The
Chandos Portrait What Did Shakespeare Look Like?
Shakespeare I - En 355
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.
"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
CLICK to go to the Class on the play.
Read: the play and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Mack, Greer, Bamber, and Slights
"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 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 Frye and David
CLICK to go to the Class on the play.
The Making of Love's Labour's Lost
Introduction to the second tetralogy: Richard II
Read: the play and the Signet Introduction, and the article by Altick
CLICK to go to the Class on the play."Historicising Shakespeare's Richard II: Current Events, Dating, and the Sabotage of Essex"
October 6 - Richard II
Read: the articles by Traversi, Schoenbaum, and Holderness
PAPER TOPICS DUE
“'I Live With Bread Like You': Forms of Inclusion in Richard II"
Read: the play and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Ornstein and Goldman
CLICK to go to the class on the play.
October 20 - excerpts from Henry IV, Part Two and Henry V (entire)
Read: the play and the Signet Introduction, and the article by Collimore/Sinfield
CLICK to go to the Class on the play.
Romeo and Juliet
Read: the play and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Goldman, Snyder, and Novy
CLICK to go to the Class on the play.
The Film Website for Romeo and Juliet
"Shakespeare and the Tragic Virtue"
PAPERS DUE
November 10 - A Midsummer Night's Dream
Read: the play and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Myers, Bamber, and Slights
CLICK to go to the class on the play.
November 17- A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Web and MOO
A Hypertext Version of A Midsummer Night's Dream
November 24 - The
Merchant of Venice
Read: the play and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Bamber and Smallwood
CLICK to go to the Class on the play.
Shakespeare and Anti-Semitism: The Question of Shylock
"A Second Daniel: The Jew and the 'True Jew' in The Merchant of Venice"
"Law and Love in The Merchant of Venice"
"Contract in The Merchant of Venice" (Project Muse access)
Excerpt from Sir Thomas More, II, ii
Articles and reviews pertinent to the Radford/Pacino film
The Merchant of Venice -Interview with director and screenwriter Michael Radford
Shylock
on Appeal
"Shylock’s
isolation as character mirrors Shakespeare’s isolation as author"
"Sanitizing
Merchant: Pacino Plays Shylock Like a Grouchy Tevya"
THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY
December 1 - Much Ado About Nothing
Read: the play and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Stauffer and Neely
CLICK to go to the Class on the play.
"The Role of the Clown in Shakespeare's Theater"
December 8 - Conclusion
