ENG 331: Drama 1485-1603
Want access to our Volunteer Notetaker’s notes for this class? Click here.
Interested in joining the student-run ENG 331 Discord? Click here.
You are currently looking at the ENG 331 welcome page, where you can find our course description, meeting times and location, requirements, policies, and ongoing anonymous feedback form. You’re most often going to be consulting, and should bookmark, the ENG 331 Schedule of Readings, Meetings, Lectures, and Assignments (click here); for the ENG 331 Google Drive (with all class audiorecordings), click here.
This site contains all the material that would normally be on a course syllabus, and more. There’s a lot of information here, but that’s because everything you need for ENG 331 is all collected here conveniently in one place! You’ll mainly use this site for reference during the year, but before you commit to joining our class, be sure you review the contents of this site.
Winter term 2024 is a relaunch of my version of ENG 331, after a four year hiatus (in which I wrote a book and had a second kid!), so I’m taking this opportunity to revamp it — that means certain elements of the course will be entirely new, or in development, throughout term. That includes the ENG 331 lecture slides (click here), which I’ll be adding to and modifying throughout term. (If you’re interested in viewing the old, now defunct, and hilariously messy version of my 331 slides, click here to see what the revamp is saving us all from.)
If you are joining our class late, or miss the first couple of classes for any other reason, you are still responsible for the material you missed: click here for important instructions for late registrants.
I am happy to arrange accommodations or modifications to this class for anyone who would benefit from them — no documentation necessary — but in my classes, you must request accommodations and modifications according to these specific instructions (click here).
I’m your professor, Matthew Sergi. You can call me Prof. Sergi or Matt (not “sir,” please); you can contact me at sergi.utoronto@gmail.com, but I encourage you to approach me in Office Hours (click here for times and location) and to consult my FAQ first. I’ll only be able to answer emails sent to sergi.utoronto@gmail.com; if you send an inquiry about ENG 331 to another email address of mine, it will likely be delayed or missed.
Course Description
Literary-dramatic history cleaves, conventionally, into periods: we can reliably call British plays composed after 1603 “modern,” of which the earlier portion is “early modern,” while we call all British plays composed before 1485 “medieval.” Such labels do not adhere as easily to the period between 1485 and 1603, during which Tudor monarchs and their administrators employed a range of strategies to consolidate prestige in the Crown, and thus in London. By 1603, London-based styles and conventions, particularly new humanist trends in dramatic performance, had largely eclipsed a diversity of other regional performance traditions, some of which faded out of fashion, and others of which were forcibly prohibited. But throughout the sixteenth century, even as the first commercial theaters began to pop up around London, marking an apparent renaissance of classical forms, other regions in Britain were performing old and new plays in ways that might strike us as more medieval. It was certainly a period of transition, but from what, and to what? What was the set of characteristics shared by those plays that now seem more continuous with future trends (“modern”) than with past ones (“medieval'“)? What is gained when drama becomes modern, and what is the cost of that gain, even now? What can be recovered? What should be left behind?
These are not questions that our course, ENG 331: Drama 1485-1603, will rehearse evenly or predictably, in order to arrive at some tidily pre-determined conceptualization of cultural history; nor are they exercises or prompts rigged for balanced discussion. They are real questions, with real stakes for how we understand drama, play, and culture then and now, for which our course will seek answers, receiving ideas from students in prior runs of the class, then contributing new ideas to future runs. Indeed, there are rotating readings built into the syllabus, so that even the professor must come to three class texts newly each year, to discover alongside students how those particular texts answer, or reshape, the course’s core questions about what plays are, and how plays changed. So, even as ENG 331 will introduce students to a representative sampling of dramatic literature generated across Britain from 1485 through 1603, it will also work through our readings to figure out how to articulate what happened to drama during this steeply shifting, and stunningly fertile, transitional period.
