Course Description and Objectives:

The course will familiarize students with the early theatrical context and the production of women as actors, writers and actor-managers. One of the main preoccupations of the course will be to determine to what extent early production by women can be considered a "feminist" expression despite the anachronistic introduction of the term to the early modern context.
Along with this issue, the course will introduce students to the existent canon, to the querelle des , the idea of ecriture feminine and its relevance to theatre and the politics of difference theory as it relates to women's work. At the same time, one of the main goals of the course will be to broaden students' awareness of women's involvement and contribution to early modern theatre by considering the work of a number of unrecognized women playwrights and performers. Therefore, we will consider women's theatre as well as women's performance, including processions, public addresses, and presentation in portraiture.
The course is broken down into four units: Introduction, Italy, France and England. Each unit offers a brief background of women and theatre in the Renaissance and early Baroque periods and then presents students with primary materials and secondary readings. At the end of each of the units, except the third, students are asked to complete a "take home" assignment. (At the end of the third unit there will be an in class writing assignment). Each assignment is specified within the syllabus at the end of each unit.