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    Witchcraft & Renaissance Drama 2011 Syllabus

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    Burcu Kılınç
    This course examines how the rise of witch hunts in England from 1558-1621 is reflected in and shaped cultural productions like laws, trial transcripts, and popular drama. It will analyze three periods chronologically - Tudor, early Jacobean, late Jacobean - to see how drama both reflected and influenced England's response to the European witch panic. Students will analyze primary sources like trial records and plays through the lens of scholarship to understand how popular movements shaped social trends. Evaluation includes discussion posts, peer responses, and three 5-7 page essays analyzing each time period. Required texts and a detailed schedule are provided.

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    Witchcraft & Renaissance Drama 2011 Syllabus

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    Burcu Kılınç
    165 views4 pages
    This course examines how the rise of witch hunts in England from 1558-1621 is reflected in and shaped cultural productions like laws, trial transcripts, and popular drama. It will analyze three periods chronologically - Tudor, early Jacobean, late Jacobean - to see how drama both reflected and influenced England's response to the European witch panic. Students will analyze primary sources like trial records and plays through the lens of scholarship to understand how popular movements shaped social trends. Evaluation includes discussion posts, peer responses, and three 5-7 page essays analyzing each time period. Required texts and a detailed schedule are provided.

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    This course examines how the rise of witch hunts in England from 1558-1621 is reflected in and shaped cultural productions like laws, trial transcripts, and popular drama. It will analyze three periods chronologically - Tudor, early Jacobean, late Jacobean - to see how drama both reflected and influenced England's response to the European witch panic. Students will analyze primary sources like trial records and plays through the lens of scholarship to understand how popular movements shaped social trends. Evaluation includes discussion posts, peer responses, and three 5-7 page essays analyzing each time period. Required texts and a detailed schedule are provided.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    165 views4 pages

    Witchcraft & Renaissance Drama 2011 Syllabus

    Uploaded by

    Burcu Kılınç
    This course examines how the rise of witch hunts in England from 1558-1621 is reflected in and shaped cultural productions like laws, trial transcripts, and popular drama. It will analyze three periods chronologically - Tudor, early Jacobean, late Jacobean - to see how drama both reflected and influenced England's response to the European witch panic. Students will analyze primary sources like trial records and plays through the lens of scholarship to understand how popular movements shaped social trends. Evaluation includes discussion posts, peer responses, and three 5-7 page essays analyzing each time period. Required texts and a detailed schedule are provided.

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    The key takeaways are that the course will trace how the rise of the witch hunts in England is reflected in and fueled by several cultural productions from 1558-1621, focusing on laws against witchcraft, trial transcripts, and popular drama to explore how the metaphor of witchcraft addressed cultural fears of transition from medieval to early modern periods in England.

    The three periods that the course will explore are three different periods through the Tudor to the Late Jacobean Age.

    The method of evaluation for the course includes daily discussion board postings (commonplace postings), in-class peer responses (dialectical arguments), and three essays of 5-7 pages each.

    ASEM 2481

    CRN 4109

    10:00AM-11:50AM T,R

    STURM 254

    Witchcraft & Renaissance Drama


    Prof. Linda Bensel-Meyers 486A Sturm Hall X1-2859 lbenselm@du.edu
    Office Hours: 9-11 MW and by appointment

    Course Description:
    Witchcraft and Renaissance Drama will trace how the rise of the
    witch hunts in England is reflected in and fueled by several venues
    of cultural production in England from 1558-1621. The course will
    journey chronologically through the laws against witchcraft, the
    witch trial transcripts and the popular drama as all manifestations of
    how the metaphor of witchcraft served to address several cultural
    fears of the transition from the medieval to the early modern period.
    The exploration will focus on three different periods through the
    Tudor to the Late Jacobean Age to explore how the drama both
    reflected and shaped Englands response to the European Witch
    panic.

    Course Objectives:
    The course will draw from history, sociology, rhetoric, and
    literature to ask you to reflect and comment on how literature can
    be a cultural artifact that informs our understanding of how popular
    movements shape social trends and behavior. Each of the three
    units will ask you to read and analyze trial transcripts and a literary
    work through the lens of current research to draw your conclusions.
    At the end of the course, you will be given the opportunity to
    reflect on how the evolution of the witchcraft panic in Early
    England informs your understanding of social movements and fears today.

