I.     ENGL 410         SHAKESPEARE          3 credit hours

 

II.     Fall 2001                       David Worley     Avery 206       Phone 869 6329

                                                               email: dworley@lmunet.edu

                                                               Conference hours:  MTWRF  11:00 to 12:00 and by appointment

                                                                                        

 

III.     Prerequisite: ENGL 211, or 212, or 221, or 222

             

   IV.     Text: The Riverside Shakespeare, 2nd ed.

 

V.      Course Objectives--to enable students to:

   

Read Shakespeare with efficiency and comprehension (language, conceits, cultural context)

Understand how conventions of genre shape interpretation

Understand how a play may be performed legitimately in several ways and how performance shapes 

     (and is shaped by) interpretation

Understand some of the relationships between the plays and the culture of Renaissance England

Do research on Shakespearean drama

 

VI.       Outline of Course Contents

 

Richard II; General Introduction (1--25)

Henry IV, Part I; Appendix A (1905--1931)

Macbeth

Hamlet; Shakespeare Criticism (27-54)

Othello

King Lear

Midsummer Night's Dream

Twelfth Night

Troilus and Cressida

The Tempest

 

VII.            Suggested Readings (on Closed Reserve in the LMU Library)

 

The First Part of King Henry the Fourth, ed. Barbara Hodgdon. Texts and Contexts

Henry the Fourth, Part I, ed. James L. Sanderson. Norton Critical Edition

Shylock, John Gross

The Taming of the Shrew, ed. Frances E. Dolan. Texts and Contexts

The Bottom Translation, Jan Kott

Approaches to Teaching Shakespeare's The Tempest, ed. Maurice Hunt   

Shakespeare: The Four Romances, Robert M. Adams

Shakespeare's Middle Tragedies: Collected Critical Essays, ed. David Young

Everybody's Shakespeare, Maynard Mack

            Approaches to Teaching Shakespeare's King Lear, ed. Robert H. Ray

            William Shakespeare: King Lear, ed. Susan Bruce. Columbia Critical Guides

King Lear, Alexander Leggatt. Twayne's New Critical Introductions to Shakespeare

Hamlet, ed. Cyrus Hoy. Norton Critical Edition

Hamlet, ed. Susan Wofford.Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism

             Shakespeare's Language, Frank Kermode    

 

 

 

 

VIII.         Course Requirements/ Assessment Methods

 

Students will write at least six relatively informal papers. One of these will be a review of research on one particular aspect of one of the plays (e.g. Is Hamlet indecisive? Does Prospero misuse his powers? Does Cressida fit or defy the pattern in Shakespeare's sources? How are we to think about Iago's motive?). The point here will be for the student to read a range of critical commentary, choose four or five representative samples, and demonstrate a grasp of the debate. The other five papers may be semi-organized reading notes (but not plot summary). Each may consist of such things as character analysis, scene analysis, exploration of a particular theme or motif, and formulation of questions the student can partly (or not at all) resolve. The point of these papers is to demonstrate that the student has engaged the work in more than superficial ways. Each of these last five papers is due at the beginning of the class in which discussion of the work begins. Of these six papers, two are due in September, two in October, and two in November.

 

Students will also write a course paper of at least 3,000 words, the topic of which is to be worked out in consultation with the instructor. Students using this paper to meet their senior SEWS requirement should employ research from at least five sources. Other students may write a research paper on a play covered in class, or a paper (research optional) on a play not covered. This paper is due before Thanksgiving, so that papers with serious lapses may be returned to students for revision. Papers returned for editing will incur a penalty for being late.

 

There will also be a final exam, covering seven or eight plays. The average grade for the informal papers, the grade for the course paper, and the final exam grade will count equally in determining the course grade, with some consideration being given to attendance.

 

Students sometimes use sources such as Cliff's Notes or Monarch Notes. There is nothing particularly wrong with this (though they are generally uneven, inferior sources), so long as they do not become substitutes for reading the plays. In any event, all secondary sources used for papers should be carefully documented following current MLA guidelines. Any failure to do so is plagiarism, a serious academic offense which may result in failure in the course.

 

Without mitigating circumstances, more than three absences may lower the course grade.

 

IX. 8/01