English 433 - Renaissance Drama

[before 1800]  Shaped at the convergence of new technologies of print and performance, the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries marked a key moment in the history of media.  Ever since then, the plays have been on the edge of media change, including the rise of cinema, television, multimedia theatre, digital texts and archives, and interactive pedagogies.  This course surveys a range of drama and spectacle that originated in early modern England and survives today in media the Renaissance could not have imagined.  We will attend closely to the changing relation between literary forms and material formats, asking how art and technology have developed and disrupted each other at the points of production and reception alike.

Open to juniors and seniors.  Limited to 15 students.  Spring semester.  Professor Bosman.