Robert Matz

The Course	Info about me
English Renaissance Drama (ENGH-324-001) MW 10:30 AM – 11:45 AM Thompson Hall 2022	Office Hours: Office Hours: MW 3 – 4 pm, or by appointment Office: Horizon 4111 Email: rmatz@rmatz Personal website: link to Robert Matz’s website

For Renaissance moralists, applying make-up (“painting”) was a sin against God’s natural order; for many of these same moralists so were plays, since in playing a part one altered one’s very being. No wonder anti-cosmetic rants so often appear in Renaissance drama, as in this quotation from Hamlet. In this course, we will consider how the remarkably brilliant and self-conscious Renaissance theater was energized by and played out anxieties about changes in a supposedly “natural” order, not only in the content of the plays (frequently satiric, dark and/or spectacularly violent) but also in their very form as “made-up” works of human art. Further, we’ll consider the theater itself as a place apart from regular order, a place of fun, holiday, riot or license, of “play” rather than rule.

In our approach to these plays, we’ll become familiar with some of the historicist, feminist and poststructuralist impulses that have shaped the reinterpretation of the Renaissance stage and Renaissance culture over the past forty years.  We’ll also learn about textual criticism and what goes into the creation of a modern edition of a Renaissance literary text, by making one as a class for a never-before-edited Renaissance play.

Required Texts

Course goals

Students will

• become able readers of Renaissance drama and Renaissance literary language in general
• understand the historical and theatrical contexts in which Renaissance drama was created and the relationship between the drama and those contexts
• consider the possibilities of Renaissance drama in performance
• understand the processes by which Renaissance dramatic texts are produced for modern readers 
• continue in their development of professional habits of close reading and literary analysis, composing arguments appropriate for essays in literary studies, and contributing to scholarly conversations both in the classroom and in their writing according to appropriate disciplinary conventions.
• enjoy some really terrific plays (I hope!).

Course Policies

Readings

The readings for each class are due on the date listed above. Approach each assignment actively by always reading with a pen or pencil in hand. Note words, phrases or sentences or that you have questions about, that interest you, or that seem significant in the context of the work. Jot down in the margins any questions or ideas you have about a particular point or the work as a whole. This practice will help you come prepared to discuss the plays in class and get the most out of class discussion; it will also help you become a more skillful reader of literary texts in general.

Participation and Attendance

While I will sometimes lecture for a portion of a class, we will generally use class time for discussion: questions about the text, observations about its themes, style, uses of language, puzzling qualities–and whatever else grabs our attention. I am interested in your ideas. A portion of your final grade will be based on class participation. If you aren’t in class, you can’t participate in discussion, nor will active but sporadic class participation wholly excuse excessive absences, since participation involves listening as well as responding to the dialogue of the course as it develops over the full length of the course. Hence your regular attendance will also be part of the participation grade.

Quizzes

We will have occasional quizzes to help ensure that you are reading the assignments consistently. These quizzes should be easy if you have done the reading. They will consist of five questions that require a one-word answer, or at most a phrase.

Quizzes cannot be made up, and, since they will be given at the beginning of class, you will miss a quiz if you come late; however, I will drop your lowest quiz grade.

Paper Deadlines

Please hand in papers on time. Late papers will be graded down a half grade for each day late. Additionally, each paper will be due twice: once for a paper exchange for peer review, and then the final due date. I will mark down the final version of these papers a half grade if their first versions due on paper exchange days are not done, not typed or obviously incomplete. The purpose of this policy is to build revision, so necessary for good writing, into your assignments. While I grade on the bases of your final versions only, I would like you to hand in your first versions of these papers along with the final one.

Papers Standards

Each paper should be typed with standard margins, spacing and type size. It should be carefully proofread and neatly presented. The paper topics will relate to issues we have discussed in class, and you should bring to bear class discussion in your writing. You are also encouraged to expand on these discussions and credit will be given for new ideas. While I grade on the bases of your final versions only, I would like you to hand in your first versions of these papers along with the final one.

Paper Helps

Feedback on essays will be built into the structure of the course through our peer exchanges. I encourage you to see me at my office for your papers as well. When we meet, it’s best to have a draft of the paper you are working on. This will give us something more concrete to talk about. There is also writing help available at the Writing Center in the Johnson Center 227E and online.  Writing center staff can provide you with further individual attention to your writing. I encourage you to take advantage of this excellent facility.

I would also suggest that you give yourself plenty of time to work. Writing a paper at one sitting is, for most people, unpleasant, and the results are unlikely to be good. Start early!

Plagiarism and AI

You are not expected or encouraged for this course to consult secondary sources. If you do choose to look at such work, however, you must cite, using a standard citation format, all the articles, books or other sources that your own writing draws on, either directly or indirectly. Such sources include any kind study aid (e.g. SparkNotes, Chegg products, Reddit), or any AI LLMs, such as ChatGPT. For more information on the use of AI in this class, click here.

Also note that uncited sources will constitute plagiarism even if they ended up in your work without your conscious knowledge (e.g. you forgot you read the material; you confused your own notes with notes on a source), since part of the scholarly responsibility that comes with using secondary sources is keeping track of which words or ideas were yours and which came from a source. If you do not wish to take on this responsibility then you should not consult secondary sources.

I will take all suspected cases of plagiarism, including uncited uses of AI, to the Honor Committee.

