Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Spring 2023 - ENGL 415W D200

Seminar in Media, Culture and Performance (4)

Genre of Trouble

Class Number: 7703

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Jan 4 – Apr 11, 2023: Fri, 12:30–4:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Prerequisites:

    45 units or two 300-division English courses.

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Advanced seminar in the relation of literature and media (manuscript, print, visual, aural, electronic, and/or oral) within their cultural and/or performative contexts. This course may be repeated for credit if a different topic is taught. Writing.

COURSE DETAILS:

GENRE TROUBLE

Traditional definitions of dramatic comedies and tragedies center on their endings: comedies are supposed to end with marriages, and tragedies with death. Yet plays staged in Restoration and eighteenth-century England often wreak havoc with these norms, with several tragedies ending in marriage and several comedies concluding with lovers parting. And those are just the conclusions: some comedies also feature tragic elements like sexual assaults, widows, and near-death scenes, while some tragedies feature low-comic characters, bawdy sex scenes, and reconception of tragic characters as comic in their epilogues. Even mainstay tragedies from earlier periods like Shakespeare's Hamlet are laced with comic interludes in eighteenth-century revivals.

What accounts for this "genre trouble"? In this class we'll read several plays from the Restoration and eighteenth century that feature seemingly odd generic deviations, and ask what this tells us about audience taste. Authors will range from Aphra Behn, John Dryden, George Etherege, Thomas Otway, John Vanbrugh, and William Wycherley, to Shakespeare himself. Students will write research papers on topics of their choosing that relate to Restoration and eighteenth-century theatre, and will also help to bring theatre to life in a group-based class project.

Grading

  • participation 10%
  • class presentation 5%
  • annotated bibliography 25%
  • class project 25%
  • research paper, 11-13 pages 35%

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

RESTORATION DRAMA : AN ANTHOLOGY. Ed. David Womersley


ISBN: 9780631209034

Hamlet. Ed. Barbara Mowat
ISBN: 9780743477123

REQUIRED READING NOTES:

Your personalized Course Material list, including digital and physical textbooks, are available through the SFU Bookstore website by simply entering your Computing ID at: shop.sfu.ca/course-materials/my-personalized-course-materials.

Department Undergraduate Notes:

IMPORTANT NOTE Re 300 and 400 level courses: 75% of spaces in 300 level English courses, and 100% of spaces in 400 level English courses, are reserved for declared English Major, Minor, Extended Minor, Joint Major, and Honours students only, until open enrollment begins.

For all On-Campus Courses, please note the following:
- To receive credit for the course, students must complete all requirements.
- Tutorials/Seminars WILL be held the first week of classes.
- When choosing your schedule, remember to check "Show lab/tutorial sections" to see all Lecture/Seminar/Tutorial times required.

Registrar Notes:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS

SFU’s Academic Integrity website http://www.sfu.ca/students/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating. Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.

Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the university community. Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the university. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the university. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html