ENG239

When Shakespeare began writing plays, England was ruled by a queen. Elizabeth I understood that her power was inextricable from her gender, and she developed intricate iconography and ideology to support her queenly rule-iconography and ideology which also made it into some of the greatest art of the age. This course considers the question of queenship in Shakespeare's poetry and plays. Centralizing concerns of gender-including those of sovereign rule, race, queerness, desire, religion, agency, performativity, and intersectionality-students work to understand forms of "queenship" in playful as well as serious ways. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course.