Course Description
Problems in the study of stage, cinema, and media history.
Athena Title
History of Performance Arts
Semester Course Offered
Not offered on a regular basis.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
In this course we will survey modern (mostly Post-Enlightenment) theories of history in order to understand how the idea of history and the project of Western history has changed across time. We will practice historical approaches to dramatic literature by examining some of Shakespeare's history plays in various contexts, including their original audience and time period, but extending to two different 20th century (film) productions of Henry V. Our goal at the end of this course is to be able to incorporate and apply an understanding of historiography to our research, critical writing, and play analysis and production.
Topical Outline
1. Historiography and Casual Explanations a. Poetics of History and Historical Explanation b. The Rise of Historicism: Kant and Hegel 2. The Hermeneutic Tradition: Dilthey and Gadamer 3. Historicism and Modernity a. Freud and Lacan b. Foucault 4. Historicisms of the Present a. New Historicism (Greenblatt) b. Postcolonial: Appropriation, Otherness, and Identity (Spivak, Said, etc.) c. Postmodern: Lyotard, Jameson, Habermas, Foucault, Derrida d. Herstory, Ferminism (Joan W. Scott) 5. Historiographical Approaches to Shakespeare's Historical Drama a. Henry IV Part One; Discussion and assigned topics b. Critiques of Tillyard's Elizabethan World Picture c. Henry IV Part Two: Target Passages