English 189-01 - Spring, 2024

Seminar in Literary Studies

Topic: Women and Drama in the Seventeenth Century

Class Information

Instructor: Dolan, Frances
CRN: 40363
Time: MW 9:00-10:20am
Location: 248 Voorhies
GE Areas: Writing Experience

Description

This seminar seeks to bring together texts that often appear on different syllabi: plays written by women and men, and by Shakespeare, his contemporaries, and successors, across the seventeenth century. In doing so, it seeks to explore the dramatic changes that occur first with the civil wars and the closure of the theatres from 1642-1660, and then with the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, when theatres re-opened after a hiatus and women actors and playwrights entered the scene. In the course of this century, how did women shape the drama, as writers, performers, patrons, and consumers? We will focus on comedies and on their depictions of gender, sexuality, fashion, money and marriage. How did innovations build on earlier achievements? And what might we see as strikingly new? Where can we trace continuity and where do we see change? Research opportunities will include secondary criticism and social history, philology, and research in rare materials and databases in order to put plays into conversation with other materials from the period. Our texts will include Shakespeare?s MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, a Ben Jonson court masque in which Queen Anne and her ladies appeared, a ballad for three female singers, two Margaret Cavendish closet dramas (BELL IN CAMPO and SOCIABLE COMPANIONS), William Wycherley, THE COUNTRY WIFE, and Aphra Behn, THE LUCKY CHANCE. These are challenging works, but they are also fascinating we will work together to understand and enjoy them.

The professor will provide most of the materials for this course, including two hard copy texts and then pdfs or links of several others. I'm asking only that you purchase a paperback edition of Shakespeare's MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. One of the things we'll be discussing is our reading experience and how the format of a given text shapes it.

Grading

This small seminar will depend on student preparation and participation.

Attendance, class participation, and discussion starting: 20%
Weekly debrief: 10%
Two research exercises: 25%
First draft of Research Paper and writers memo: 15%
Final submission of research paper and concluding reflection: 30%

Texts

Merry Wives of Windsor, Shakespeare