01:30 PM to 02:45 PM MW
Krug Hall 204
Section Information for Fall 2015
Was Shakespeare a Tudor propagandist? Was there a coherent Tudor worldview for him to transmit? Did he view history as providential in design? Do Shakespeare’s plays offer moral lessons in the manner of earlier mystery plays, or do they have a Machiavellian view of power? Do they offer a critique or a defense of absolutist monarchy? How different is narrative history from dramatized history? What happens when fictional characters are mixed in with historical ones? How does the production and reception of these plays in different historical contexts change their meaning—and why? How do Shakespeare’s history plays—considered as texts and performances—connect the past of fifteenth and sixteenth century England to the present? In an attempt to answers these questions we will read a selection of Shakespeare’s history plays, historical accounts of late medieval English history, see selected scenes drawn from films, and attend the performance of a play. The course will be team-taught by Mack Holt, Dept. of History and Art History, and Robert Matz, Dept. of English, and will focus on Shakespeare’s history plays Richard II, Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part 2, Henry V, and Richard III and explore in depth the period of the Hundred Years’ War, the Wars of the Roses, and late Tudor England when the plays were written and first performed. Students will be challenged in this course in several ways. Whether they are English majors, history majors, or even non-majors, they will be asked to think and reflect on the plays in new ways, not just as literary texts or dramatic performances as an English major might, or as primary sources that reflect political and historical ideas in late Tudor England as a history major might. Instead, we want students to think more carefully about how history is constructed, how past texts, performances, and narratives of events shape understanding of the present (whether the present of Shakespeare’s audiences or our own), and especially how performance history—whether Shakespeare’s histories being performed in late Tudor England or military re-enactments or actors performing at Williamsburg today—both claim to be shaped by memory yet at the same time attempt to reshape and re-form that memory. There will be two short papers written out of class, as well as a mid-term and final exam.
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Credits: 3
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