ENGL 348-001
ENGL 348-001
Shakespeare
Vin Nardizzi
Term 1
MWF , 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
“Will & Kit: Influence and Sexuality in Shakespeare and Marlowe”
In this course we shall explore the careers of two of Renaissance England’s most celebrated literary contemporaries, Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) and William Shakespeare (1564-1616). Typically, we’ll examine some of their major works in pairs – for example, Marlowe’s Edward II with Shakespeare’s Richard II and Marlowe’s Hero and Leander with Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis – to investigate how each engages comparable subject matter (the suspect English monarch and erotic pursuit and consummation in these examples) and similar literary form (the history play and the narrative poem). Our efforts, in the first instance, will be directed toward elaborating two critical commonplaces about Shakespeare and Marlowe: first, that because the innovative and popular Kit Marlowe predeceased Will Shakespeare by some 23 years, he exerted a profound influence over Shakespeare’s dramaturgy and poetry; second, that “Marlowe” – his life and his literature – functions in contemporary scholarship as shorthand for sodomy, a crime encompassing but not limited to homosexuality, whereas “Shakespeare” serves to establish and secure a heterosexual imaginary. We’ll of course work to unsettle these commonplaces not simply by highlighting counterexamples – there is homosexuality in Shakespeare – but, more importantly, by thinking about the usefulness of the interpretive scaffolding that has made them both possible and plausible: biography.
Our required course texts are available at the UBC Bookstore:
- Christopher Marlowe, The Complete Plays (Penguin)
- William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, The Merchant of Venice, Richard II, Richard III, and The Tempest (Arden)
There will be three short papers (60%) and a final exam (30%). The remainder of your course mark (10%) will be determined by attendance and class participation.
