English 364.101
Shakespeare: Kings, Knaves, and Fools Fall 2003

 

NOTE: This is representative of the syllabi for this course. It is not necessarily the syllabus being used in any one semester.

 

Texts:

Hamlet (Pelican)

As You Like It (Pelican)

Macbeth (Pelican)

King Lear (Pelican)

 

Goals of the Course:

An understanding of the language of Shakespeare's plays in appreciation of Shakespeare's dramatic art within the context of the theater for which he wrote an awareness of Shakespeare's relationship to his historical period, the Renaissance a sense of the fascinating variety of critical approaches to Shakespeare's work an enduring love for the Bard.

 

Course Outline: 

 

I.          The Prince: Mask and Face (Weeks 1-5)

Hamlet

selected readings from the critics

Mel Gibson and Kenneth Branagh as Hamlet (videos)

 

II.        Power Plays: The Court versus the Green World (Weeks 6-7)

As You Like It

 selected poems

 

III.       Overreachers: From Power to Perdition (Weeks 8-10)

Macbeth Orson Wells, narrator, Power and Corruption (video)

 

IV.       King, Knave, Fool (Weeks 11-14)

King Lear

King Lear in performance: a comparison

of two productions (video)

 

Epilogue (Week 15)

creative projects

 

 

 

Requirements:

 

Occasional short quizzes

 

A midterm (Week 7: Oct. 16) and a final exam (Dec. 18, 5:30)
Two short critical papers (Week 5: Oct. 2; and Week 14: Dec. 4)

 

A final creative project (individual or group)—wild imagination welcome.
Regular, on-time class attendance

 

Please subscribe to the listserv for this class so that I can get in touch with you if I need to. Go to astro.ubalt.edu, click "Subscribe," and enter ENGL.364.101 as the name of the list.

 

 

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