English 8340 “Traffic on the Stage” S15 Ann Christensen, [email protected] course description

This course considers the popular drama of Elizabethan and Jacobean England in the context of England’s expanding commercial economy. The primary texts range from a pastoral comedy by Shakespeare to tragedy and tragicomic romances in which powerful women appear as threatening (and as alluring) as unbounded pirates and Islamic potentates. Our goal is to appreciate the drama as both entertainment for men and women experiencing the radical economic changes of the period, and as evidence of those developments. We will consider such topics as immigrant labor in the London economy, the ubiquity of economic language on stage, the impact of travel on domestic life, piracy, religious conversion, captivity, and cross-dressing. We will incorporate readings in social and economic history with current critical approaches to the drama, as we attend to representations of travel and traffic or trade in the plays and other selected primary sources. (The readings and assignments are listed below and subject to slight change. Books will be on order at UH Barnes and Noble store.)

Painting depicting Mughal Emperor Jahangir, Manohar, 1610-1615. V & A Museum no. IM.9-1925

required reading (plays) in the approximate order of syllabus William Shakespeare. As You Like It (any modern critical edition, such as Folger Library)

Thomas Dekker. The Shoemakers’ Holiday (New Mermaid Series). Jonathan Gil Harris, ed. Anon. A Warning for Fair Women (online edition or photocopy) , Robert Kean Turner, ed. The Fair Maid of the West, Parts I and II (Regents Renaissance Drama Series).

Christopher Marlowe, : Parts One and Two (New Mermaid Series). Anthony B. Dawson, ed. 1997

Vitkus, Daniel J., Robert Daborne, and . Three Turk Plays from Early Modern England: Selimus, a Christian Turned Turk, and the Renegado.

Walter Mountford, The Launching of the Mary, or the Seaman’s Honest Wife. Online edition, Matteo Pangallo, ed. assignments will include written summaries of critical articles, participation in a class blog or equivalent, reports on selected historical topics, and a major research paper required attendance at The Alley Theatre Production of As You Like It (runs Jan 30-Feb. 22) This course carries credit toward the Empire Studies Certificate.