EN2XX/EN3XX 'Staging Sin: Golden-Age Drama in England and Spain',
Course Outline
Is murder moral? What happens when you want what you ‘can’t’ have? And how should you feel about a tragedy?
Plays were the most popular early modern art form: playwrights were celebrities, and everyone went to the theatre. And ethical questions were often central to these plays’ appeal, condemning their characters to death or to hell, while also asking: what exactly is wrong, here? And what could you really have done differently, if this had happened to you? In this module, you’ll see how these ethical challenges could produce completely different answers in two of the richest periods of drama in world history, as playwrights in England and Spain asked many of the same questions and often riffed on the same plots. By reading four carefully chosen pairs of English and Spanish plays, we’ll explore why sins can be so tempting, and why behaving morally can be so difficult; and we’ll ask how individuals should respond in situations where it’s really society that is to blame, from a ruler’s abuse of power to the social barriers that divide lovers like Romeo and Juliet. And – spoiler – we’ll see why those lovers don’t always die!
This module will allow you to explore Spanish drama in detail, and compare it to English tradition. The module is delivered in English, and all primary texts will be available in English translation.
External students from departments across the University are welcome on this module and students are not expected to have any Spanish at all. However, students who do have Spanish are of course welcome to use it in their essays or creative projects, or to take the module as HP2xx Staging Sin. This is the same module and all teaching is identical. If you are a joint English/Hispanic Studies student, you cannot take both versions!
This module can be paired with EN2/3F1 Early Modern Drama to make a coherent 30 CATS two-term option which will deal with European drama and its contexts from c. 1574 to 1647. You could also pair this with EN2L7/3L6-15 England and the Islamic World, 1550-1660 or EN2/3K5-15 Literature and Revolution 1640-1660. Or indeed any other 15 CATs module.
Assessment
Intermediate: Essay 3500 words (100%)
Free choice of play(s) and topic in consultation with tutors, normally includes the use of at least 2 primary sources; students will be given a choice of essay titles, or may design their own. One of the essay questions will allow students to choose to submit a creative project, with an associated critical reflective piece of 1800 words. Students should discuss their essay or creative project with the tutors as early as possible and must agree a title by the advertised deadline. A ‘creative project’ is, for example, an original literary response to one of the plays on the course, a production plan, or a visual (e.g. video or art) project. It must be accompanied by a prose piece outlining the aims of the project and reflecting on its development.
Finalists: Essay 4500 words (100%)
Free choice of play(s) and topic in consultation with tutors, normally includes the use of at least 2 primary sources; students will be given a choice of essay titles, or may design their own. One of the essay questions will allow students to choose to submit a creative project, with an associated critical reflective piece of 2000 words. Students should discuss their essay or creative project with the tutors as early as possible and must agree a title by the advertised deadline. A ‘creative project’ is, for example, an original literary response to one of the plays on the course, a production plan, or a visual (e.g. video or art) project. It must be accompanied by a prose piece outlining the aims of the project and reflecting on its development.
Syllabus 2026/27
SYLLABUS
We will use asterisked editions below as set texts for the module, so if you want to buy your own paper copy you should choose these versions so we are all (literally) on the same page. If you are taking this module in English, none of the reading will be in Spanish and it will not be to your disadvantage that you have no Spanish.
THE BACKGROUND
Week 1: ‘The Golden Age of Spain’ (pp. 57-68) and ‘Tudor and Stuart Periods’ (pp. 113-64) in A. M. Nagler (ed.), A Source Book in Theatrical History (New York, 1959). From Theatre/Theory/Theatre, ed. Daniel Gerould (New York, 2000): Philip Sidney, selections from The Defense of Poetry (1583); Lope de Vega, The New Art of Writing Plays (tr. Marvin Carlson); John Dryden, selections from An Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1668). Please make sure you have already read the plays for weeks 2 and 3, because it’s really hard to talk about theory without having some literary examples. These are Tirso de Molina (attrib.), El burlador de Sevilla/The Trickster of Seville (played 1616?; pub. 1630); *Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus (1592; ed. Roma Gill and Ros King, Methuen/New Mermaid, 2008).
HELL
Week 2: * Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus (1592; ed. Roma Gill and Ros King, Methuen/New Mermaid, 2008).
Week 3: Tirso de Molina (attrib.), El burlador de Sevilla/The Trickster of Seville (played 1616?; pub. 1630).
YOUNG LOVE
Week 4: *William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (1595?; ed. René Weis, Arden Shakespeare, 2012)
Week 5: Lope de Vega, Castelvines y Monteses/Capulets and Montegues (1647).
READING WEEK
HONOUR AND PUNISHMENT
Week 7: *Thomas Heywood, A Woman Killed With Kindness (1603/1607; ed. Brian Scobie, Methuen/New Mermaid, 2003)
Week 8: Calderón, El médico de su honra/The Physician of his Honour (1637).
REVOLT
Week 9: *William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar (1599; ed. David Daniell, Arden Shakespeare)
Week 10: Lope, Fuenteovejuna (1619).
Convenor:
Prof Teresa Grant
Dr Rich Rabone
Moodle will be in use
Useful Links:
Assessment
Syllabus
Secondary Reading
Note:
This module requires engagement with theology, philosophy, and history, as well as literature and literary criticism.