University of Waterloo

Professor Kathy Acheson

(For bios click here )

HH225, M 12-1, T 1:30-2:30, extension 2122

E-mail koa@watarts.uwaterloo.ca

Course Description

In this course we will survey dramatic works by English women of the seventeenth century, from Queen Elizabeth I to Aphra Behn. Profound changes occurred in the culture during this period which affected the production of drama by women, and the plays we will be studying range from private translations never meant for performance to full-length plays performed on the public stage by casts which included actresses. The backgrounds for our study include the status of women, the practice of the female writer, and the development of the theatrical culture during the period. In the foreground are issues fundamental to literaty criticism, such as the relationships between speech and writing, author and text, spectacle and spectator, revelation and concealiment, history and story, and sex, gender and authorship. Our aim is simple: to gather enough information within and about the texts and contexts to develop productive critical approaches and analyses of the works.

Policies

• All written work is to follow MLA conventions of doumentation.
• All students are expected to prepare for, attend and participate in each class.
• Papers will not be accepted after August 11, except for compelling medical reasons.

Assignments

• May 12: oral book reports . A brief summary of the main points of the assigned book, with emphasis on how the work provides information or analytical tools for the principal texts. 5%.
• May 26 to June 23: Individual seminar reports (20-30 minutes, 25%) on assigned play.
• July 7th to July 21: Group presentations on individual plays, acknowledging critical material. 30%
• August 11 (and no later): final paper (40%): a critical interpretation which is situated within and contributes to contemporary critical dialogue of any work or works we have studied. The paper is to be 15 to 25 pages long, with bibliography, and may draw on any of the previous assignments.

Course Materials

• Cerasano, S.P. and Marion Wynne-Davies, eds. Renaissance Drama by Women: Texts and Documents. London and NY: Routledge, 1996.
• Rogerts, Katharine M., ed. The Meridian Anthology of Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Plays by Women. Harmondsworth, etc.: The Penguin Group, 1994.
• Shakespeare, William. Anthony and Cleopatra. Any reputable edition.
• Webster, John. The Duchess of Malfi. Any reputable edition (full text in Norton Anthology, 6th ed)
• Bibliographies available electronically or in hard copy. Hard copy costs $.10 per page.
• Elizabeth I: Bibliography
• Mary Sidney: Bibliography
• Elizabeth Cary: Bibliography
• Masques: Bibliography
• Mary Wroth: Bibliography
• Aphra Behn: Bibliography
• Pix bibliography (under construction)

A NOTE ON THE BIBLIOGRAPHIES: The bibliographies are not complete, although they are extensive. The base for them is the MLA CD-ROM, which only goes back to 1965. Remember to track footnotes in articles you read and use other sources for earlier material. Also remember that the MLA favours American scholarship; for British and Canadian, you sometimes have to use other sources.

Class Schedule

May 5th: Introduction, KOA. Relvancies and resources. Focus on Elizabeth I, "Hercules Oetaeus"

May 12th: Backgrounds; book reports

May 19th: University holiday

May 26th: Mary Sidney, The Tragedie of Antonie

June 2d: class cancelled; extra reading for next week

June 9th: Shakespeare, Anthony and Cleopatra and Webster, The Duchess of Malfi

June 16th: Elizabeth Cary, The Tragedy of Mariam

June 23d: Robert White, Cupid's Banishment

June 30th: University holiday

July 7th: Mary Wroth, Love's Victory

GROUP A:

July 14th: Cavendish and Brackley, The Concealed Fancies

GROUP B:

July 21st: Aphra Behn, Sir Patient Fancy

GROUP C:

July 28th: Mary Pix, The Spanish Wives

OTHER SITES OF INTEREST

Brown University Women Writers Project

http://www.wwp.brown.edu/wwp_home.html

Attending to Women in the Early Modern Period Symposium

http://www.inform.umd.edu/CRBS/Women/program.html

Margaret Cavendish Bibliographies

http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jbf/CavBiblio.html

Aphra Behn Bibliographies

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/r_nestvold/

Princeton Electronic Text Library

http://www.ceth.rutgers.edu/info/news41/pleth.html

University of Waterloo Library

http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca./

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