ENGL 365 - Shakespere
"Bless thee, Bottom, bless thee! Thou art translated."
TEXTS:
The Riverside Shakespeare (Second edition)
Other xeroxed selections
I. The Enchanted Realm
"I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was."
Introduction, The Riverside Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier (Selections)
Sonnets: 14, 18, 27, 116, 130, 5, 65, 97, 98, 104
II. Such Another World
"Lovely as a dream or fairy tale..."
"I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys."
The Merchant of Venice
Othello
Machiavelli, The Prince (Selections)
Sonnets: 106, 109, 129, 138, 144, 152
III. The Great Globe Itself
"We are such stuff As dreams are made on; and our little life Is rounded with a sleep."
The Tempest
Pico della Mirandola, On The Dignity of Man (Selections)
Sonnets: 15, 23, 29, 30, 73
Class Presentations and Celebrations
Objectives:
To read a number of Shakespeare's plays and poems dealing with the themes of love and transformation.
To understand the plays both as drama and as poetry.
To enjoy the transformation of play into film.
To explore some of the uses of folklore, ritual, and myth in the love plays.
To recognize the distinguishing features of comedy, tragedy, and romance.
To learn something of the relationship between Shakespeare and his age and to discover the universal revelance in his plots, character, and themes.
To encourage you to define and describe your own responses to the plays--and to the critical approaches we encounter.
To come to love Shakespeare.
Ground Rules of the Course:
The reading in this course will primarily consist of Shakespeare's plays, but we will also be considering some background material in handouts and The Riverside Shakespeare. Written assignments will include two interpretive essays of 3-5 pages each, probably relating to your outside reading or to viewing of films based on the plays (Dates due to be announced at least a week ahead). There will be one hour test, a final examination -- and occasional short writing assignments and/or quizzes in class. We will conclude the course with a creative project which may be developed individually or with a group.
You are expected to attend class regularly. (More than two absences during the semester may place your grade in jeopardy; three definitely will.) Your writing will be graded on how you put it, as well as on what you say. You must take the hour exam (probably on March 28) and the final examination. Creative projects will be presented at the end of the course. And you must turn in all regular written assignments on time unless you have asked ahead for an extension.
Grading
will be based on class participation and performance, and on tests, papers, and other writing. Your work will be finally judged in about five catagories carrying these weights:
Essay papers 2 parts
Class test 1 part
Creative project 1 part
Final exam 2 parts
Class work 2 parts
This is approximate, however, since such elements as attendance and improvement, for example, will have some bearing.
Now, after all this documentation of requirements and expectations, let's enjoy Shakespeare!
Recommended Readings:
From time to time, appropriate readings in critical and/or background material may be suggested. The following provide a general background to the love plays and to Shakespeare's life and art:
Barber, C.L., Shakespeare's Festive Comedy (1959).
Barber, C.L., and Richard P. Wheeler. The Whole Journey: Shakespeare's Power of Development. (1986).
Bate, Jonathan. The Genius of Shakespeare (1998).
Bloom, Harold. Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human (1998).
Clemen, Wolfgang. The Development of Shakespeare's Imagery (1951).
Eagleton, Terry. William Shakespeare (1986).
Felperin, Howard. Shakespearean Romances (1972).
Fiedler, Leslie. The Stranger in Shakespeare (1973).
Fraser, Russell. Shakespeare: The Later Years (1992).
French, Marilyn. Shakespeare's Division of Experience (1981).
Frye, Northrop. Anatomy of Criticism (1951). A Natural Perspective (1969).
Garber, Marjorie. Dream in Shakespeare (1974).
Greer, Germaine. Shakespeare (1986).
Holden, Anthony. William Shakespeare: The Man Behind the Genius (1999).
Honan, Park. Shakespeare: A Life (1999).
Novy, Marianne L. Love's Argument: Gender Relations in Shakespeare (1984).
Schoenbaum. Samuel. Shakespeare: A Documentary Life (1975).
Spurgeon, Caroline. Shakespeare's Imagery and What it Tells Us (1935, repr. 1965).
Yates, Frances. Shakespeare's Last Plays (1975). The Theatre of the World (1969). The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age (1979).
"Our revels now are ended."
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