With frequent reference to the Records of Early English Drama — an archival project still underway at the University of Toronto, in which scholars search through England for scattered and often surprising evidence of early live performance — ENG 331 will organize its readings by geography rather than chronology, taking us not only to Tudor-era London but also through sixteenth-century Cheshire, Yorkshire, East Anglia, Cambridgeshire, Coventry, and Central Scotland. We will pay special attention to the very thing that makes our readings dramatic: the texts’ use of verbal, recorded communication to cue extra-verbal, real-time action — and their encoding of crucial meaning, power, humour, or beauty by means of that cuing. Many of our discussions will involve reading dramatic dialogue aloud, sometimes by standing up and acting out scenes live or by physicalizing some elements of staging. No student will be required (nor at all pressured) to do any live reading, acting, or physicalization; you can reap some benefits from these exercises simply by watching them being done. Then again, everyone will have multiple chances (and kind words of encouragement) to volunteer — people often surprise themselves in this class, so make sure you leave some room to be surprised.
Active, real-time participation in class discussion is required, but built into our class is an array of inclusive alternative avenues for participation that make room for all learning styles and needs; presence at class meetings will be crucial, too, with a minimum attendance requirement. Be prepared to engage actively during every class meeting.
Class Meetings
ENG 331 generally meets twice per week — a two-hour session on Mondays, 2pm-4pm, then a 50-minute session on Wednesdays, 2pm-3pm, both in person in UC 261, on the University of Toronto campus, on the shared territory of many First Nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Wendat, and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, under the Dish With One Spoon Treaty, and under Treaty 13 between the Mississaugas and subsequent settlers.
I also hold weekly drop-in Office Hours, in person or remotely, during any week that courses are in session: click here for my current Office Hours times and locations.
I require real-time attendance at every class meeting, during the scheduled hours of that meeting. If a student misses a session for any reason, I deduct any such absence permanently from the student’s total number of classes attended, and the student must also follow my set instructions for what to do after missing a class (click here). Please do not email me only to alert me to an upcoming absence, nor to explain a prior one, let alone to apologize either way: just follow the course instructions, policies, and requirements regarding missed classes and leave it at that.
ONE-SHOT-PER-STUDENT REMOTE ATTENDANCE
I keep Zoom (or an equivalent application) open on my laptop during all meetings; I audiorecord and simulcast all meetings through that application. As a general rule, I require students to attend real-time discussions in person in order to earn Actual Attendance and Engagement and Participation credit. However, I do allow all students to earn attendance credit once by attending remotely (i.e., through Zoom) — one remote attendance, one time, per student. (You can still miss class after that, or attend remotely after that, but anything beyond that one-shot-per-student limit will be counted toward your absence limit — see below for what the maximum number of unpenalized absences is for this class). If you do opt to use this one-shot-per-student remote attendance option (and there are many good reasons to do so, so you should save this one shot for when you really need it), be sure to read my remote attendance instructions ahead of time, and to follow those instructions carefully. Remember that remote attendance still must be done in real time (that is, during the scheduled hours of the class) in order to earn attendance credit.
If you are in a situation in which increased remote attendance would truly remove more obstacles to learning than it would add, you can also find in my remote attendance instructions information on expanding the one-shot-per-student limit.
There also may be very rare situations on my part, whether due to university closures, personal concerns (including emergencies), or academic commitments, in which I have to switch our course to remote format — if that should happen, the remote class will not count toward anyone’s remote attendance limit.
Course Requirements/Grading Weight
Engagement and Participation in class discussion sessions, 15%
If, by the end of term, we all have a pretty good idea of how you approach class material, you’ll do well. Click here to read my full policy on Engagement and Participation.
(Voluntary performance in live in-class readings will not affect this portion of your grade —
except where the performer starts engaging in scholarly discussion that erupts during the reading, as sometimes happens.)
Real-Time Comprehension Questions, asked at the end of each class session, 17.5%
Two quick short-answer questions, asked and answered in the final 2-3 minutes of each class meeting.
