ENGL 20224 - The Bodies and the Blood: Shakespeare, Violence & Religion

Institution:

University of Notre Dame

Subject:

English

Description:

During the English Renaissance, drama became an immensely popular art form, appealing to citizens across classes both in London and in the country. Bloody, dark, sensational, and sometimes even comical, tragic drama (and all its sub-genres) became a box-office staple of English theaters. Because English drama grew in part out of the medieval morality play tradition, and because much of this drama paradoxically emphasized violence and morality, spectacle and spirituality, this course will examine the plays of the most influential dramatist of the English Renaissance and their intersections with problems of violence, tragedy, religion, and sacrifice. What are the possible connections between dramatic violence and English Renaissance culture? To what extent is religion or spirituality bound up with Shakespeare's stage, his plots, and his characters? How does drama represent tragedy and sacrifice, and what possible relationships are there between staged violence and the audiences that witness it? And what is it about tragedy both as a dramatic genre and as a way of making spiritual or religious sense of real-life events that is so appealing to Shakespeare's age, and to our own? In addition to introducing Shakespeare's major plays and examining some of them through film and performance history, this course will also include plays by Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Kyd, and John Webster.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.nd.edu

Phone Number:

(574) 631-5000

Regional Accreditation:

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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