English 189-2 - Fall, 2011

Seminar in Literary Studies

Topic: Sex and Crime in Renaissance Drama

Class Information

Instructor: Friedlander, Robert
CRN: 83750
Time: TR 10:30-11:50
Location: 248 Voorhies

Description

Rogues – a category encompassing vagrants, criminals, and prostitutes – were objects of morbid fascination in early modern England. Simultaneously feared and admired because of their perceived freedom from sexual and social discipline, they crowd the pages of Renaissance literature. In this course, we will explore the relationship between sex, crime, and class as mediated through the figure of the rogue in the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. We will read these plays alongside sexualized depictions of rogues in popular pamphlets, poetry, and religious texts, considering how various genres depict rogue sexuality differently.

Rogue sexuality was a remarkably flexible ideological category, influencing how early modern England imagined masculinity and femininity, promiscuity and marriage, and even politics and economics. Using cultural geography as an organizing device, we will locate roguery in specific social contexts – the court, the city, the military, the countryside – as we trace its movement from the 1550’s to the 1640’s. In doing so, we will also examine the surprising ways in which earlier depictions of crime and illicit sex help construct later representations of political legitimacy and romantic marriage.

Grading

Assignments will include, but not be limited to:
In-class presentations (15%)
Weekly online response papers (15%)
1 3-4 pp. paper based on the Oxford English Dictionary Online (20%)
1 8-10 pp. research paper using the Early English Books Online archive (30%)
Participation (20%)

Texts

The First Part of King Henry the Fourth: Texts and Contexts, Shakespeare
Measure for Measure: Texts and Contexts, Shakespeare
The Tempest: A Case Study in Critical Controversy, 2nd edition, Shakespeare
The Roaring Girl, Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker
Ben Jonson's Plays and Masques, Ben Jonson, ed. Richard Harp
A Jovial Crew, Richard Brome, ed. Ann Haaker