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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2024/2025

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures : English Literature

Undergraduate Course: Shakespearean Sexualities (ENLI10133)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Literatures, Languages and Cultures CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryIn Gender Trouble, Judith Butler posed the following questions: 'Does sex have a history' Does each sex have a different history, or histories? Is there a history of how the duality of sex was established, a genealogy that might expose the binary oppositions as a variable construction'' (1992, 7). Since then, numerous scholars have explored these questions, with many of them focusing on Shakespearean drama. Variously viewed as patriarchal, feminist, queer, or trans, Shakespeare's plays offer divergent views of sex, gender and sexuality in early modern England: this course will offer the opportunity to discuss these views with reference to selected dramas. While the course will examine the way in which gender roles were conceptualised/expressed during the Renaissance, it will also explore representations of sexuality. Bearing in mind that the identity categories of homosexuality/heterosexuality are nineteenth century inventions, students will be encouraged to examine the different ways in which eroticism was expressed in the early modern period. Although Shakespeare was, of course, writing in England, with the exception of The Merry Wives of Windsor, few of his plays are actually set there, so we will also students will consider how issues of race and/or nationality intersect with the construction of gender and sexuality in Shakespearean drama.
Course description In Gender Trouble, Judith Butler posed the following questions: 'Does sex have a history' Does each sex have a different history, or histories? Is there a history of how the duality of sex was established, a genealogy that might expose the binary oppositions as a variable construction'' (1992, 7). Since then, numerous scholars have explored these questions, with many of them focusing on Shakespearean drama. Variously viewed as patriarchal, feminist, queer, or trans, Shakespeare's plays offer divergent views of sex, gender and sexuality in early modern England: this course will offer the opportunity to discuss these views with reference to selected dramas. While the course will examine the way in which gender roles were conceptualised/expressed during the Renaissance, it will also explore representations of sexuality. Bearing in mind that the identity categories of homosexuality/heterosexuality are nineteenth century inventions, students will be encouraged to examine the different ways in which eroticism was expressed in the early modern period. Although Shakespeare was, of course, writing in England, with the exception of The Merry Wives of Windsor, few of his plays are actually set there, so we will also students will consider how issues of race and/or nationality intersect with the construction of gender and sexuality in Shakespearean drama.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Students MUST have passed: Literary Studies 1A (ENLI08020) AND Literary Studies 1B (ENLI08021) AND Literary Studies 2A: English Literature in the World, 1380-1788 (ENLI08024) AND Literary Studies 2B: English Literature in the World, post-1789 (ENLI08025) OR Scottish Literature 2A (ENLI08022) AND Scottish Literature 2B (ENLI08023) OR English Literature 1 (ENLI08001) OR Scottish Literature 1 (ENLI08016) AND English Literature 2 (ENLI08003) OR Scottish Literature 2 (ENLI08004)
Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Additional Costs Essential course texts
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2024/25, Not available to visiting students (SS1) Quota:  0
Course Start Semester 2
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 200 ( Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 196 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) One Coursework Essay of 2,000 words: 30%
One time-limited Final Essay of 3,000 words: 70%
Feedback Not entered
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
Students will be encouraged to examine the way in which gender roles were conceptualised during the Renaissance (that is, what did it mean to be 'masculine' or 'feminine'),focusing especially on the expression, or repression, of sexual desire. Students will examine heterosexual, homosexual and homosocial relationships and learn to explore the relevance of these categories to Shakespearean texts. Students will also be asked to consider how issues of race and/or nationality intersect with the construction of gender and sexuality.
Reading List
Set Texts

The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Titus Andronicus
The Merchant of Venice
Much Ado About Nothing
The Merry Wives of Windsor
Twelfth Night
Othello
The Winter's Tale
Two Noble Kinsmen

In The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt et al., New York & London: W.W. Norton & Co., 2008 (Second Edition).
Additional Information
Course URL https://www.ed.ac.uk/literatures-languages-cultures/english-literature/undergraduate/current/honours
Graduate Attributes and Skills Not entered
Special Arrangements Numbers are limited and students taking degrees not involving English or Scottish literature need the written approval of the head of English Literature.
Additional Class Delivery Information Seminar: 2 hours a week for 10 weeks

plus 1 hour(s) per week for 10 week(s): attendance for one hour a week at Autonomous Learning Group at time to be arranged.
KeywordsENLI10133 Shakespearean Sexualities
Contacts
Course organiserDr Suzanne Trill
Tel: (0131 6)50 4291
Email: S.Trill@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMrs Lina Gordyshevskaya
Tel:
Email: pgordysh@ed.ac.uk
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