13332 - English Literature (1)

Learning outcomes

Course contents

Disguise and cross-dressing in Shakespearian comedy

Many of Shakespeare's comedies turn to cross-dressing as the central device in the plot. This invariably involves the disguising of the female protagonist for reasons of love, of personal safety or of political necessity. This phenomenon reflects in part the peculiar conditions of the early modern English stage, in which the female roles were given to boys or young men en travestie.  It also reflects, however, Shakespeare's interest in the question of identity, not only sexual but social, and in interpersonal relations within and between the sexes, which cross-dressing exposes and questions.  In some cases, such as The Merchant of Venice, disguise allows the dramatist to enquire into the mechanisms of  institutional power. In any case, Shakespeare uses the cross-dressed female lead  - besides as a great source of comic business – as a means for exploring the new subjectivity (especially female) that  was emerging between the end of the Sixteenth and the beginning of the Seventeenth Centuries. This course will examine three of the most significant and representative disguise comedies, As You Like It, The Merchant and Twelfth Night, and will endeavour to place them within the contexts of Elizabethan theatre, of early modern society and of the long theatrical and cultural history of cross-dressing.

 

Readings/Bibliography

Primary texts:

William Shakespeare, As You Like It, ed. Juliet Dusinberre. London: Arden Shakespeare
William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, ed. J. R. Brown. London: Arden Shakespeare
William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, ed. Keir Elam. London: Arden Shakespeare

Secondary texts:

Marjorie Garber, Vested Interests. London: Allen Lane (Introduction and chapter on Shakespeare)

Stephen Greenblatt, Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare. London: Cape

Other course material will be made available in photocopy

Teaching methods

The course will be conducted in Italian. Reference will be made to Shakespeare's works both in the original language and in Italian translation. Use will be made of multimedia material to illustrate the Elizabethan theatre and Shakespeare's drama in performance

Assessment methods

Written exam at the end of the course for attending students. Oral exam, with extra reading matter, for non-attending students.

Office hours

See the website of Keir Douglas Elam