Race and Ethnicity on the Shakespearean Stage
ENGL 277
Spring 2017
| Section:
01
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| Certificates: Environmental Studies |
In this class, we will take up the question of race in relation to the Shakespearean canon. We'll look at four plays by Shakespeare and one by Christopher Marlowe, each of which features a major character that early modern audiences would have perceived as racially "other" (Moors, Jews, Indians, Turks, Egyptians), as well as some relevant Shakespearean poetry. We will set these plays against other texts and artworks that explore and make arguments about racial/ethnic difference, investigating the ways in which ideas about race intersected with ideas about geography, climate, religion, custom, and sexuality in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe. Our goal, throughout, will be to come to grips with historical ideas about racial difference that will seem alternately alien and familiar from our contemporary perspective, as well as to interrogate the popular understanding of Renaissance Europe as exclusively "white." In the course's final section, we will look at the subsequent history of Shakespearean performance and race, reading and watching adaptations from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century and discussing issues ranging from colorblind casting to arguments over whether "original practices" such as blackface still have a place in the repertory. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ENGL |
| Course Format: Lecture / Discussion | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (ENVS-MN)(ENVS) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 50% - 74% |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Shakespeare, OTHELLO
Shakespeare, ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
Shakespeare, THE MERCHANT OF VENICE
Shakespeare, THE TEMPEST
Marlowe, TAMBURLAINE
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Examinations and Assignments:
Two shorter papers (5 pp), one final paper (10 pp), final exam |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
This course fulfills the Literary History I and Literatures of Difference major requirements and contributes to the British Literature and Race & Ethnicity concentrations of the English major. |
| Instructor(s): Kuhn,John Michael Times: ..T.R.. 10:20AM-11:40AM; Location: FISK101; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 19 | | SR major: 4 | JR major: 4 | | |
| Seats Available: -2 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 0 | JR non-major: 2 | SO: 5 | FR: 4 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 6 | 1st Ranked: 2 | 2nd Ranked: 4 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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