230154 "The people are incensed against him": Tyranny in Early Modern English Drama (S) (WiSe 2024/2025)

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The abuse of authority and power are central themes in many early modern English plays, particularly in tragedies. William Shakespeare was without a doubt a royalist, but his analysis of kingship is so severe and penetrating that it can look like sedition; and he was obsessively interested in the question of what happens when authority is wielded irresponsibly, and what power does to people - both to the ones who have it and the ones who don't have it. Are disobedience and resistance ever justified?
The dynamics of domination and submission were enacted not just on the public or national stage (e.g. in Coriolanus by Shakespeare) but also behind closed doors, in private, in the domestic sphere, where husbands tyrannise their wives and children (e.g. in A Yorkshire Tragedy by Shakespeare and/or Thomas Middleton). In addition to these two, we will read selected scenes from other plays and some non-fictional texts.
This class serves as an introduction to New Historicism and will embed the reading of these plays in New Historicist and Critical Materialist analyses of them, e.g. Stephen Greenblatt's Tyrants: Shakespeare on Power (2018).

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23-ANG-AngVM1 Vertiefungsmodul 1: Britain 1.2 British Literature: Genre, Periods, Authors Study requirement
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1.3 British Cultural Studies: Theories, Periods, Media Study requirement
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23-ANG-AngVM5 Vertiefungsmodul 5: Theories & Ideologies VM 5.2 Literary Theory Study requirement
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VM 5.3 Cultural Theory Study requirement
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23-ANG-AngVM6 Vertiefungsmodul 6: Media, Arts & Communication VM 6.1 Theoretical and Historical Contexts Study requirement
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23-ANG-Profil4 Profilmodul 4: Advanced British and American Studies Profil4.1.Theories and Methods Study requirement
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Profil4.2 British Literature and Culture OR American Literature and Culture Study requirement
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Profil4.3 British Literature and Culture OR American Literature and Culture Study requirement
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23-ANG-Profil4_G Profilmodul 4_G: Advanced British and American Studies Profil4.1_G Theories and Methods Study requirement
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Profil4.2_G British Literature and Culture OR American Literature and Culture Study requirement
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Profil4.3_G British Literature and Culture OR American Literature and Culture Study requirement
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23-ANG-Profil6 Profilmodul 6: Media, Communication and Creative Practices Profil6.1 Media and Communication Study requirement
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Degree programme/academic programme Validity Variant Subdivision Status Semester LP  
Studieren ab 50    

If you are in the new BA (2022), you have to have passed the Language Proficiency Test (LPT), written and oral parts, to earn credit points in this class.

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Limited number of participants: 45
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WS2024_230154@ekvv.uni-bielefeld.de
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Last update basic details/teaching staff:
Friday, August 30, 2024 
Last update times:
Wednesday, August 21, 2024 
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Wednesday, August 21, 2024 
Type(s) / SWS (hours per week per semester)
seminar (S) / 2
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This lecture is taught in english
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Faculty of Linguistics and Literary Studies
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