Overview

The Senior Seminar is the culminating course in your four years of literary study in Monmouth College's Department of English. You will read, analyze, and write more and more intensely than you have in any other course, and the expectations will be higher; moverover, you are expected to work more and think more independently than you have in other courses.  As seniors in the final semester of study, you are expected to understand the discipline and to embrace the rigor--and the rewards--of literary study.

This course focuses on early modern drama with an emphasis on tragedies. "Early modern" is often used as a synonym for "Renaissance" and the period covered is roughly the same (early sixteenth century to the early seventeenth century); however, scholars of "the early modern" discover in those years the origins of what was later to become the modern.  One way in which this senior seminar will be "early modern" rather than "Renaissance" will be a sub-theme on otherness--those unlike us, those defined mainly by their differences rather than their similarities from other characters and forces within the works--the non-normative. Otherness is often used--then and now--as a way to objectify and dehumanize in order to rationalize poor, abusive, and/or exploitative treatment. It is also a way to define what one is by insisting on what one is not. Difference that is central to the plays that we will be reading this semester include racial, gender, sexuality, religion, and class otherness. In the world that was changing dramatically--exploding through exploration of the New World, through religious strife, through nascent capitalism--theater became one way to explore issues of difference and perhaps, anxieties about difference. Your research and theses may but are not required to focus on issues of otherness.

In this class, students will

• to examine the dominant themes and literary patterns within these early modern writers' works

• to develop an aesthetic appreciation for the plays' craft and artistry

• to consider the historical context in which the early modern dramatists were writing and the cultural environment that informed their writing

• lead discussion and provide direction for literary analysis of the relevant works

• express thoughtful, cogent, and persuasive interpretations of literary works verbally and in writing with careful attention to detail and context

• demonstrate advanced research and writing skills including retrieving and documenting  relevant sources and synthesis of ideas from sources