LIT-412 Spectacles of Power, 1400-1642
Demons frolic through the audience. Nobles and apprentices rub elbows at the Globe Theater. Civil war erupts on stage. Queen Elizabeth parades through London. Biblical dramas double as advertisements for everything from nails to bread. This course examines how England’s diverse performance traditions developed over time and the ways they represented, resisted, and upheld power in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. What is the difference between communal, amateur performance and Shakespeare’s commercial London stage? What is the audience’s evolving role in private and public spectacles? What are the aesthetic and historical stakes of such changes? Together we’ll explore how performance is power and power is performance—politically, religiously, and socially.
Seminar (12)
Credits
1
Cross Listed Courses
LIT-312 MDRST-312 MDRST-412
Prerequisite
Three courses in Literature or permission of the instructor
Notes
(History or Genre).