The course objective is to engage students in a concentrated study of selected plays by Shakespeare from the perspective of culture, society and theatrical conventions of late Elizabethan and Jacobean London. Texts will be examined in the light of different critical approaches by employing a variety of discourses on several topics.
Prerequisite(s)
None
Corequisite(s)
None
Special Requisite(s)
None
Instructor(s)
Assoc. Prof. Gillian Alban
Course Assistant(s)
--
Schedule
Tuesday 12-15
Office Hour(s)
Monday 12-13
Teaching Methods and Techniques
Formal lectures, discussions and presentations.
Students will choose a play in the initial session on which to write their seminar paper, initially shared with the class as a draft paper within the context of the relevant play discussion, to be developed into a well-researched written project of 4,500-5,000 words by the end of term.
Students will also make one in-depth power point presentation, analysing one of the academic papers as listed below, on a separate, ie. a different play, also to be determined in the introductory session.
Principle Sources
Richard III (1591)
Merchant of Venice (1596)
Othello (1604)
King Lear (1605)
Antony and Cleopatra (1607)
Other Sources
The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1974. Greenblatt, Stephen. Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare. Pimlico, 2005.
Greenblatt, Stephen. Tyrant: Shakespeare on Power. London: Vintage, 2018.
Bloom, Harold. The Invention of the Human. New York: Riverhead Books, 1998.
Garber, Marjorie. Shakespeare's Ghost Writers: Literature as Uncanny Causality. Methuen, 1987.
Cavell, Stanley. Disowning Knowledge In Seven Plays of Shakespeare. Cambridge University Press, 1987.
Jan Kott. Shakespeare our Contemporary. tr. Boleslaw Taborski. W.W. Norton Company, 1964.
Spurgeon, Caroline. Shakespeare's Imagery and What it Tells Us. Cambridge University Press, 1935.
Shapiro, James. A Year In The Life of Shakespeare: 1599. Faber and Faber, 2005.
Bulman, James C. Ed. Shakespeare, Theory and Performance. Routledge, 1996.
Wood, Michael. In Search of Shakespeare. BBC Books, 2003.
Northrop Frye. “The Argument of Comedy”. Essays in ShakespeareanCriticism. Ed. James E. Calderwood, Prentice-Hall, 1970.
Spivack, Bernard. Shakespeare and the Allegory of Evil. 1958
Styan J.L. “Staging and Acting Conventions”. Essays in Shakespearean Criticism. Ed. James E. Calderwood, Prentice-Hall, 1970.
A.M. Nagler, Shakespeare’s Stage. New Haven: Yale University, 1958.
Course Schedules
Week
Contents
Learning Methods
1. Week
Students choose a play on which to write seminar paper, initially shared with the class as a draft paper within the relevant play discussion, to be developed into a well-researched written project by the end of term.
Students also choose one power point presentation, analysing one of the academic papers as listed below, on a separate play, also to be determined in the introductory session.
Start discussion of Richard III
Lectures, discussions, presentations, screenings and term paper
2. Week
Richard III: Jan Kott, “The Kings” in Shakespeare our Contemporary, W.W. Norton & Company, 1964, 4-55; Ian Frederick Moulton, “A Monster Great Deformed: The Unruly Masculinity of Richard III,” Shakespeare Quarterly, 47/ 3 (Autumn 1996), 251-268
Lectures, discussions, presentations
3. Week
Seminar papers on Richard III
Discuss The Merchant of Venice
Lectures, discussions, presentations and seminar papers
4. Week
The Merchant of Venice: Natasha Korda, “Dame Usury: Gender, Credit and (Ac)counting in the Sonnets and The Merchant of Venice,” Shakespeare Quarterly, 60/2 (Summer 2009), 129-153
Aaron Kitch, “Shylock’s Sacred Nation,” Shakespeare Quarterly, 59/2 (Summer 2008), 131-155-
Lectures, discussions, presentations
5. Week
Suzanne Penuel, “Castrating the Creditor in The Merchant of Venice,” SEL: Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, 44:2 (Spring 2004), 255-275
Stephen Greenblatt, “Laughter at the Scaffold” in Will in the World, 2004, 256-87
Seminar papers on The Merchant of Venice
Lectures, discussions, presentations
6. Week
Complete the Seminar papers on The Merchant of Venice and start discussing Othello
Lectures, discussions, presentations and seminar papers
7. Week
