NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study
Going Baroque
Baroque Theater: from Ambiguity to Hyperbole.
IDSEM-UG1870 / Spring 2017
Tuesdays/Thursdays 4:55PM-6:15PM
7 East 12th Street. Room: 124
Instructor:
Simon Fortin, Ph.D
1 Washington Place, #429
E-Mail address: [email protected]
Office Hours: Thursdays, 3:00PM to 4:30PM.
“Find what gave you emotion; what the action was that gave you excitement. Then write it down making it clear
so that the reader can see it too. Prose is architecture, not interior decoration, and the Baroque is over.”
― Ernest Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon (1932).
Course Description.
Not so fast. Is it really? Is the Baroque over? This seminar examines the enduring,
the lingering dramaturgical/literary “Baroque” and attempts some retorts to
Hemingway’s claim. Mannered, adorned, elaborate, grand, exaggerated, eccentric,
reactionary, those are all qualities often associated with the Baroque aesthetic, a
complex and hard to circumscribe moment of artistic and ideological expression
that swept the European continent from the late Sixteenth to the early Eighteenth
centuries. While the Baroque may accommodate such descriptions, it readily refuses
the fetters of absolute definitions. Thus, we may more astutely speak of “Baroque
sensibilities” or of various “Baroques.” The controversies that animate the very use
of the term “Baroque” are at the heart of our inquiry. In this course we take a
kaleidoscopic approach to examine the grand Baroque narratives: how an aesthetic
of grandeur came to inform architecture, politics, religion, the visual arts, and
specifically for our intent, the theatre. We look at texts that shape, embrace but also
denounce this aesthetic turn and we try to understand how this appetite for
grandeur, for excess, for celebratory eroticism, for unbridled expressivity still
mediates the sensibilities of our post-modernity. Most importantly, we will
investigate how the Baroque period can be observed in dramatic texts as an
oscillation, a living tension between two important tropes: the Ambiguity we have
come to associate with the Renaissance and the Hyperbole (understood here, as the
symbol for a rhetoric of excess).
Course Objectives/Learning Goals
With an interdisciplinary eye and a kaleidoscopic gaze, students will acquire a grasp
of the Baroque “stakes” and will write, discuss and make oral presentations to
anatomize the agency of dramatic texts, what they accomplish (rather than are), and
how these texts can be both Historicized (anatomized in the light of the historical
conditions of their production) and Presentized (viewed primarily through the gaze
of their audience’s contemporaneity), with the goal that students will subsequently
carry this bi-focal strategy beyond this class in their study of artworks from other
periods and cultures.
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Students will become familiar with various methodologies and approaches to
historical inquiry (Historicism, Materialism, New Historicism, Presentism).
Students will understand the interplay of dramatic texts and the sociohistorical conditions that foster their creation
Students will learn to argue using the text as evidentiary material.
Students will come to understand that Laughter is a grand and serious affair.
Students will develop their own appreciation of what Baroque aesthetics
entail and how the Baroque both shapes/is shaped by dramatic writing .
Students will tap into the “Baroque” repertoire across disciplines (we will
look at a lot of art in this seminar) to appreciate how this aesthetic moment
informs/may linger in, their own field of specialization.
Required Texts:
William Shakespeare: Antony and Cleopatra (1606)
John Dryden: All for Love (1677)
Ted Hugues: Racine’s Phèdre (1677)
Pierre Corneille: The Cid (1637), Cinna (1639), and The Theatrical Illusion (1641)
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, Molière: The Misantrophe (1666) & Tartuffe (1664), The
Impromptu at Versailles (1663), Wicherley’s The Country Wife.
The texts listed above have been ordered in the required editions and are
available at the NYU Bookstore. You must have hard copies, not electronic
editions of these specific texts.
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The following texts will be made available in electronic format through NYUCLASS
(or feel free to find hard copy editions).
Aphra Behn: The Rover (1667)
Thomas Shadwell: The Libertine (1675)
John Dryden: An Essay on Dramatic Poesy (1666)
Jeremy Collier: A Short View on the Immorality of the English Stage, an essay (1698).
