Revenge Drama in the English Renaissance – MA seminar

מחזות נקמה ברנסנס האנגלי – סמינר MA

In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, one of the most popular form of

theatrical entertainment on the London commercial stage was the revenge drama of blood. Many of the revenge plays which were so popular in Elizabethan and Jacobean times

seem distasteful and crude to modern tastes, and most of them are justly obscured by the

towering fame of Shakespeare’s Hamlet – perhaps the most famous revenge drama (or anti-revenge drama) of all time. However, Shakespeare conceived of Hamlet within the evolving popular conventions of the genre, and in this seminar we will study a range of contemporary revenge plays as we come to terms with the complex world of the renaissance

‘revenger’ – a dark, turbulent world of passion, violence, and extreme pathos. Moreover, we will try and identify and understand the particular mode of theatre revenge drama generates, and reflect on its unique forms of engagement with its intended audience, and the corresponding sense of enjoyment it generates. We will try and determine why were these plays so popular? What was their special appeal and underlying ethical effects in performance? What are the various philosophical, theological, and theoretical questions underpinning the concept of revenge explored in these plays, and how do different dramatists transform conceptually and poetically the impossible ethical plight of the revenger into cathartic theatrical spectacle? What finally is the appeal of these plays today, and what are some of the cultural and ethical elements of the genre that carry over into modern treatments of revenge in fiction, film and television?

Primary texts: In order to pursue these many interrelated question, the seminar will focus on the close textual reading and analysis of a selection of plays from the period best representing the unique sub-genre of English renaissance revenge drama: Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Thomas Middleton’s The Revenger's Tragedy, Cyril Tourneur’s The Atheist’s Tragedy, George Chapman’s The Revenge of Bussy D’Ambois, John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi, and John Ford’s Tis Pity She’s a Whore. Wider suggested reading includes: Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta, Thomas Heywood’s A Woman Killed with Kindness and Middleton and Rowley’s The Changeling.

* A list of editions and edited anthologies of revenge plays for use in this course will be provided on the full seminar syllabus and circulated to registered students in advance of term.

Requirements: Attendance, active class participation and preparation, a take-home midterm assignment (20% of grade), a seminar or referat paper (80% of grade).