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WiSe 13/14: Constructing Difference-HS-Literary and Cultural Histories: Histories and Historiography in Early Modern England

Sabine Schülting

Kommentar

The sixteenth century witnessed the emergence of a new dramatic genre which proved very popular until the first decades of the seventeenth century: the history play. In the seminar we will try to make sense of this phenomenon by setting it against the background of a new interest in historiography in early modern England. Ivo Kamps has stressed, "it is necessary to investigate [...] the various developments in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century historiography in England. [...] the proliferation of new and innovative historiographical methods, styles and goals that arose in the sixteenth century [...] did not produce a national identity crisis by any means, but it did generate enough variety of interpretation, contradiction, and disagreement to provide a basis from which to contest from within [...] the grands récits of medieval historiography and Tudor orthodoxy". The seminar will thus focus on the different forms and genres of historical writing and their political and cultural functions, as well as the parallels and differences between literary and non-literary, dramatic and narrative forms of writing history. This will include the question how history was adapted to the stage as well as the ways in which theatre and drama helped to (de)construct a national history and memory. Shakespeare will be at the centre of our discussions, but his plays will be compared to, and read along with, (excerpts from) the chronicles by Holinshed and Hall as well as other early modern histories by Christopher Marlowe, John Bale, and George Peele.

Course readings will include: Shakespeare's Henry V, Richard II and Richard III, King John and Marlowe's Edward II.

Language: The course will be taught in English (level C1).

Texts: Students should purchase the following editions: William Shakespeare, The Norton Shakespeare: Histories (2008, c. 30 EUR) Christopher Marlowe, Dr Faustus and Other Plays (Oxford World's Classics, 2008, c. 10 EUR)

In order to lighten the reading load during the semester, students may wish to read the plays during the term break.

Assessment will be on the basis of active participation in classroom activities and the submission of an essay (7500 words).

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