The Erotic Poetry of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, (excerpts).
Purcell: Dido and Aeneas (1689), an Opera Libretto by Nahum Tate.
Pergolesi: Stabat Mater (1736). (text of the Oratorio).
I recommend reading each assignment in full by the first day we begin to discuss it.
Please always come to class with the book in hand.
In addition to some filmed versions of the plays we will read, you will be, for a
specific assignment (short paper #2), required to privately view at least one of the
following films:
Dangerous Liaisons by Stephen Frears (1988).*
The Thief, the Cook, his Wife and her Lover by Peter
Greenaway (1990).*
Tous les Matins du Monde, a film by Alain Corneau
(1991).
Restoration by Michael Hoffman (1995).*
Ridicule, a film by Patrice Leconte (1996).*
Stage Beauty, a film by Richard Eyre (2004).
The Libertine, a film by Laurence Dunmore (2004).
Marie-Antoinette by Sophia Coppola (2006).
A Little Chaos by Alan Rickman (2015).*
*Available on NetFlix.
Required Assignments:
- Attendance, diligent reading, and active participation in all class
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discussions. (20% of grade).
3 Short Papers: 3-4 pages; these are formal/guided essays where I ask the
questions. (30% of the grade).
Oral Presentations: These is one formal five-to-seven minute talk where
you choose a specific aspect of the text under review and lead our discussion
for the day with a series of question. Then at the next class, the one following
your talk, you are required to remit a two-page report (2) where you expose
the points you wanted to make and evaluate how the discussion went. On the
last day of class, you are also invited to pronounce a formal closing statement
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(2 minutes) explaining what your final paper entails and some of your own
conclusions at the close of this seminar. (10% of the grade).
1 Final Paper Proposal: a one-page presentation of your final project. (10%
of the Grade).
1 Final Paper: 10-12 pages; with my help, you choose the topic/thesis for
this essay in light of your interests and field of inquiry. (30 % of the grade)
I do not accept emailed work, without exception. Please make note of the
assignments due dates. All papers must be typed, stapled, double-spaced, in a
12-point font, MLA style, (with bibliography, should you need/choose to cite).
All major assignments must be completed in order for you to pass the course.
Attendance: You may miss up to two classes without penalty; more than two
absences for reasons other than illness, family emergency, or religious observance
will affect your overall grade for the course. Accumulating a large number of
absences for any reason may make it impossible for you to pass the course.
Academic Integrity: As a Gallatin student you belong to an interdisciplinary
community of artists and scholars who value honest and open intellectual inquiry.
This relationship depends on mutual respect, responsibility, and integrity. Failure to
uphold these values will be subject to severe sanction, which may include dismissal
from the University. Examples of behaviors that compromise the academic integrity
of the Gallatin School include plagiarism, illicit collaboration, doubling or recycling
coursework, and cheating. Please consult the Gallatin Bulletin or Gallatin website
(http://gallatin.nyu.edu/academics/policies/integrity.html).
Technology: In order to facilitate the collaborative and cooperative nature of the
seminar, I will ask you not to use laptops, tablets, or smartphones in class for any
purpose, unless otherwise instructed. This means that you will usually need to print
out any assignments or papers needed for class on any given day. Please turn off or
silence your mobile phone before coming to class.
You are welcome to email me with any questions that arise for you. I will respond as
promptly as I can, but may not write back immediately (especially if you email me at
night or on the weekend). I will use email from time to time to contact you or the
class as a whole; please do read these messages carefully.
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SCHEDULE OF READINGS
DATE
READING FOR THE DAY
CLASS TOPIC & LITERARY ISSSUE
January 24th
Introduction of the Course; Presentation of the Syllabus.
January 26th
Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra (1606)
“What’s in a name?” or what is this Baroque
business?
Exemplying the Baroque.
Holy Sonnet XIV, John Donne (Batter my
Heart…)
Introducing Baroque Topics & Tropes:
Sposa non disprezzetta (Giacomelli 1734).