Click here to read full instructions for Real-Time Comprehension Questions.
Actual Attendance during at least 20 of our 24 class sessions, 10%
(19 of 23 sessions attended = 5/10; 18 or fewer = 0/10)
You earn ten points of your course grade just for showing up; you lose those points if you miss too many classes, regardless of the reason.
Click here to read my full policy on Actual Attendance.
Edition Critique and Recitation, due during Week VI, 20%
Meet with me one-on-one, to do two things:
first, present and defend an informal critique, based on early print or manuscript evidence, of one of our class editions;
second, recite from memory 24-48 lines of a class text.
Click here for a full description of this assignment.
Early English Geography/History Test, in class during Week VI, 12.5%
A timed assessment of your command of basic dates and terms in early English history.
Click here for a full description of this test.
Archival Research Essay, due at the end of term, 25%
An argumentative essay based in your original research into the Records of Early English Drama, delivered live at a one-on-one meeting with me.
Click here for a full description of this assignment.
Required Texts
You must purchase four books for our course — in these exact editions:
The Broadview Anthology of Medieval Drama, ed. Christina M. Fitzgerald and John T. Sebastian (Broadview Press, 2012)
The Digby Play of Mary Magdalene, ed. Chester N. Scoville (Broadview Press, 2017)
Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus, ed. David Scott Kastan (Norton, 2nd ed)
William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, ed. Russ McDonald (Pelican Shakespeare, 2016)
I’ll make a number of further required readings available to you for free in pdf, whether via the U of T Library Syllabus Service or simply in our course Google Drive file (linked above).
Never use any edition of class texts except the ones I mention here or make directly available to you otherwise — don’t even consult other versions for help (because the help they give, directed toward more simplistic classes than ours, will likely make this class’s assignments much harder for you); you’ll quickly learn why exact editions are essential in an early drama class. All of the texts required for purchase should be available at the U of T Bookstore one month before our first meeting. If an electronic version of any class text is available through the publisher, you are welcome to purchase and use it, as long as you can bring a laptop or tablet to class from which you can read the text (never read from a phone in my class, please). If you want to use the electronic version of a Broadview Press text, I strongly recommend that you be sure to purchase it directly through the Broadview website, rather than through the U of T Bookstore. You can purchase these texts by any means you wish, but you must make sure all the texts are available to you in time for you to get readings done on schedule: allow time for shipping delays, restocking, etc.
Ongoing Student Feedback
If there is any element of this class that you would like to see improved, changed, or removed, you don’t need to wait until the end of term to give your opinion. In fact, I welcome ongoing feedback about this class throughout term (and I still welcome it after term ends). You can offer feedback directly to me in three ways:
Bring it up in class discussion or Office Hours! I don’t have thin skin and I don’t mind dedicating some class time to course housekeeping — and I love talking through solutions to make my courses better. If you feel comfortable doing so, feel free to bring your issue up in class so that other students can share their opinion too.
Email me.
Comment anonymously, using Google Forms, by clicking here. You do not need to be signed into Google to fill out the feedback form — but even if you are, I still won’t know it! I’ll receive an email alerting me that someone has made comments, which will not reveal your identity. (If your class has a Discord site, and I’m on it, you can also anonymize your user information and contact me there.)
From there, I may respond to you directly (unless you’ve chosen to remain anonymous), or bring up/enact the proposed change in class (preserving your anonymity), or start a quick anonymized student survey in which fellow students can vote on whether to make the proposed change to our course.
Note: These avenues of direct student feedback are different from the university-run, automated evaluations made available at the end of every term, which allow you to communicate your assessments of this class to the undergraduate chair, the department chair, and higher administrative bodies, who may evaluate, reward, reassign, or penalize a course instructor in relation to the quality of evaluations and numerical scores. End-of-term, university-run evaluations are important ways for you to communicate your opinions about this course to university administrators, but they are not an effective way of delivering actionable feedback directly to me. If you would like me to take action or make changes, however small or large, you should send your feedback to me directly, through one of the above avenues (and as soon as possible, so I can make changes to the class you’re currently taking!).
