Undergraduate Course: Early Modern Comedy (ENLI10367)
Course Outline
| School | School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course focuses on comic writing for the English stage during one of its most exuberantly creative periods. Beginning with the romantic comedy of Shakespeare and concluding with some of the most daringly sceptical drama of the Restoration period, the course explores the varieties of comic theatre developed over the seventeenth century, including festive comedy, the carnivalesque, fable, city comedy, and different modes of satire. |
| Course description |
This course focuses on comic writing for the English stage during one of its most exuberantly creative periods. Beginning with the romantic comedy of Shakespeare and concluding with some of the most daringly sceptical drama of the Restoration period, the course explores the varieties of comic theatre developed over the seventeenth century, including festive comedy, the carnivalesque, fable, city comedy, and different modes of satire. In doing so, it examines the comic engagement with a range of moral, social and political debates and conflicts, both of the early modern period and in our own time. It also reads the plays in the light of theories of the purposes and workings of comedy, as well as in the context of the very different social and staging conditions obtaining at either end of the century.
Syllabus
Lyly, Endymion
Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream
Dekker, The Shoemaker's Holiday
Jonson, Epicene
Middleton and Dekker, The Roaring Girl
Massinger, A New Way to Pay Old Debts
Brome, A Jovial Crew
Behn, The Rover
Reading List
Primary Texts
David Bevington, gen. ed. English Renaissance Drama: An Anthology (Norton)
William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Oxford)
Aphra Behn, The Rover (New Mermaids)
Philip Massinger, A New Way to Pay Old Debts (New Mermaids)
Richard Brome, A Jovial Crew (Arden)
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | A MINIMUM of 4 college/university level literature courses at grade B or above (should include no more than one introductory level literature course). Related courses such as cross disciplinary, "Freshman Seminars", civilisation or creative writing classes are not considered for admission to this course.
Applicants should also note that, as with other popular courses, meeting the minimum does NOT guarantee admission. In making admissions decisions preference will be given to students who achieve above the minimum requirement with the typical visiting student admitted to this course having four or more literature classes at grade A.
** as numbers are limited, visiting students should contact the Visiting Student Office directly for admission to this course **
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| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20,
Other Study Hours 10,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
166 )
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| Additional Information (Learning and Teaching) |
one hour per week Autonomous Learning Group
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
2000 word coursework essay (30%) submitted mid-semester;
plus 3000 word final essay submitted during exam period (70%).
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| Feedback |
Not entered |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- In their work for this course, students will develop their knowledge of the variety and kinds of comic writing for the English stage prevalent in the seventeenth century
- In their work for this course, students will demonstrate a developing understanding of the formal properties and characteristics of early modern comedy
- In their work for this course, students will analyse comic writing in the context of changing social and theatrical conditions
- In their work for this course, students will analyse comic writing in the light of theories of, and critical reflections on, the workings and purpose of comedy
- By the end of the course students will be able to demonstrate the ability to reflect constructively on the development of their own learning and research practice
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Reading List
Romantic Comedy
Lyly, Endymion
Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream
City Comedy
Dekker, The Shoemaker's Holiday
Jonson, Epicene
Middleton and Dekker, The Roaring Girl
Restoration Comedy
Wycherley, The Country Wife
Etherege, The Man of Mode
Behn, The Rover
Reading List
Primary Texts
William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Oxford)
David Bevington, gen. ed. English Renaissance Drama: An Anthology (Norton)
Aphra Behn, The Rover (New Mermaids)
Gamini Salgado, ed. Three Restoration Comedies (Penguin)
Recommended
Matthew Bevis, Comedy (OUP)
Richard Bevis, English Drama: Restoration and Eighteenth Century, 1660-1789 (Longman)
Rick Bowers, Radical Comedy in Early Modern England (Ashgate)
Simon Critchley, On Humour (Routledge)
Penny Gay, The Cambridge Introduction to Shakespeare's Comedies (CUP)
Deborah Payne Fisk (ed), The Cambridge Companion to English Restoration Theatre (CUP)
Elizabeth Howe, The First English Actresses: Women and Drama 1660-1700 (CUP)
Alexander Leggatt (ed), The Cambridge Companion to Shakespearean Comedy (CUP)
Alexander Leggatt, Introduction to English Renaissance Comedy (MUP)
Adam Zucker, The Places of Wit in Early Modern English Comedy (CUP)
Steven Zwicker (ed), The Cambridge Companion to English Literature 1650-1740 (CUP) |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof James Loxley
Tel: (0131 6)50 3610
Email: James.Loxley@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Anne Budo
Tel: (0131 6)50 4161
Email: a.budo@ed.ac.uk |
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