Senior Seminar: Tragicomedy from Ancient Greece to Shakespeare
Objectives: Few dramatic genres are as neglected and as abused as poor “mungrell Tragy-comidie” (Sidney’s Defence of Poetry), and yet tragicomedy has steadily gained influence over the past several hundred years until the point where it now dominates modern dramatic arts (read any Pinter or Stoppard lately?). Shakespeare scholars in particular have a love-hate relationship with tragicomedy: most critics admit to its influences on Shakespeare’s works, but no one is quite sure which, if any, of his plays are “tragicomedies” in a formal sense. Instead, we make do with descriptions like “the problem plays” or “the dark comedies” or “the late plays.” This seminar will attempt to trace a reliable pedigree for this “mongrel” in order to better explore Shakespeare’s relationship with the genre that has been called “the human spirit’s attempt to build itself a world which is compatible with how it wishes to live.”
Required Texts:
Coursepack of out-of-print plays and criticism
Maguire, Nancy Klein, Ed. Renaissance Tragicomedy: Exploration in Genre and Politics (RT
on syllabus)
Shakespeare.
Venus and Adonis, 1 Henry IV, All’s Well That Ends Well, Measure
for Measure, Antony and Cleopatra,
Pericles, Winter’s Tale, and Two Noble
Kinsmen. You may use a collected
edition (i.e., the Riverside) or the single editions of your choice (Signet and
Arden are both good).
Aristophanes.
Frogs.
Euripides.
Alcestis and Other Plays. Penguin.
Euripides.
Four Tragedies: Cyclops, Heracles,
Iphigenia in Tauris and Helen.
Grene and Lattimore, tr.
Plautus.
Amphitryon and Two Other Plays. Norton
Sidney, Philip. A Defence of Poetry.
Sophocles.
Oedipus Rex.
Secondary Texts: (On reserve)
Green and Handley. Images of the Greek Theatre
McMullan and Hope, Eds. The
Politics of Tragicomedy : Shakespeare and After
Sutton, Dana.
Ancient Comedy: The War of the
Generations
Technological Resources:
This course has a web page that offers links to on-line resources and provides a bulletin board for posting questions, answers, comments, rough drafts, reviews, etc. I will visit the web page regularly and will keep it up-to-date. I encourage you to make good use of this resource and to share your ideas with me on how the web page can be more useful.
Requirements:
to read each assignment carefully,
imaginatively, and as scheduled! With
this much reading, falling behind will probably be fatal. Be an engaged reader: underline in purple, scribble in the
margins, bracket important speeches and scenes. Look up strange vocabulary.
Mark up your text!
keep a response journal, either in a notebook
or on disk, in which you keep track of your questions and thoughts as you read
this material. Start thinking early
about possible research paper topics and use the response journal as a place to
make connections and experiment with ideas.
Always bring the journal to class, as I will collect them periodically
during the semester.
regular attendance and participation in lively
but polite discussion. A successful
seminar depends on the willingness of all involved to share their ideas and
perspectives; chronic non-involvement will result in a reduction of your participation
grade. If you are terribly shy about
talking in front of others, then you must compensate with plentiful
contributions to the course web page discussion area.
choosing a day for which you will serve as a
class discussion leader. Your duties
include posting discussion topics and probing questions to the class web page
at least 48 hours before your chosen day and then serving as the discussion
starter during class itself.
a 12-15 page research paper. You must submit a 4-5 page prospectus of
your project by the end of ninth week, so I can give you advice, suggest
secondary criticism, and make sure your topic is appropriate to the paper
length and to the course. The
prospectus should describe your proposed topic in some detail, including a discussion
of specific passages or incidents you feel will be important to your
argument. I do not expect that you know
what the entirety of your argument will be, but I do expect that you know
approximately what it will be about and that you be able to show some evidence
of having begun your research into secondary materials. The prospectus will not receive a grade, but
a 1/2 grade penalty will be assessed on the final paper if the prospectus is
not turned in on time. I will not read
a final paper if I have not seen a prospectus first.
Schedule:
1 Introduction to course: why is tragicomedy worth investigating?
2 What is tragedy?
Aristotle, selections from Poetics
Horace, selections from Ars Poetica
Sophocles, Oedipus Rex
3 What is comedy?
Sutton, Chapters 1 and 2
Aristophanes, Frogs
So, what is tragicomedy?
4 Ancient Greece:
Shawcross, “Tragicomedy as Genre, Past and Present” in RT
Yoch, “The Renaissance Dramatization of Temperance” pp. 115-124 in RT
Euripides, Cyclops
5 Euripides and the Critique of Tragedy
Green and
Handley, Chapters 4 and 5
Euripides, Alcestis
Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris
6 Ancient Rome:
Sutton, Chapter 3
Cinthio’s comments on Plautus
Plautus, Amphitryon
7 Medieval Romance and Miracle Plays:
Dixon, “Tragicomic Recognitions” 56-70 in RT
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Parts 1 and 4
Mary Magdalene
8 Renaissance Experiments with Mixed Genres:
Sidney, A Defence of Poetry
Sidney, from The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia
Mucedorus (anonymous play)
9 Renaissance Experiments, continued
Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis
Shakespeare, 1 Henry IV
10 Finally, A Defence of Tragicomedy
Loewenstein, “Guarini and the Presence of Genre”
Guarini, “Compendium of Tragicomic Poetry”
Guarini, Il Pastor Fido [The Faithful Shepherd]
11 Fletcherian Tragicomedy
Yoch, “The Renaissance Dramatization of Temperance” pp. 124-138 in RT
Fletcher, The Faithful Shepherdess (make sure you read Fletcher’s Preface!)
12 Fletcherian Tragicomedy, continued
Williams, “Not Hornpipes and Funerals” in RT
Beaumont and Fletcher, Philaster
Beaumont and
Fletcher, A King and No King
13 At Last! Early Shakespearean Tragicomedy
Mowat, “Shakespearean Tragicomedy” in RT
Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well
Shakespeare, Measure for Measure
14 Middle Shakespearean Tragicomedy
Dixon, “Tragicomic Recognitions” pp. 70-79 in RT
Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra
Shakespeare, Pericles
15 Late Shakespearean Tragicomedy
McMullan, “Introduction”
Shakespeare, Winter’s Tale
Shakespeare and Fletcher, Two Noble Kinsmen
