How seriously did early modern poets take their sonnets? Was Shakespeare really ‘the greatest playwright’ in the early modern period? Why do we have so many portraits of Elizabeth I? And were there Renaissance women writers?
This lecture – the first part of a four-part survey of English Literature and Culture – will hopefully provide you with answers to these questions (and more). We will cover the period from the late sixteenth to the late seventeenth century, looking at important texts, authors, movements, and developments and place them in their historical and cultural contexts. Our starting point is the blossoming of (literary) culture at the court of Elizabeth I and the development of popular theatre. From there, we will move through Jacobean and Caroline England, the Civil War period, and the Restoration (of theatre). The lecture will focus in particular on theatrical cultures and drama, taking into consideration the works of William Shakespeare, Thomas Middleton, Ben Jonson, or John Fletcher, to name but a few; genres such as (revenge) tragedy, (city) comedy, tragicomedy, the court masque, and restoration comedy; as well as collaborative approaches to writing and performing drama in the early modern period.
This lecture – the first part of a four-part survey of English Literature and Culture – will hopefully provide you with answers to these questions (and more). We will cover the period from the late sixteenth to the late seventeenth century, looking at important texts, authors, movements, and developments and place them in their historical and cultural contexts. Our starting point is the blossoming of (literary) culture at the court of Elizabeth I and the development of popular theatre. From there, we will move through Jacobean and Caroline England, the Civil War period, and the Restoration (of theatre). The lecture will focus in particular on theatrical cultures and drama, taking into consideration the works of William Shakespeare, Thomas Middleton, Ben Jonson, or John Fletcher, to name but a few; genres such as (revenge) tragedy, (city) comedy, tragicomedy, the court masque, and restoration comedy; as well as collaborative approaches to writing and performing drama in the early modern period.
- Moderator/in: Susanne Gruß
- Moderator/in: Janina Lupprian
- Moderator/in: Kerstin-Anja Münderlein
Semester: 2024 Sommersemester