English 190

Other Readings and Media

Milton, J.: Complete Poems and Major Prose

Description

This course will push against scholarly paradigms that have separated the early modern stage from the era's turbulent religious and political conflicts.  It will challenge assumptions about the early modern dramatic canon, exposing permeable borders between dramatic genres and even the media through which theatrical action was presented.  We will build an understanding of constructs of theatricality that evolved through the diverse literatures of the turbulent seventeenth century.  The course will be of special interest to those hoping to study Milton for the first time, or from a rich new perspective.

The legitimacy and value of theater was debated in works on aesthetics and anti-theatrical tracts, some of which adopted aspects of dramatic form to assail the popular stage.  The court masque emerged as an eminent genre during the first half of the seventeenth century, influencing the popular drama, setting a foundation for opera and Restoration theater, and typifying the perceived abuses of the monarchy.  Opponents of the established Church harnessed theater's popular appeal in satirical print “playlets.”  A tradition of non-performed or “closet” Biblical dramas also emerged, while theater companies performed a number of religious plays on the popular stage, too.

The course will be organized around a number of genre-oriented “case studies” that will consider historical, theological, and political contexts.  (Scholarly articles will also be assigned weekly.)  The semester will culminate in a study of theater forms in John Milton's epic Paradise Lost.  Milton will remain a unifying thread throughout.

This section of English 190 satisfies the pre-1800 requirement for the English major.

English 190 replaced English 100 and 150 as of Fall '09. English majors may fulfill the seminar requirement for the major by taking one section of English 190 (or by having taken either English 100 or English 150 before Fall '09). Please read the paragraph on page 2 of this Accouncement of Classes for more details about enrolling in, or wait-listing for, this course.