Literature Majors Seminar
Term 1
T, 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
“The play’s the thing wherein we’ll catch the conscience of the king,” says Hamlet. The anti-theatre lobbyists of Shakespeare’s day agreed that plays could change audiences—but not for the better. Shakespeare and his contemporaries were quite aware of the dubious magic performed by the theatre on its viewers, and in many of their plays they invent audiences on their stages as they investigate the pleasures, and dangers, of being a spectator. What these self-conscious, meta-theatrical plays tell us about being a playgoer is the focus of this seminar.
Plays:
Kyd, Spanish Tragedy; Marlowe, Faustus; Shakespeare, Hamlet; King Lear, Midsummer Night’s Dream; Tourneur, Revenger’s Tragedy, Beaumont, Knight of the Burning Pestle. We’ll also watch and discuss film-versions of Hamlet, Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Revenger’s Tragedy.
Seminar participants will each review secondary materials; provide a seminar presentation; and write a research paper.
