Seminar 7: 
Theatrum Mundi and the Dramatic Quality of John Donne’s Poetry

Agnieszka Romanowska (Jagiellonian University in Kraków)

a.romanowska-kowalska@uj.edu.pl

TOPIC DESCRIPTION
One of the conspicuous features of early modern European societies was the enhanced awareness of theatricality, manifested – among other fields – in public life. The predominance of the world-stage metaphor in the Elizabethan and Jacobean culture found its reflection in the works of Shakespeare and his contemporaries who often used this topos overtly in their plays and poems. The seminar will focus on what in the critical discourse on the English 17th-century metaphysical poetry has been named “the dramatic quality” of Donne’s poems. This feature or, more precisely, a set of features may be perceived as a sign of influence of, on the one hand, the dramatisation of public life and, on the other hand, the development of dramatic poetry as language used in its performative function. 

Part of the seminar’s time will be devoted to exemplifying the popularity of the ancient topos of theatrum mundi that through French and Spanish influences culminated in such famous manifestations as Jaques's "All the world's a stage" or, reversely, as “stage-as-world” in case of the Globe’s “wooden O”. Further activities will involve having a more informed look at the traditional catalogue of features – conversational style, variety and changeability of tones, situational immediacy, argumentative force – that are commonly appreciated by Donne’s commentators. The pragmatic perspective we will adopt for textual analysis allows to approach poems as “text worlds” in which characters (speaker and addressee) participate in a situation within a particular setting. This approach will be linked to the concept of “poem as stage” on which the above mentioned features are manifested and can be scrutinised as Donne’s dramatic quality. Finally, a series of close readings will help us to reveal the poetic techniques and imagery that testifies to Donne’s creative exploitation of the theatrum mundi topos.

The ultimate aim of the seminar is to enhance the students’ understanding and appreciation of Donne’s poetry read within a wider context of his epoch in order to equip them with tools that may be helpful in studying Donne’s reception in their own time and their own cultures.

READING LIST

T.W. and R.J. Craik, eds. John Donne. Selected Poetry and Prose, London&New York 1986, pp. 1-13 and 185-188 (pdf).

Herbert J. C. Grierson, entries: „John Donne His Life“ and „The History of his Poems“ from

The Cambridge History of English and American Literature, volume IV, www.bartleby.com.

Pierre Legouis, The Dramatic Element in Donne’s Poetry, in: Helen Gardner, ed. John Donne. A Collection of Critical Essays, 1962 (pdf).

Katarzyna Mroczkowska-Brand, The Theatrum Mundi Metaphor in Spanish and English Drama 1570-1640, Kraków 1993, Introduction, pp. 20-23 (pdf).

John T. Shawcross, The Complete Poetry of John Donne, New York 1967 (a selection of texts will be done by April).

David Ralston Watkins, Inferring the Dramatic in Donne: A Metacritical Study, Canterbury 2002 (selected fragments, pdf).

SCHEDULE
Session 1: The theatrum mundi topos in early modern Europe and England. “The Shakespearean moment” in the 1590s. An outline of critical concepts in search for “the dramatic quality” in Donne’s poetry (Mroczkowska-Brand, Legouis, Watkins).

Session 2: Donne’s poetic techniques as manifestations of the influence of the world-stage metaphor. The notions of poem as “text world” and of poem as “stage” or “play-script”. Linguistic tools to analyse the pragmatics of Donne’s dramatic quality (Grierson, Craik, Watkins).

Session 3: Close reading activities on a selection of poems from Donne’s corpus. Aspects to be analysed: speaker’s masks, role-playing, creation of the self as character on the stage of an internal drama, life as a process of transformation, life as journey, death as departure (Shawcross).

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.