Research Questions and Discussion Topics of the Week!

1. Why study the extant writings of Cyril Tourneur? Why is he an important figure for our understanding of late Tudor and early Stuart literature and culture?

2. Why is it important to discover inter-textual traces within an author’s own extant works? What does it reveal about the author’s working processes?

3. Discuss Tourneur’s modus operandi in his dedicatory writings. What does it reveal about (a) Tourneur’s own careerism, (b) patronage for early modern English poets , and (c) the connection between the theatre world of playwrights, poets and actors and the world at court?

4. How does Tourneur use the skull as a prompt for an extended meditation in his play, The Atheist’s Tragedy? How does his employment of the visual prompt contrast with other examples from the revenge genre?