    Method of Evaluation:
    Commonplace Postings
    10%
    postings] Dialectical Arguments (3)
    responses]
    Three Essays (5-7 pp. each) 75%

    [Daily Discussion board

    15%

    [In-class peer

    [Unit conclusions]

    Commonplace Book:
    The Commonplace Book was a technique used throughout Renaissance
    education, directing students to collect quotations from their readings so that they might refer back to those truths
    throughout their lives. For this class, we will keep virtual commonplace books. Before each class, you will be expected to
    post one quotation from the reading assigned for that day, and explain how that quotation helps you fashion your
    understanding of some aspect of the witchcraft panic and the religious, gender, and/or class conflicts of early modern

    England. To post your daily commonplace, use the Discussion Board on the Blackboard webpage for this class. Besides
    giving us a springboard for our class discussions, your commonplace postings can serve as early rough drafts of your
    work for the papers you will write for each unit.
    Sutton (1615)

    The Swimming of Mary

    Required Texts:
    Rosen, Barbara, ed. Witchcraft in England, 1558-1618.
    Amherst: U of Mass. P, 1969. ISBN: 0870237535.
    Sharpe, J.A. Witchcraft in Early Modern England .Longman
    (2002). ISBN 0582328756.

    Recommended Editions of the


    Plays:
    Corbin, Peter and Douglas Sedge, Eds. Three Jacobean
    Witchcraft Plays: Sophonsiba, The Witch, The Witch of
    Edmonton . The Revels Plays Companion Library.
    Manchester UP, 1989. ISBN: 0719019532.
    Marlowe, Christopher. Doctor Faustus. Norton Critical Edition. Ed. David Kastan. W. W. Norton & Company
    (2004). ISBN: 0393977544.
    Shakespeare, William. Macbeth: Texts and Contexts. Ed. William C. Carroll. Bedford/ St. Martins (1999). ISBN
    0312144547.

    Digital Texts:
    In 1486, The Malleus Maleficarum (The Witches Hammer ) taught magistrates how to identify, interrogate, and
    convict witches. To access Kramer and Sprengers The Malleus Maleficarum go to:
    http://malleusmaleficarum.org.
    Early English Books Online Database:
    http://www.penlib.du.edu/FindIt/EResources/findit_databasesearch_results.cfm?alpha=E
    Other relevant sites:
    http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-witchcraft-and-witches.htm

    King James Accusing


    Witches

    ASEM 2481:

    Witchcraft & Renaissance Drama

    Spring 2011 Course Schedule


    Dat
    e

    Topic

    T 3/22 Background
    R 3/24 Witchcraft comes to
    England
    T 3/29 Early Witch Trials
    R 3/31 The Faust Legend &
    Renaissance magic
    T 4/5
    Doctor Faustus A-text
    R 4/7

    T 4/12 First Unit Conclusions


    R 4/14 A Scottish King

    Reading Due

    Writing Due

    Sharpe Chs. 1-2


    Rosen Ch. 1.
    Scan Malleus Malificarum (digital text)
    Rosen Chs. 2-3.
    Norton Critical Edition, pp. 182-208, 226-236.

    Commonplace posting

    Marlowe Doctor Faustus A-text Acts 1-2


    Complete Doctor Faustus A-text.
    Bring Rough Draft of paper 1
    Rosen Ch. 4.

    Commonplace posting
    Commonplace posting

    T 4/19 Witch-trials & beliefs


    R 4/21 Changing times.
    T 4/26 Discourses of
    Witchcraft & Women
    R 4/28 Macbeth
    T 5/3

    R 5/5 Second Unit


    Conclusions
    T 5/10 Witch Hunts & Politics

    Sharpe Chs. 3-4.


    Rosen Chs.5-6.
    Macbeth casebook, pp. 300-68.

    Commonplace posting
    Commonplace posting
    Dialectical Argument
    1st Paper Due by 5
    pm as email attchmt.
    Commonplace posting
    Commonplace posting
    Commonplace posting

    Shakespeare Macbeth Acts 1-2


    Complete Macbeth.
    Bring Rough Draft.

    Commonplace posting
    Commonplace posting
    Dialectical Argument

    Rosen Ch. 7.

    R 5/12
    T 5/17
    R 5/19
    T 5/24
    R 5/26

    Jacobean Decline
    The Witch of Edmonton

    The Aftermath
    Third Unit Conclusions

    Rosen Ch 8. Sharpe Ch. 5.


    Acts 1-3 (in Three Jacobean Witchcraft Plays).
    Complete The Witch of Edmonton.
    Sharpe Ch.6.
    Bring rough draft.

    2nd Paper Due by 5


    pm as email attchmt.
    Commonplace posting

    W 6/1

    Final Paper Due

    by 1:00 as email attachment to


    lbenselm@du.edu

    Commonplace posting
    Dialectical Argument
    3rd Paper Due

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