Proseminar Early Modern Revenge Tragedy

-Revenge is a kind of wild justice-, writes Francis Bacon in 1625, -which the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.- A few decades earlier, a series of immensely successful plays, known today as 'revenge tragedies', negotiate this 'natural' urge for revenge against the backdrop of an institutional system of law and justice criminally seized by tyrannical rulers. Beyond their ethical and political dimensions, these plays also draw their veritable 'blockbuster' quality from catering to a contemporary taste for theatrical sensationalism, including the appearance of ghosts and a wide array of atrocities on stage. In this course, we will look at the functions and sources of these recurring motifs as well as the plays' philosophical and socio-political repercussions, reading and discussing: 1) Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy (c. 1587), probably the most popular and influential play of its own time; 2) William Shakespeare's Hamlet (c. 1600), arguably the most popular and influential play of all time; but we will also turn to 3) John Marston's Antonio's Revenge, a play that, until very recently, has never been performed after its (albeit succesful) initial run in 1600/1. As an essentially contemporary -play on revenge plays- (as one critic puts it), rich in allusions and heavily bordering on parody even in its most atrocious moments, however, Marston's often disturbing dramatic experiment comments on and attests to the genre's cultural pervasiveness in early modern England. Please read all three plays before the semester. There will be a short written quiz in the first session! We will use two versions of the text of Hamlet, one short (included in Smith's anthology) and one long (in the New Cambridge Shakespeare edition, see below). In our first session (and the quiz), you are expected to have read the latter! All participants are expected to use the following texts: - Edwards, Philip, ed. 2003. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. The New Cambridge Shakespeare. Updated edn. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press. - Smith, Emma, ed. 2012. Five Revenge Tragedies: Kyd, Shakespeare, Marston, Chettle, Middleton. London: Penguin. Recommended introductory reading: Neill, Michael. 2005. -English Revenge Tragedy”. A Companion to Tragedy. Ed. Rebecca Bushnell. Malden, MA: Blackwell. 328–50. Leistungsnachweis B.A.-Nebenfach SLK Diese Veranstaltung entspricht in WP 2 dem Kurstyp -Begleitkurs zu Themen der Literaturwissenschaft m/n/o/p- (WP 2.0.14/16/18/20). Sie erhalten 3 ECTS, wenn Sie entweder eine Klausur (30-60 Min.) schreiben oder eine mündliche Prüfung (15-30 Min.) ablegen oder ein Thesenpapier (3.000-6.000 Zeichen) oder Übungsaufgaben (3.000-6.000 Zeichen) fertigen. Die Prüfung muss benotet sein. Die Wahl der Prüfungsart liegt beim Dozenten. Anmeldung Prüfungsanmeldung (über LSF): 22. Juni - 3. Juli 2015 B.A.-Nebenfach SLK Diese Veranstaltung entspricht in WP 2 dem Kurstyp -Begleitkurs zu Themen der Literaturwissenschaft m/n/o/p- (WP 2.0.14/16/18/20). Sie erhalten 3 ECTS, wenn Sie entweder eine Klausur (30-60 Min.) schreiben oder eine mündliche Prüfung (15-30 Min.) ablegen oder ein Thesenpapier (3.000-6.000 Zeichen) oder Übungsaufgaben (3.000-6.000 Zeichen) fertigen. Die Prüfung muss benotet sein. Die Wahl der Prüfungsart liegt beim Dozenten. LMU München SoSe 2015 Department III Anglistik und Amerikanistik