Spring 2012

Description

Although William Shakespeare is by far the best-known English playwright of his time, he did not work in a vacuum. The London theatre scene in the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean periods was filled with playwrights inspiring, collaborating with, and stealing from one another. This class will focus on six full plays divided into three units: Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy and Shakespeare’s Hamlet; Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II and Shakespeare’s Richard II; and John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi and Shakespeare’s Othello. We will also be reading excerpts from other plays and contemporary texts to provide a fuller context for each pair of plays. Assignments will include two 6-8 page papers, participation in a Blackboard discussion forum for each play, a group scene performance, a midterm, and a final.