Browse Hierarchy ESH280: Renaissance Drama

Renaissance Drama offers an in-depth look at arguably the most exciting and innovative period of English drama. Studying a range of plays from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, we will investigate the preoccupations of early modern dramatists as they wrote about their city and country and about native citizens and exotic strangers; and as they developed the language and technical resources of the theatre. We will consider performance spaces from the outdoor amphitheatres like Shakespeare¿s Globe, to intimate indoor theatres, the royal court, and even the private home. You will read texts that engage with the explosion of commercial theatre, with geopolitical issues, with the civic life of London, and with questions of race, gender, and social class.