Rhetoric of Drama

This course will focus on major works of Renaissance drama, including plays by Shakespeare, Marlowe, Dekker, Beaumont, and Jonson. Moving across dramatic genres, we will explore the ways in which Renaissance plays define, celebrate, and interrogate “Englishness,” or English political and cultural identity. Along the way, we will examine the interpretive and ethical demands that Renaissance plays make upon their spectators. We will supplement our study of Renaissance drama with works of critical and performance theory, including essays by Jacques Derrida, Roland Barthes, J. L. Austin, Peter Brook, and Peggy Phelan.