Device-Free Classroom

Our classroom will be free of electronic devices, including laptops, phones, and tablets. Students with an accommodation that requires the use of such a device can be excepted from this policy with documentation of the need from the Office of Disability Services, or you may also speak privately to me to explain why you require an exception.

Although these devices can support learning, a lot of research and anecdotal evidence supports the view that their downsides outweigh their value and decrease student attention in the classroom and academic performance (for this research see, for example, here, here, and here and for an account of how students appreciate time away from electronics see here).

Anyone without an accommodation using an electronic device in class will be considered as not having participated in class that day (i.e. the equivalent of an absence).

I will announce particular days when there are special reasons to bring laptops or tablets to class, such as when we work on our edition project. 

Office Hours

My office hours are listed at the top of the syllabus. In addition to getting help on papers, please come see me if you want to discuss any ideas from the class, including anything you do not understand, or if you have any questions about the syllabus or grading. I look forward to having the chance to meet you.

Best wishes for a good semester!

Grading scheme

With the exception of quiz scores, I grade on a 4.0 scale, as follows:

A+ = 4.3; A = 4.0; A- = 3.7 B+ = 3.3; B = 3.0; B- = 2.7; C+ = 2.3; C = 2.0; C- = 1.7; D+ = 1.3; D = 1.0; D- = 0.7; F = 0. I use this scale rather than a point scale, because the latter too severely penalizes work not done, as opposed to work that is unsatisfactory. (On a 4.0 scale an F and work not handed in both receive the same 0; on a 100-point scale or the like, an F is 59 points (or thereabouts), but a 0 for work not done is 0 points. A 59-point difference!)

Canvas, however, only works with points.  To get Canvas to accommodate a 4.0 grading scheme, I assign points as the product of percent weight * 4.0 scale * 100.  For example, paper 1 is worth 15% of the grade, so its formula for points assigned is .15 * 4 * 100 = 60 points. A letter grade of B received on that paper would earn 45 points (.15 * 3 * 100). Do not turn the point grade back into a letter grade by dividing it by the total number of points on an assignment. If you did in this case, the result would be 45/60, or 75% = C.  But the grade is a B!  Where’s the mistake? That 75% assumes a 100-point scale, but that is not the scale being used. The proper calculation is (45/60)*4 (that is 75% of 4), which is 3, or a B.

When all your grades are in, I will add all the points earned and then divide by 100 to get a number on the 4-point scale (the reason for first multiplying all these numbers by 100 and then dividing at the end is Canvas won’t accept decimal points)

If the final number on the 4.0 scale is exactly or nearly between two grades on the scale above (e.g. 2.86) I will consider a record of progress (e.g. improvement over the course would suggest rounding up to 3.0 = B ; not completing the last assignment rounding down to 2.7 = B-), and/or comparison the full spread of grades between 2.7 and 3.0 (were most Bs solidly 3.0 or even somewhat above or were they mostly below 3.0; if the latter I’d round down, if the former round up).  Finally, because it is increasingly hard to achieve a top average (i.e. there can be variations up or down around 3.0, but much less so around 4.0), I am more likely to round up grades even just a bit above 3.7).

Grade Weights
Paper 1	15%
Paper 2	20%
Edition Project	20%
Final	20%
Quizzes	10%
Participation	15%

 

Course Schedule

Date	Reading	Activity	Assignment
W, Jan. 21	Course Introduction
M, Jan. 26	From Mullaney, Place of the Stage
W, Jan. 28	from Volpone	Reading Practice – poetry
M, Feb. 2	from Shoemaker’s Holiday	Reading Practice – prose
W, Feb. 4	Jonson, Volpone, acts 1-2
M, Feb. 9	Jonson, Volpone, acts 3-4
W, Feb. 11	Jonson, Volpone, act 5		Paper 1 assigned
M, Feb. 16	Dekker, Shoemaker’s Holiday
W, Feb. 18	Dekker, Shoemaker’s Holiday
M, Feb. 23	Dekker, Shoemaker’s Holiday		Paper 1 exchanged
W, Feb. 25	Dekker and Middleton, The Roaring Girl, acts 1-2
M, March 2	Dekker and Middleton, The Roaring Girl, acts 3-4
W, March 4	Dekker and Middleton, The Roaring Girl, act 5		Paper 1 due
M, March 9	No Class — Spring Break
W, March 11	No Class — Spring Break
M, March 16	Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy, acts 1-2		Pick a play task assigned
W, March 18	Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy,  acts 3-4
M, March 23	Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy, act 5
W, March 25	Marlowe, Edward II, acts 1-2		Pick a play task due Paper 2 assigned
M, March 30	Marlowe, Edward II, acts 3-4
W, April 1	Marlowe, Edward II, act 5		Paper 2 exchanged
M, April 6	The Revenger’s Tragedy, acts 1-2
W, April 8	The Revenger’s Tragedy, act 3		Paper 2 due
M, April 13	The Revenger’s Tragedy, acts 4-5
W, April 15	Unedited play TBD	Edition planning – groups
M, April 20	Unedited play TBD	Edition planning – conventions
W, April 22	Unedited play TBD	Edition planning – plan and product
M, April 27	No reading	Edition work in class
W, April 29	No reading	Edition work in class
M, May 4	No reading	Edition work in class
W, May 6, 10:30 am – 1:15 pm		Final Exam
M May 11, 11:59 pm			Edition Project Due