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- Creators: Department of English
Making Use of Massinger seeks to provide a framework by which educators can facilitate more meaningful discussion about premodern and early modern texts including playwrights like Shakespeare and Phillip Massinger. Establishing modes of engaging with literature (and thus the uses of literature) from the scholarship of Dr. Rita Felski and Dr. Ayanna Thompson, this project analyzes a study conducted by Haley Rominger on ASU undergraduate students on their reactions to Phillip Massinger's play "The Roman Actor". Ultimately this study showed that a deeper dialogue was attained in discussing topics that had modern implications such as race, gender, and power dynamics.
In my thesis, I examine the character of Henry VI in Shakespeare's Henry VI cycle (1, 2, and 3 Henry VI) - who has been critically thought of as a feminine figure - in light of the Herculean Hero model and against other male characters in the Henry VI plays. By comparing Henry to the Herculean model, there are points of similarity regarding character inaction - a feminine attribute - allowing Henry to become a more masculine figure than he has otherwise been criticized as.