PS-Surveying English Literatures: Violence in Early Modern Drama
Marie Catherine Menzel
Kommentar
For early moderns, violence and death were ubiquitous. Not only were warfare and devastating illness part of everyday life for most people, but for entertainment, Londoners attended public executions and blood sports, especially animal baiting. Although many different genres of theatre existed, stage violence was also extremely popular. T.S. Eliot famously observed that the Jacobean playwright John Webster “was much possessed by death / And saw the skull beneath the skin”. This arguably applies to many early modern dramatists, in whose works the representations of violence range from the absurd to the philosophical to the gratuitous.
In this seminar, we will be looking at two early modern tragedies that are (in)famous for their representations of extreme violence: Titus Andronicus—an early Shakespearean tragedy and considered by some to be Shakespeare’s worst play—and Webster’s later The Duchess of Malfi. Aside from using the opportunity to practice engagement with early modern drama and language, we will look into the sources and models for these representations of violence, analyse how violence functions as a feature of text and plot, learn about techniques of early modern stagings of violent acts, look into recent performances and think about what these plays and their features say to us as 21st century moderns.
Full credits (5 LP) can be gained by participating in class regularly and actively, participating in and completing any class activities (e.g. presentations, group work, discussions …) and submitting a 2000-word essay (wissenschaftliche Hausarbeit) after the end of term. Exchange students are welcome.
Content warning (#DeadDoveDoNotEat):
The topic of this seminar is violence. The dramatic primary texts contain vivid descriptions of extreme and often racist and misogynist violence, including but not limited to mutilation, rape, femicide, torture, acts reminiscent of lynchings, cannibalism, conflict/war related violence, psychological cruelty, as well as offensive and discriminating language. The secondary reading will also concern itself with the visual theatrical representation of these scenes, discuss violence—fictional and non-fictional—in other contexts, and we may be looking at recordings of explicit recent productions.
Please evaluate for yourself whether this is something you would like to critically engage with for an entire semester and write a paper about. If the answer is no (completely valid and understandable) I would urge you to choose a different seminar.
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Literaturhinweise
Please make sure that you have access to fully annotated editions with on-page footnotes of both plays by the beginning of term (and have ideally started reading).
Note that it is sometimes surprisingly difficult to obtain specific books. At the time of writing of this comment (August), print copies of annotated editions of The Duchess of Malfi appear to be in short supply. There are plenty of free options to read both dramatic texts themselves online and through the library, but you need to be able to study the language and its context in more detail to develop a full understanding. This is why you need annotated editions!
If you decide to purchase digital annotated editions instead of printed ones, make sure that what you buy is a set pdf that mirrors the print edition and has the editorial footnotes on the respective page (no endnotes etc.). This makes it easy to navigate between text and editorial matter and to highlight and annotate in the margins. Any other formatting (epub, website text, endnotes …) is a pain to read and navigate and will make your life very difficult.
Any recent-ish fully annoted edition will do (Norton Critical, Arden Third, New Mermaids …). How to recognise such an edition:
- Each page of dramatic text has copious amounts of footnotes and explanations of words, terms and phrases, often taking up half the page or more. When you read the plays, make sure to look at those, too!
- There is a thorough introduction to the play included, that explains a bit about the drama’s sources, historical context, famous performances etc.
- There is an extensive bibliography at the end, which will be helpful for your research when you start writing your seminar paper.
- ‘Recent’ means published at least in the 1990s, the newer the better.
- Avoid specialty editions, e.g. performance/actors editions, editions for use in schools, editions based on specific historical publications …
Library Options:
Duchess: The FU Philological Library has just ordered a print copy of the Norton Critical edition (yet to arrive at the time of writing), alongside a digital one which is useless because it only allows one user access at a time and zero downloads. The Staatsbibliothek has a printed copy of the Arden Third.
Titus: The Philological Library has a print copy of the older unrevised Arden Third (1995).
Please don’t hog the available print copies! Due to copyright restrictions, I am unable to provide a full scan of any edition.
I will be working from the following editions:
The Duchess of Malfi: Norton Critical Edition, 2015, Ed. Michael Neill, ? ISBN-9780393923254
Titus Andronicus: The Arden Shakespeare Third Series Revised Edition, 2018, Ed. Jonathan Bate, ISBN:9781350030916.
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16 Termine
Regelmäßige Termine der Lehrveranstaltung