Self Fashioning in Literaure and Drama

Semester and Year	SP 2012
Course Number	IDSEM-UG1686
Section	001
Instructor	Jeanette Tran
Days	Thu
Time	3:30 PM - 6:10 PM
Units	4.0
Level	U
Foundation Requirement	HUM, EARLY

Description

In 1980, literary critic Stephen Greenblatt coined the term “self-fashioning” to describe the 16th century phenomenon by which men in England developed an increasing self-consciousness about their ability to shape or “fashion” their identities. Anyone familiar with Shakespeare’s often quoted lines, “All the world’s a stage/ and all the men and women merely players,” has already received an introduction to this idea that identity is “fashion-able” or “performative.” Taking Greenblatt’s concept as a point of departure, this course will explore identity and the concept of “self-fashioning” as it relates to performance. How does one fashion an identity, and how does knowledge of the theater inform our understanding of how identities are fashioned? What degree of autonomy does an individual have in fashioning his or her identity? How are our social, sexual, and racial identities mediated and shaped by our speech, our appearance, our institutions, and finally, our audiences? This course will engage with both primary and secondary sources. Students will examine early modern literature and drama alongside theories of performance from multiple disciplines. Authors may include Marlowe, Shakespeare, Jonson, Castiglione, Pico della Mirandola, Erving Goffman, J.L Austin, Judith Butler, Richard Schechner, and Kenneth Burke.

Syllabus

IDSEM-UG1686

Course Type

Interdisciplinary Seminars (IDSEM-UG)