
Katharine Eisaman Maus, ed., Four Revenge Tragedies ISBN: 0199540535
Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49 ISBN: 006091307X
Additional readings will be available on Canvas. Students are welcome to use alternate editions but should be aware that different editorial approaches can generate significant differences, especially in early modern dramatic texts—from different lineation to the deletion/addition of whole scenes.
Texts will be available at: Norris bookstore
Class Attributes
Advanced Expression
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area