Seminar 4:
Early Modern Material Cultures

Sabine Schülting (Freie Universität Berlin)

TOPIC DESCRIPTION

The seminar will introduce students to the expanding field of (early modern) material culture studies, offer them new perspectives on early modern theatre and drama and enable them to develop their own research questions. We will discuss the question of how to study early modern material culture (i.e. ‘things’ such as clothes, food, everyday objects etc.) and analyse the representation of these objects in early modern plays and on stage. This will offer insights into the role material objects played for the negotiation of sexual, ethnic and national identities, social status and power relations, the public and the private, the sacred and the profane. We will try to understand how things and people, objects and subjects, as well as the material and textual interact and how material objects contribute to constructing cultural meaning.

Seminar discussions will focus on general problems of Material Culture Studies as well as on the analysis of material culture in Ben Jonson’s Bartholomew Fair, which we will relate to its early modern cultural contexts (economy, colonialism and cultural encounters, gender relations, social hierarchies, the theatre etc.).

Students are expected to have read the play in advance. In addition you should read the three chapters indicated below from Ian Woodward’s introduction to Material Culture Studies. Additional early modern material (textual excerpts, visual material) will be made available through handouts and Power Point presentations in the course.

Study questions and suggestions for presentation topics will be communicated to participants via email and will be posted on Moodle.

Compulsory Introductory Reading:

Ben Jonson, Bartholomew Fair

Woodward, Ian. Understanding Material Culture (London 2007), chapters 1,2,4

 Course Schedule:

Day 1: An introduction to the study of material culture. – Material culture in early modern England. –– Theatre costumes and the fashion system.

Day 2: Subjects and objects. – Clothes and identity in early modern culture and on stage. – Gender and cross dressing. – Clothes and cultural identity.

Day 3: The circulation of money, commodities, and bodies. – Early modern food cultures. – Consumption, colonialism and overseas trade.

Assessment:
The first seminar grade expresses the activity in the seminar discussion. It can range from 0 to 10, the pass limit is 5. The second seminar grade assesses the quality of paper proposals (300 words minimum), the share of the student in the preparation of the final presentation, its contents and standard. It can range from 0 to 15, the pass limit is 8. The final essay grade is expressed in points from 0 to 30, the pass limit is 15. Deadline for the submission of the essay: 15 July 2013. Length of the essay: 3000-4000 words. The maximum number of points acquired for the 2 seminars and an essay is 80 (25+25+30). For the participation in a workshop 5 points are acquired (10 points for two workshops). For the the submission of an internship application 5 points are acquired and 10 points fort the shortlisting for the internship.