The Droeshout EngravingWhat Did Shakespeare Look Like?
Shakespeare - En 255
Dr. Richard Regan
Fall 2008
Office hours: Mon 11:30-12:15, Wed 1-1:45 (in classroom), 3-4, Th 11:30-12:15
Texts: Signet Classic editions of the plays listed below.
Grading: modified contract system. Three tests and an optional paper, each of equal weight in the final grade.
Attendance: for every three cuts, a point will be deducted from your semester average. Excused absences by written note from a Dean's office, Student Services/Health Center, or your faculty advisor. Excessive absences may result in a failing grade.
Required: 1) two tests based closely on the texts of the plays; 2) weekly summaries/responses to critical articles or WWW sites. These are graded as quizzes and can raise or lower the final grade.
Modified contract: an 8-10 page paper to be eligible for a grade of A or A-. Papers may be rewritten after a conference. Topics must be in writing and approved in conference.
You should submit your papers electronically, written in Microsoft Word. Word has a feature called Track Changes which we can use to write comments on papers (in color). Click here to download a document that contains some suggestions for writing in Word and for emailing papers as attachments.
Final Exam: essays and passages for analysis.
Students with documented learning disabilities, please see me. Alternative methods of testing and evaluation are available.
Theater
related websites
"The Elizabethan Theatre": a lecture with slides
Shakespeare in Performance Institute Acting Exercises
Interactive Shakespeare Project
Touchstone: Shakespeare in Performance
Internet
MetaSites for Shakespeare
Terry Gray's Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet
Encyclopaedia BritannicaWas Shakespeare Shakespeare? The Authorship Controversy
The Shakespeare Discussion List Archive
Teachers FirstPolydore Vergil's Anglica Historica (1555)
Podcasts (allow several minutes for download)
Shakespeare for Today (55 minutes)
Professor Ronald Rebholtz,
Stanford University, Reunion Homecoming 2004
http://itunes.stanford.edu/
American
Shakespeare Center
The ASC offers a number of different podcasts, including This Week at the
Blackfriars, the Blackfriars Backstage Pass, the American Shakespeare Center
Chronicles, and Doctor Ralph Reveals All.
You can find links to all of these podcasts at the American Shakespeare Center's
Podcast Central; you can also subscribe to all ASC podcasts through the iTunes
Music Store Podcast Directory, or through any number of web-based podcasting
sites, including Podcast
Pickle.
American Shakespeare Center (Blackfriars Playhouse)
Here are the instructions for viewing the Class pages and video clips. You'll need a password from Dr. Regan: rjregan@mail.fairfield.edu
Streaming
video is a part of the course because I've written classes to be interactive
with excerpts from performances. You will need a broadband internet connection.
Cable or DSL will work. Satellite is probably OK too. Dialup is too slow for
video.
As you scroll down the course page, for each of the plays you will see a link
called "Click." That will take you to the Class, and when you click
on a video clip you will see a password box. The password will be given out
in class, a security measure because the TEACH Act passed by Congress in 2002
allows only enrolled students to have access to copyrighted materials for educational
purposes. Our method of streaming will open the clip on your computer in QuickTime,
though if you are a Windows user RealPlayer may open it instead. QuickTime comes
standard on Macs, and if you Windows users do not have it, you can download
it (bundled with iTunes) from:
http://www.apple.com/itunes/download.
These video clips are also available from iTunes University, together with audio podcasts of our classes and some documents for each play. The clips can be expanded to full screen. Documents can be viewed as .pdf files only in iTunes, but the audio and video files can be synched to your iPod. If you are on the class roster, you have access through:
Enter your Stagweb ID number as your user name. The password is your Stagweb email password. This login will work as soon as the class begins.
If you are a Windows user, you can get iTunes free at:
http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/ (scroll to the Windows links)
Schedule
Week of:
September 1 - Introduction, Theory of Comedy, The Taming of the Shrew
Read the Works of Shakespeare at MIT
The Internet Shakespeare Editions
September 8 - The Taming of the Shrew
Read: the play and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Mack, Greer, Bamber, and Slights
CLICK to go to the Class on the play.
"Personations: The Taming of the Shrew..."
"'Caparisoned like the horse': Tongue and Tail in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew"
Read: the play and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Rossiter, Ornstein, and Kahn
CLICK to go to the class on the play.
Richard III Society Online Library
Read: the play and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Myers, Kermode,` Bamber, and Slights
CLICK to go to the class on the play.
A Study Guide to A Midsummer Night's Dream
September 29 - Henry
IV, Part One
Read: the play and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Ornstein, Kahn, and Goldman
CLICK to go to the class on the play.
October 6 - film and studio production excerpts from 2 Henry IV and Henry V
"Hal Imitates the Sun" (Part Two)
"Holy War in Henry Fifth" (Henry V)
EXAM
October 13 - Twelfth
Night
(no class Monday; Monday schedule meets on Tuesday)
Read: the play and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Bamber, Kimbrough, and Howard
Romantic comedy, with an inlay of literary romance
CLICK to go to the class on the play."Trevor Nunn's Twelfth Night": Contemporary Film and Classic British Theatre"
"The BBC Twelfth Night: Relationships Revealed"
"...the Nature of Shakespearian Comedy"
PAPER TOPICS DUE
October 20 - Hamlet
Read: the play and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Mack, Ornstein, Heilbrun, and Belsey
CLICK to go to the class on the play.
"Shakespeare and the Public Discourse of Sovereignty: 'Reason of State' in Hamlet"
"Who Knows Who Knows Who’s There? An Epistemology of Hamlet (Or, What Happens in the Mousetrap)"
October 27- Hamlet
"Multiplicity of Meaning in the Last Moments of Hamlet"
Hamlet on the Ramparts (see "Films")
"'Too Much in the Black Sun': Hamlet's First Soliloquy, A Kristevan View
"An English Renaissance Understanding of the Word 'Tragedy'"
November 3 - Othello
Read: the Play and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Mack and Sprengnether
CLICK to go to the class on the play.
"'That Which Heaven Hath Forbid the Ottomites':The Turks in Shakespeare's Othello"
Shakespeare on Screen: Threshold Aesthetics in Oliver Parker's Othello
(access to video clips)
November 10 - King Lear
Read: the Play and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Mack, Bamber, and Brown
CLICK to go to the class on the play.
"King Lear in its Own Time: The Difference That Death Makes"
"King Lear Beyond Reason: Love and Justice in the Family"
"Performing the Bodies of King Lear"
(see "Introductory notes on Tragedy" links)
Read: the Play and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Tillyard, Knight, Kahn, and Neely
Dante's definition of allegory
CLICK to go to the class on the play."Teaching the Late Plays as Family Romance"
THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY
December 1- The Tempest
Read: the play and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Leininger and Greenblatt
Dante's definition of allegory
CLICK to go to the class on the play.
"Natural and Colonial Education in Shakespeare's The Tempest
December 8- Conclusion
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