76-446 Revenge Tragedy

9 units, Carnegie Mellon University

Attendants to the early modern English theater seem to have had an almost insatiable appetite for revenge tragedy a lurid, bloodsoaked genre distinguished by plots involving insanity, skulls, ghosts, poisonings, stabbings, suicide, and other forms of unnatural death. This course will cover key examples of the genre, putting particular emphasis on the depiction and interrogation of justice, analyses of death, and playful engagement with theatricality. Our central curriculum will include the following plays Thyestes Seneca, The Spanish Tragedy Kyd, Titus Andronicus Shakespeare, Hamlet Shakespeare, The Revengers Tragedy Middleton, and The Duchess of Malfi Webster. We will also read a selection of critical essays and related literature from the period.

Prerequisites: 76-101 or 76-102 or (76-106 and 76-107) or (76-107 and 76-108) or (76-106 and 76-108)

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