Sexual Contracts in Renaissance Drama

Catalog description

Sexual contracts—agreements, promises, ransoms, games, and exchanges—are staged in a range of forms across Renaissance plays. Sometimes contracts are made freely and kept, such as in the ideal marriage plot; but often they are transgressed, misused, or reinterpreted in fascinating ways. In this seminar, we will explore issues of coercion and harassment, deception and identity, and magic and taboo. Students will read plays by Shakespeare, Middleton, Rowley, Cary, Ford, and others, alongside secondary readings in feminist, queer, trans, legal, and psychoanalytic frames.