The
Chandos PortraitShakespeare II
Dr. Richard Regan
Spring 2004
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.
"The Elizabethan Theatre": a lecture with slides
FESTE:
Royal Shakespeare Archives in PADS Theatre Resources
(click on "Browse")
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 19 - Introduction to Comic Theory
Read the Works of Shakespeare at MIT
January 26 - 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"
February 2 - Twelfth Night
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"
February 9 - Sonnets
Read: the poems and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Empson, Smith, and Nowottny
"The amazing web site of Shakespeare's Sonnets"
February 16 - 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 23 - 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"
March 8 - Othello
Read: the play and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Mack and Sprengnether
The Turk In English Renaissance Literature
Shakespeare on Screen: Threshold Aesthetics in Oliver Parker's Othello
(access to video clips)
SPRING HOLIDAYS
March 22 - 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 29 - 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"
April 5 - 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
April 12 - Antony and Cleopatra
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 19 - The Winter's Tale
Read: the play and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Knight, Neely, and Kahn
April 26 - 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: Thursday, May 13, 9:00 am
