ENGL 24036 - Revenge and Its Tragedies

Course Credit: 1
Maximum Credit: 0

Revenge and Its Tragedies Early modern England was obsessed with vengeance. Between the 1580s and the outbreak of civil war in 1642, the lurid and bloody genre of revenge tragedy dominated the English stage. The subject of revenge was thrilling in its own right, but it also allowed playwrights to explore such themes as politics, sexuality, religion, psychology, and the nature of knowledge. The character of the revenger-solitary, brooding, cynical, preoccupied with the wrongs of the past-captured the popular imagination, spurring dramatists to create more and more imitations. In this course, we will read a selection of revenge tragedies, including The Duchess of Malfi, Hamlet, ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, The Revenger’s Tragedy, and Titus Andronicus. Other topics will include the theological and philosophical underpinnings of revenge in early modern England; the role of humor in literary depictions of violence; and modern cinematic adaptations of the revenge plot. [Before 1800] [AH]