Othello: Janet Adelman, “Iago’s Alter Ego: Race as Projection in Othello,” Shakespeare Quarterly, 48/ 2 (Summer 1997), 125-144-
Michal Filipczuk, “Shakespeare’s Scepticism: Stanley Cavell’s Interpretation of Scepticism in Shakespeare,” Problems of Literary Genres, 65/1 (2018), 25-36-
Lectures, discussions, presentations
8. Week
Daniel Vitkus, "Turning Turk in Othello: The Conversion and Damnation of the Moor" Shakespeare Quarterly 48/2 (Summer 1997), 145-176
Jonathan Bate: “Othello and the Other: Turning Turk: The Subtleties of Shakespeare’s treatment of Islam”TLS,2001-
Seminar papers on Othello
Lectures, discussions, presentations, screenings and seminar papers
9. Week
Midterm Written Exam on Richard III, The Merchant of Venice, Othello and King Lear
Written Exam
10. Week
King Lear: Derek Cohen, “The Malignant Scapegoats of King Lear,” SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 49/2 (Spring 2009), 371-89-
Peter L. Rudnytsky, “‘The Darke and Vicious Place: ’The Dread of the Vagina in King Lear,” Modern Philology, 96/3 (Feb. 1999), 291-311-
Lectures, discussions, presentations
11. Week
Lindsey Row-Heyveld, “Known and Feeling Sorrows: Disabled Sorrows and King Lear,” Early Theatre, 22/2 (2019), 157-170-
Susan Snyder, “King Lear and the Psychology of Dying,” Shakespeare Quarterly 33/4 (Winter 1982),449-460-
Seminar papers on King Lear
Lectures, discussions, presentations and seminar papers
12. Week
Antony and Cleopatra:
Phyllis Rackin: “Shakespeare’s Boy Cleopatra, the Decorum of Nature, and the Golden World of Poetry,” MLA (1972), 201-212-
L. T. Fitz: “Egyptian Queens and Male Reviewers: Sexist Attitudes in Antony and Cleopatra Criticism,” Shakespeare Quarterly, 28/3 (Summer 1977), 297-316-
Lectures, discussions, presentations, screenings and term paper
13. Week
Alban, Gillian M.E. “Antony and Cleopatra: Gorgon or Mars: Whore or Goddess,” Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 14 (2014), 93-99
Seminar papers on Antony and Cleopatra
Lectures, discussions, presentations and seminar papers
14. Week
Revised and developed seminar papers to be discussed, focusing on thesis statement and introduction
15. Week
Final Exams Week: submission of developed and revised seminar paper
16. Week
17. Week
Assessments
Evaluation tools
Quantity
Weight(%)
Midterm(s)
1
30
Homework / Term Projects / Presentations
3
30
Program Outcomes
PO-1
Demonstrate in-depth knowledge of literary texts, authors, genres and movements.
PO-2
Display a thorough understanding of literary research methodology and different critical approaches to literature.
PO-3
Analyze texts from different theoretical perspectives.
PO-4
Develop a critical understanding of literature.
PO-5
Know how to conduct independent research in English studies.
PO-6
Articulate and share interpretation of texts and contexts in carefully constructed
arguments.
PO-7
Apply precise critical terminology in the presentation of analysis and research.
PO-8
Engage in scholarly debates about their academic subjects.
PO-9
Critically examine and use the latest research materials in their academic discipline.
PO-10
Identify the ways both explicit and implicit cultural norms and assumptions affect perceptions and judgements.
PO-11
Recognize the interdisciplinary aspects of English Studies and its complex relationship with other disciplines and forms of knowledge.
PO-12
Develop a capacity to pursue academic studies at the doctoral level.
Learning Outcomes
LO-1
1. Show a detailed knowledge about the form of Shakespearean drama and the conventions of Shakespearean theatre.
LO-2
2. Identify and analyze the intellectual, political, cultural and socio-historical contexts from which Shakespeare’s dramatic texts have emerged.
LO-3
3. Analyze Shakespearean texts from different theoretical perspectives.
LO-4
4. Develop a critical understanding of the distinctive characteristics of a Shakespearean comedy and a tragedy.
LO-5
5. Apply precise critical terminology in the analysis of key issues relating to Shakespearean drama.
LO-6
6. Engage in scholarly debates about the relationship between text, performance and society in Shakespeare’s plays.
LO-7
7. Critically examine and use the latest research materials in planning integrating information and preparation of presentations and written work for the course.
