Pre-requisites: to take the exam, students need to have already passed:
- English Literature 2
-English Language 2

This course is aimed at the study of the English Renaissance period, which completes diachronically the study of English literature of the first two years of the undergraduate course.

Performing Shakespeare

The course will focus on Shakespeare’s production, by highlighting the different articulations of the issues of the time (economic transformations, political asset, philosophical trends, scientific innovations etc). The lessons will be divided into two parts: the first part will be offered by Prof. Carpi and will be divided in its turn into a first part devoted to methodology and theory and a second part where these theories will be applied to the reading of the texts in the program. The last 18 hours will be offered by Prof. Fiorato, who will focus on the theatrical context and the performance of the works with references to the critical texts in the programme.
The lessons will be in English.
A) TEXTS:
W.SHAKESPEARE, King John (any edition with a good critical introduction)
W.SHAKESPEARE, The Tempest , (any edition with a good critical introduction)
W.SHAKESPEARE, The Taming of the Shrew , (any edition with a good critical introduction)
W.SHAKESPEARE, Julius Caesar, (any edition with a good critical introduction)

B) CRITICAL TEXTS:
-S.Fiorato and D.Carpi, Iconologia del Potere, Verona Ombre Corte, 2011; Parti: 1) Introduzione, 2) D.Carpi, “Potere e legittimità”.
--D.Carpi and J.Gaakeer, Liminal Discourses, DeGruyter, 2013, Chapter 11:” Renaissance into Postmodernism”, 177-189.
--S.Fiorato, “Ariel and Caliban as law conscious servants”, in D.Carpi and J.Gaakeer, Liminal Discourses, DeGruyter, 2013, pp. 113-128.
--D. Carpi ,“Sacralization/de-sacralization of Caesar's body in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar”, Polemos 9.2.2015, pp.281-294.
--D.Carpi, “The language of Clothing and the law”, in Polemos, 1/ 2016 , pp.143-156.
- Karen Newman, “Renaissance Family Politics and Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew”, English Literary Renaissance, 16.1 (1986), 86-100
- Ken Jackson, ““Is it God or the Sovereign exception?” Giorgio Agamben’s Homo Sacer and Shakespeare’s King John”, Religion and Literature, 38.3 (2006), 85-100
-- A. R. Braunmuller, Michael Hattaway, The Cambridge Companion to English Renaissance Drama, Cambridge University Press, 1990.

C) Andrew Sanders, The Short Oxford History of English Literature, (from its origins to 1642).

The exam will be an oral discussion in English on the texts in the program. Students have to prepare parts A,B.C. The oral exam will start with a question on the history of English literature (part C) and will then proceed with questions on the plays by Shakespeare (part A) through the critical approach of the texts in part B.
Students who cannot attend the lessons must get in touch with both professors.