Course Policies
Be sure you know the ENG 331 policies before joining our course — because joining ENG 331 means that you understand and agree to its course policies, as far as they are summarized below. If you are concerned that you may not be able to adhere to any of these policies, or if you want to learn more specific details about how or why I enforce a policy, click on the “further explanation” link next to that policy.
I use Google apps and Zoom, not Blackboard or Quercus, for class announcements and contact. After term begins, you must make sure you are receiving class emails I send from sergi.utoronto@gmail.com; adjust your junk mail or spam settings if need be. (Click here for a further explanation of this policy.)
All students, with no exceptions, are required to engage and participate actively in class discussion. (Click here for a further explanation of this policy.)
For students who have difficulty jumping into class discussion, I offer an array of alternative avenues for participation, which the student must pre-arrange with me according to the specific instructions I make available on this website. (Click here for instructions on how to arrange for alternative avenues for participation.)
If you miss a real-time class session for any reason, including illness or late registration, you are responsible for making up the content of any class session you miss, including make-up Comprehension Questions (CQs) for that day, according to the specific instructions I make available on this website. (Click here for a further explanation of this policy and for the relevant instructions.)
Even if you make up missed content, it will not reverse the fact that you missed the class session (make-up CQs restore CQ credit, but do not restore attendance credit!). Be sure you’re clear on this: my course attendance policy allows for a certain number of missed sessions (see above) without penalty; if you exceed that number, I will deduct points from your course grade. There are no exceptions available, no matter what, for the requirement to attend class sessions in real time, at the time they are scheduled. I never require proof, documentation, or any reason for a student’s absence. You can use your allowed number of absences for any reason; if the allowed number is exceeded, I deduct credit regardless of the reason. (Click here for a further explanation of this policy.)
I expect students in ENG 331 to attend class sessions in person. But in addition to the allotted absences (see above) built into our course, I allow every student in ENG 331 to attend a class meeting remotely ONCE during term — a one-time limit ONLY — and still receive credit for attending. Students whose circumstances make in-person attendance difficult can pre-arrange with me to expand the limit on how often they can use this remote attendance option. (Click here for instructions on how to attend remotely and on how to expand the limit on remote attendance if necessary.)
Both major assignments in this class are delivered in one-on-one meetings with the professor (to be scheduled according to the instructions linked above). Since both assignments rely on scheduling meetings well in advance, extensions, missed deadlines, and missed meetings will require major, fundamental changes to the assignment itself. If you miss a one-on-one meeting that you scheduled, then you’ll have to submit the assignment by email attachment as a traditional essay; I will not provide any comments or feedback (only a numerical grade) on assignments submitted in this way, and will penalize for lateness according to the rules in the assignment prompts linked above. If you want to pre-arrange extra time to completion on either assignment (i.e., what would normally be an extension), you can request priority for the latest possible one-on-one appointment slot (which will usually be equivalent to an extension of 4-5 days) — you’ll need to arrange that request with me within the first three weeks of class, as you would any other accommodation.
If you are a student who has difficulty speaking up in class, or who wants extra help in English grammar and usage (including ESL/EFL), or who has a health consideration or atypical learning style that affects classwork (or involves any special concerns or needs in relation to or preceding readings), or who frequently has trouble with, or feels inadequately challenged by, classwork, or who is interested in investigating or applying to graduate school, or anything else that might benefit from an accommodation or modification, I can gladly customize my course to your needs or your style; I do not require any documentation or proof that you need accommodations. I do require that you request accommodations and modifications within the first three weeks of class — and that you follow my specific set of instructions for requesting accommodations and modifications when making your request. (Click here for instructions on how to request accommodations or modifications.)