Erste Sitzung: 25. Oktober 2016
By the beginning of the Jacobean Age, London had become one of the leading European cities. It was a metropolis, a hot spot of crafts and trade, an economic and financial centre. Writing for the city’s flourishing theatre culture, leading playwrights made London the setting of their comedies, satirizing the city’s materialism, its sexual mores and religious extremism. In this seminar, we will discuss Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist (1610), Thomas Middleton’s and Thomas Dekker’s The Roaring Girl (c. 1611), and Thomas Middleton’s A Chaste Maid in Cheapside (c. 1613). We will closely read and contextualise these three fascinating city comedies, analysing how they represent the society that produced them.
Students who would like to participate in this seminar are expected to have finished reading Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist by the first meeting.
Texts: Students MUST own no other than the following editions:
Dekker, Thomas, and Thomas Middleton. The Roaring Girl. Ed. Elizabeth Cook. London: Methuen Drama, 2009. 9780713668131.
Jonson, Ben. The Alchemist. Ed. Elizabeth Cook. Rev. ed. London: Methuen Drama, 2010. ISBN 9781408110201.
Middleton, Thomas. A Chaste Maid in Cheapside. Ed. Alan Brissenden. London: Methuen Drama, 2007. ISBN 978-0713650686. |
