The
Chandos PortraitThe
Chandos Portrait
Shakespeare II
Dr. Richard Regan
Spring 2003
Office hours: Mon 1:30-3, Wed 1-4, Thurs 1:30-3, and by appointment.
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 two 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.
Final Exam: essays and passages for analysis.
Students with documented learning disabilities, please see me. Alternative methods of testing and evaluation are available.
Shakespeare's Globe Center USA
"The Elizabethan Theatre": a lecture with slides
FESTE: Royal Shakespeare Archives
The McGill Shakespeare Resources Page
Shakespeare in Performance Institute Acting Exercises
Interactive Shakespeare Project
Internet MetaSites for
Shakespeare
Terry Gray's Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet
Was Shakespeare Shakespeare? The Authorship Controversy
The Shakespeare Discussion list Archive
Schedule
Week of:
January 13 - Introduction to Comic Theory
Read the Works of Shakespeare at MIT
January 20 - As You Like It
Read: the play and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Gardner, Erickson, and Howard
"Instruction Versus Deception: from Rosalynde to As You Like It"
"Orlando and the Golden World: the Old World and the New in AYLI"
Read: the play and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Bamber, Kimbrough, and Howard
"Trevor Nunn's Twelfth Night": Contemporary Film and Classic British Theatre"
Read: the poems and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Empson, Smith, and Nowottny
"The amazing web site of Shakespeare's Sonnets"
February 10 - Julius Caesar
Read: the play and articles by Mack and Kahn
PAPER TOPICS
"Caesar"s Reviving Blood: Shakespeare and the Religion of Revolution"
William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (from Perseus at Tufts)
"An English Renaissance Understanding of the Word 'Tragedy'"
EXAM
February 17 - Hamlet
Read: the play and the Signet Introduction
Read: articles by Mack, Ornstein, and Heilbrun
"Multiplicity of Meaning in the Last Moments of Hamlet"
"'Too Much in the Black Sun': Hamlet's First Soliloquy, A Kristevan View"
Read: the play and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Mack and Sprengnether
Shakespeare on Screen: Threshold Aesthetics in Oliver Parker's Othello
(access to video clips)
SPRING HOLIDAYS
March 18 - Measure for Measure
Read: the play and the Signet Introduction, and the article by Poulsen
"Desperate Measures: Politics and the Process of Performance"
"Vincentio's Fraud: Boundary and Chaos, Abstinence and Orgy in Measure for Measure" (click on title)
"The Role of the Clown in Shakespeare's Theatre"
PAPERS DUE
March 24 - King Lear
Read: the play and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Mack, Bamber, and Brown
"King Lear in its Own Time: The Difference That Death Makes"
Joyce Carol Oates, "Is This the Promised End..."
"'Faires and Gods': A Socio-Religious Context for King Lear"
March 31 - King Lear
"King Lear Beyond Reason: Love and Justice in the Family"
A Hypertext Version of King Lear
King Lear with Quarto and Folio Variations, Annotations, and Commentary
(see two articles on tragedy)
EXAM
Read: the play and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Danby, Adelman, and Novy
"Roman Letters and Egyptian Performatives"
A Review of Janet Adelman's "Suffocating Mothers"
April 14 - Macbeth (tentative - we may omit Macbeth because of the unusual calendar)
Read: the play and Signet Introduction, and the articles by McCarthy and Klein
"The Inversion of Gender Roles in Macbeth"
April 21 - The Winter's Tale
Read: the play and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Knight, Neely, and Kahn
April 28 - The Tempest
Read: the play and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Knox, Leininger, and Greenblatt
"Natural and Colonial Education in Shakespeare's The Tempest"
FINAL EXAM: Tuesday, May 6, 9:00 am
