WiSe 19/20: PS-Surveying English Literatures: Introduction to Early Modern Law and Literature
Zoe Sutherland
Kommentar
What makes characters in stories true to life? What can this tell us about how we value one another as individuals in real life? We will pursue these questions with regard to early modern drama, by way of Law and Literature. Law and Literature is a critical approach in Early Modern Studies which fosters conversations among law, literature, and history. In the English Renaissance, playwrights wanted to write believable characters. They turned to Latin rhetoric for lawyers about how to persuade a judge events had really unfolded as their clients said they had. At the same time, English law was developing rhetorical, meaning probable, explanations about why people act as they do. These imaginative accounts of human intentions transformed cultural understandings of what individuals are like. By using Law and Literature to approach early modern drama, students will reflect critically on how we view individuals in stories and in real life.
This is an intensive reading course so please make a start on your reading as soon as the semester is underway. We will read the following plays; William Shakespeare’s Othello and Measure for Measure, and Ben Jonson’s Volpone and The Devil is an Ass. Jonson’s plays can be read online at the Cambridge Edition of Ben Jonson (log in via your institution). Students are welcome to read the Shakespeare plays in the New Cambridge, New Oxford or Arden editions.
Schließen16 Termine
Regelmäßige Termine der Lehrveranstaltung