English 440-01: Seminar in Theory—Deconstruction and Renaissance Cross-Dressing
Course Description: Representing a hard-to-categorize third term, the cross-dresser transgresses traditional ideas about gender. Because women were not allowed to perform on stage for much of the early modern period, boys wore dresses and wigs and performed all female roles. Writers took advantage of this gender bending and often created complex plots around the confusion that ensued after a character disguised him or herself as a member of the opposite sex.This course will explore the portrayal of cross-dressers in Renaissance literature through the lens of deconstruction, gender theory and queer theory. In addition to recent literary theory, we will read plays, poetry, prose romances from the early modern period to explore the impact cross-dressing has on our understanding of gender and gender roles.
Course Goals: Since this course is not simply an upper-division literature course but a senior seminar, I will be asking you to develop your ideas about the literature we read through informed and thoughtful class discussions, response papers, and presentations. The final goal of this semester is to write an extensively researched thesis – what I hope you will consider your best work, the culmination of your scholarly thinking as an English major at Fisher.
Texts:
- William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, St. Martin’s Edition, edited by Bruce Smith
- William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Signet Classics
- Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Viking Penguin
- Philip Sidney, The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia, Viking Penguin
- Ben Jonson, Epicene, New Mermaids
- Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker, The Roaring Girl, New Mermaids
- Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory: an Introduction, 2nd edition, U of Minnesota P
Assignments:
- 20% Response Papers
- 10% Proposal and annotated bibliography
- 10% Group presentation
- 50% Final Research Paper & Presentation
- 10% Preparation and Participation – including quizzes, conferences, etc.
The various short assignments will help you prepare for class discussion, give you opportunities to practice the tools of research, and ask you to analyze the reading materials throughout the semester. A short response paper will frequently be due when we are reading new material. All of the small assignments are designed also to prepare you for the major project of the semester, which is, of course, the research paper and presentation. Detailed instructions will be posted to Blackboard for each assignment. For all written assignments, follow the guidelines below.
“I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart of a king, and of a king of England, too.” Elizabeth I, 1558
Seminar on Theory / 1