Medieval English Drama

EN360: Medieval English Drama

Spring Semester 2006

Wednesday 1:20-3:50 in CNS 15

Click here for the course syllabus.

Instructor: Robert Epstein

Office: 120 Donnarumma Hall

Office Hours: Tuesday and Friday 1:30-3:30, or by appointment

Office extension: 2787

E-mail: repstein@mail.fairfield.edu

DESCRIPTION

The unique, profound, and lively dramatic tradition of late medieval England informed Shakespeare’s theater and influenced all subsequent periods of European drama; it has also inspired a rich critical literature and entered the modern theatrical repertory. This class will trace the origins and development of medieval theater and study closely important examples from its major periods and genres, focusing on the English “mystery” plays.

The first two-thirds of the course will focus on medieval plays as literary texts for critical analysis. We will address significant issues in the interpretation of the literary tradition, including the intermingling of the sacred and the profane, the unique symbolic language of medieval drama, orality and literacy, textual production and transmission, and the dramatization of contemporary social conditions and controversies. We will also screen videotapes of modern productions and re-enactments, and we will dramatize some selections with staged readings in class.

The final portion of the course is dedicated to staging several of the mystery plays. The class will be divided into several “guilds,” each of which will be responsible for performing a single mystery play from one of the major cycles. After several weeks of discussion, rehearsal, and construction of “pageants” (moveable stages), the “guilds” will present their plays in sequence at several on-campus locations on the reading day after the last day of classes.

REQUIREMENTS

Most important, students are required to attend class prepared to discuss the assigned material. This seminar is based primarily on class discussion. Students will also be expected to participate occasionally in brief in-class readings and performances, and will sometimes be required to visit my office hours before the class meeting to prepare. As this is a literature seminar with a performance component, the failure to attend class will adversely affect grade for the course.

There will be ten response papers due during the term. These are short written assignments, about a page in length. They are due at the beginning of the class on the day assigned. If for some reason you are unable to attend class, send the response paper to me as an e-mail attachment before class time. These response papers are not graded but they are required and count towards the final grade. Their purpose is to help you organize your thoughts on the readings and to facilitate class discussion. Late response papers, therefore, are of little use and can’t be accepted.

There will be two essays (about 5-6 pages in length) due during the semester, each focusing on interpretive issues in the mystery plays.

Finally, students are required to participate fully in the performance component of the course—though it is understood that participation can take many forms beyond acting. After the performances, students will submit a brief evaluative essay (approximately three pages) in which you will describe your contribution to the production, assess the success of the performance, and comment on how the experience of putting on the play informed your understanding of its history or meaning. Each student’s performance will be evaluated on the basis of effort, creativity, and execution, as well as the thoughtfulness and insight of the final essay.

FORMAT OF ESSAYS

All submitted papers should follow the Modern Language Association (MLA) guidelines for formatting a paper. These guidelines can be found in the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th ed., which is available in the Reference Section of the library and in the Writing Center. They are also summarized on pp. 148-150 of Diana Hacker’s Pocket Style Manual, with sample pages on pp. 151-154. When commenting on your essays, I will refer to Hacker on matters of format and style.

GRADES

Papers are due at the beginning of class on the day indicated on the syllabus. Unless I have explicitly granted an extension before the due date, late papers will be penalized one-third of a letter grade per day. (A paper that would have earned a B+ will receive a B if it is one day late, a B- if it is two days late, and so on.)

After essays are submitted, I will read them and return them with grades and with comments and suggestions. Students will then have one week from the day the graded papers are returned to revise the papers in light of my comments and to resubmit them for re-grading. I will then record only the grade on the revised essay. This is to encourage you to think of every essay as a work in progress and to revise your work as thoroughly and as frequently as possible.

As you write and revise your essays, please keep in mind that there are peer-tutors in the Writing Center trained to help students of any level develop work at any stage.

ACADEMIC HONESTY

Secondary critical sources are not required for the first essays assignments in this course, but they will be required on the final critical research paper. On any assignment, however, you must fully cite any sources that you use. The source must appear in the list of works cited at the end of the essay, and each source must be cited on every occasion that you make use of its words or ideas. This is true if the source is your primary source (the text you are studying) or a critical source (an analysis of the work published elsewhere), and it is true if the source is printed or electronic, including internet sources. You may use any standard method of citation, including the Chicago Style, but it is recommended that you use the Modern Language Association (MLA) Style of documentation, which uses parenthetical citations and a list of works cited at the end of the essay. This style is described in the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, which is available in the reference section of the library and in the Writing Center.

The failure to fully cite sources within your submitted work is a form of plagiarism. Plagiarism is the appropriation of ideas, data, work, or language of others and submitting them as one’s own to satisfy the requirements of a course. Plagiarism constitutes theft and deceit. Special care should be taken, when cutting and pasting materials or when paraphrasing, to cite sources correctly and to use quotation marks around exact words from source materials. Actions that result in plagiarism may be intentional or unintentional. Consequently, students must understand the concept of plagiarism. When reading, processing, or using materials from any source, appropriate documentation is always essential.

The consequences of plagiarism may range from failure on the assignment to failure for the course and university disciplinary action. Resources such as the library (ext. 2178) and the Writing Center (www.fairfield.edu/writingcenter) are available on campus to assist you in your academic endeavors. You are encouraged to take advantage of these resources.