Holbein’s The Ambassadors
January 31st
Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra (1606), Act I
Introducing Baroque Topics & Tropes:
Las Meninas (Velasquez, 1656)
The events of the Story vs The events of the
Play.
February 2nd
Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra (1606), Acts I-II
Introducing Baroque Topics & Tropes:
Trompe-L’Oeil; Tenebrism.
February 7th
Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra (1606), Acts III-IV-V
February 9th
Dryden’s An Essay of Dramatic Poesy (NYU Classes)
Dryden’s All For Love: Preface/Prologue/Act I
Introducing Baroque Topics & Tropes:
Chiaoscuro.
The Aesthetic of Decline/The Aesthetic of
Grandeur / Shakespeare’s Strategies
Metatheatricality
New Historicist Approach: Restoration.
What does change with Dryden?
February 14th
Dryden’s All For Love: II-III
The Quarrel: Ancients versus Moderns
February 16th
Dryden’s All For Love: Acts IV-V
Fluid Moralities
February 21st
Shadwell’s The Libertine (1676)
An Essay on The Libertine (NYU Classes)
Opening Soliloque from Stephen Jeffreys’ The Libertine (1994)
[distributed in Class]
Shadwell’s The Libertine (1676)
The Politics of Representation.
Paper #1 Due
February 23rd
February 28th
March 2nd
March 7th
Aphra Behn’s The Rover (1677) (NYU Classes)
Rochester’s Erotic Poems.
Aphra Behn’s The Rover (1677)
Rochester’s Erotic Poems.
Corneille’s The Cid (1637)
The Rarissim Female Gaze
Paper # 2 Due
March 9th
Corneille’s The Cid (1637)
Various Baroque Crucifixion Scenes
Film Excerpts:
The Libertine (2004)
Restoration (1995)
Ridicule (1996)
The Rarissim Female Gaze
Investigating further the Quarrel between the
Moderns and the Ancients.
The Concept of Honor: Understanding the
Cornelian Dilemna.
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SPRING RECESS : Monday March 13 – Sunday March 19
March 21st
March 23rd
March 28th
March 30th
April 4th
April 6th
April 11th
April 13th
April 18th
April 20th
April 25th
April 27th
May 2nd
May 4th
Corneille’s The Illusion (1636)
Corneille’s The Illusion (1636)
Jean Racine’s Phaedra (1677)
Phaedra’s Malaise, an essay (distributed in class)
Jean Racine’s Phaedra (1677)
Rochester’s Erotic Poems.
Metatheatricality:The Name of the Game.
Metatheatricality:The Name of the Game.
The Illness of Love/ Psychologism
The Illness of Love/Parrallel Loves
Bernini and Religious Ecstasy.
Paper # 3 Due
Molière’ Tartuffe (1664)
Censorship and Anti-Clericalism
Molière’s Tartuffe (1664)
Censorship and Anti-Clericalism
Molière’s The Misanthrope (1666)
Versailles and Absolutism/Rococco Stylings.
Final Paper Proposal Due.
Molière’s The Misanthrope (1666)
Molière’s The Impromtu at Versailles (1663)
William Wicherley’s The Country Wife (1675)
William Wicherley’s The Country Wife (1675)
A Short View on the Immorality of the English Stage, 1698
(NYU Classes)
Molière’s The School for Wives (1662)
Versailles and Absolutism/Rococco Stylings.
Is the terminological language of Beaux-Arts
useful to Literary Criticism?
Is the terminological language of Beaux-Arts
useful to Literary Criticism?
Public Lives/Private Lives
Negotiating the Public and the Private.
Sexual Politics.
Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (1689) (NYU Classes)
Enter the Operatic – Emotionalism.
Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (1689)
Thomas Dixon’s Weeping Britannia (2015),
Excerpts Distributed in Class.
Enter the Operatic & (What’s With this StiffUpper Lip Business?)
Conclusions – Personal Closing Statements. Final Paper Due
The Sense of an Ending/Ending things.
May 18th – 22nd
Exam Week.
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