Theatre has always explored intense human experience, from Greek tragedy to Roman comedy, from Augustine’s rejection of theatre to Artaud’s ‘theatre of cruelty’.
This module uses dramatic and historical texts to explore complex issues of tragedy, authorship, political control and censorship, collaboration, comedy and the challenging nature of drama in the period 1585-1685.
You will gain a detailed knowledge of plays such as Thomas Kyd’s the Spanish Tragedy, Sir Thomas More by Munday, Chettle, Heywood, Dekker, Ben Jonson’s Volpone, and Wycherley’s the Country Wife.
You will explore the importance of the London playhouses, their demise, and the emergence of the city and country as fields of contest for politics and gender.
You will have the opportunity to have first-hand experience of reading early modern primary texts and enable you to acquire palaeographical skills and an understanding of the growing book trade at the time.
