Course details

Name: ENGL - 352

Title: ENGLISH DRAMA BEGINNINGS TO 1642

Section: 01

Semester: Fall - 2021

Credits: 3

Description:
Murder, mayhem, adultery, revenge, incest ... and sheep-stealing: not your mama's Shakespeare course! This course takes up the birth of early English drama as a genuine "people's theater," an amateur celebration, beginning in biblical stories and emerging later as distinctly un-religious (but always very moral and ultimately professional) representation of the human. There was life--and theater--before, during, and after Shakespeare's time, from the medieval craft-guild plays to the origins of revenge tragedy to Christopher Marlowe (Dr. Faustus, The Jew of Malta), Ben Jonson (Volpone, Bartholomew Fair), John Webster (The Duchess of Malfi), John Ford ('Tis Pity She's a Whore), and others whose work was as popular (and as good) as their more famous contemporary. The "closing" date of the course, 1642, marks the year when the public performance of plays was outlawed by an act of Parliament known as The Closing of the Theaters. Between the medieval origins of its drama and the criminalization of public theater, England produced a drama of extraordinary variety and power, and provided the context from which Shakespeare's work grew.

Last updated on 2021-04-19 By Liebler Naomi (lieblern)

Schedule: Tuesday From 5:30 pm To 8:00 pm

Graduation requirements:

• Any Literature (1e)
• Genre Study (Drama)
• Pre-1700 (1a)
• Pre-1800 (1b)
• Pre-1900 (1c)
• Women and Gender Studies (3c)
• Class Issues (3d)
• Pre-1800 British (TE 1b)

Teaching Faculty: Liebler Naomi (lieblern)

Is course canceled: No