"Marks of their origin": Using <i>Dido, Queen of Carthage</i> to Think Critically about National Origin Myths at Northumbria University (UK)

Abstract

This paper describes an approach to teaching Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Nashe’s Dido, Queen of Carthage as part of an optional undergraduate (final year) English literature module in the UK.  The session in focus for this paper is one 3-hour workshop-seminar on Marlowe’s Dido, which is read in relation to mythic origins – a term used to introduce the origin story as a political concept. The work students complete on this play is designed to not only strengthen their understanding of how origins stories can be politically useful, but also for the capacity of drama and its modern readers, to question them.