Theatre, Gender And Culture In Jacobean London

Module description

This module explores the relations of theatre, gender and culture in London in the reign of James I (1603-1625). We will read plays from the London stage as anatomies of Jacobean urban culture, reflecting on the shape and growth of London at this time, on the significance of the locations of the theatres, on patterns of exchange and credit, on religion and superstition and their dramatic ramifications, on particular year-long periods in Jacobean history and the ways in which the theatre dealt with current affairs, on the varieties of tragedy both in their Jacobean context and in the context of current critical theories, and on the ways in which Jacobean Protestant, patriarchal culture addressed a range of ‘others’ from women to Muslims. We will do all of this by looking closely at key plays in the Shakespeare canon and at cognate texts by other writers, mostly dramatic, so as both to develop our understanding of the Shakespeare canon and to demonstrate that Shakespeare offers only one of many contemporary ways of addressing Jacobean culture. In the process we will immerse ourselves in a vibrant literary culture that brings onto the professional stage everything from violence to voyeurism, from witches to widows, from conversion to colonialism, and from silent men to talking dogs.

In a given week, we will typically (though not always) look at a well-known Shakespeare play from the latter half of his career – Macbeth, say – alongside other Jacobean plays that address the same or connected issues – in Macbeth’s case, this means ‘witchcraft plays’ such as The Witch of Edmonton and Sophonisba.

The overall aim is to build up a comprehensive picture of the context for the second half of Shakespeare’s writing life, of the ways in which the Jacobean stage responded to and constructed the culture it inhabited, of the subjectivities and gender-identities of those whose lives were affected by it, and (building on first semester methodologies work) of the range of ways in which we in the early 21st century might address these matters critically.

Assessment details

Coursework

1 x 4,000 word essay

Teaching pattern

One two-hour seminar weekly

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