ENGL 472: Syllabus
472 Description | 472 Requirements | Critical Readings
1/10 Introduction: Goals, Expectations, Requirements
Assignment for
next class is to visit our course WebCT application, download and print out all
course materials and bring them to the next class. I suggest you do this in McConnell Library at
one of the computers that has access to the Web and is connected to a printer. The reading assignment is David Underdown's
"The Taming of a Scold" (in Readings in
Shakespearean Criticism available through WebCT) and “Life in Shakespeare’s
"The
Elizabethan World Picture" (E.M. W. Tillyard’s Version of History) vs New
Historicist View of Early Modern England
1/12 New
Historicism, Early Modern England, and Shakespeare's plays
Assigned
Focus Question #1 Due (2
questions in all—one for the article and one for Bevington’s chapter).
Follow
link for description of assignment.
Discussion
of the historical and discursive contexts that shaped Shakespeare's texts
Viewing
of Taming of the Shrew excerpts (CBC
Production)
1/17 Shakespeare's Earlier Comedy: The
Taming of the Shrew (c. 1590-1593)
“What you will have it
named, even that it is”: Or: Lampooning how it’s “supposed” to be
The
Taming of the Shrew: Act 1 and 2; AND Marjorie Garber, “The Taming
of the Shrew” (Shakespeare After All
57-72)
Focus Question #2 Due (3
questions due in all—2 on the play and one on Garber’s chapter)
Viewing
of clips from the Burton/Taylor interpretation of Shrew.
1/19 The
Taming of the Shrew: Acts 3 and 4; AND
Bevington’s introduction to the play (Necessary
Shakespeare 2-4)
Focus Question #3 Due (3 questions in all—2 on the
play and one on the Bevington introduction)
Viewing
of clips from the BBC production of Shrew.
1/24 The Taming of the Shrew: Act 5 and Karen Newman, “Renaissance Family
Politics and The Taming of the Shrew” (in Readings
in Shakespearean Criticism available
through WebCT; follow link).
Focus Question #4 Due
(2 questions)
Viewing of clips from
BBC production of Shrew
1/26 Shakespeare's
“Festive Comedy” As Disruptions Of Gender And Power Relations: Midsummer Night's Dream (1594-5)
"This
is to make an ass of me . . . " Or: Disrupting natural, sexual, and political
hierarchies
A
Midsummer Night's Dream: Acts 1
and 2; AND Bevington’s introduction to the play (Necessary Shakespeare 42-46)
Focus Question #5
Due (3 questions)
1/31 MSND : Acts 3 and 4; AND Marjorie Garber, “A
Midsummer Night’s Dream” (Shakespeare
After All 213-37)
Focus Question #6 Due (3 questions)
2/2 MSND
Act 5; AND Montrose, "’Shaping Fantasies’:
Figurations of Gender and Power in Elizabethan Culture" (in Readings in Shakespearean Criticism available through WebCT).
Focus Question #7 Due (2 questions—one on the play and one on
the Montrose article)
2/7 First
Quarter Exam During Class Time
2/9 Shakespeare’s Early “Lyric” Tragedy:
Romeo and Juliet (1594-6)
“Where
civil blood makes civil hands unclean”: Or: Interrogating patriarchal masculinity and
violence
Romeo and Juliet: Acts 1 and 2
Focus Question #8 Due (2 questions)
Viewing of clips
from Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet
2/14 Romeo and Juliet: Acts 3-5;
AND Bevington’s introduction (Necessary
Shakespeare 460-63).
Focus Question #9 Due (2 questions—one
on the play and one on Bevington’s introduction)
Viewing of clips from Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet
2/16 “Festive Comedy” Revisited: Clothes Make the Man? Or: what happens when a boy actor plays a
female character (in love with a man but) disguised as a male with whom another
female character (played by a boy actor) falls in love?
As You Like It (1598-1600)
AYLI: Acts 1 and 2; AND Bevington’s Introduction
Focus Question #10 Due (2
questions—one on the play and one on Bevington’s introduction)
Viewing of
excerpts from BBC interpretation of AYLI
2/21 AYLI:
Acts 3 and 4; AND Garber, “As You
Like It” (Shakespeare After All
437-65)
Focus Question #11
Due (2 questions—one on the play and one on Garber’s chapter)
2/23 AYLI: Act 5
and Belsey, "Disrupting
Sexual Difference: Meaning and Gender in
the Comedies" (in
Readings in Shakespearean Criticism” available
through
Focus Question #12 Due (2 questions—one on the play and one on the Belsey
article)
2/28 The History Play: Legitimizing or Interrogating the Tudor Myth? Henry V (1599)
“Is not pig great?”; OR, Language, Ideology, and Power
Henry V: Act 1; AND Garber, “Henry V” (Shakespeare After All 391-409)
Focus Question #13
Due (2 questions—one on the play and one on Garber’s chapter)
3/2 Henry V: Acts 2 and 3; AND
Bevington’s introduction (Necessary
Shakespeare 412-16)
Focus Question #14 Due (2 questions—one on the play
and one on Bevington’s introduction)
3/7 Henry V: Act 5; AND Baldo, “Wars
of Memory in Henry V” (in Readings in
Shakespearean Criticism” available through
Focus Question #15 Due (2 questions—one on
the play and one on Baldo’s article)
3/9 Midterm Exam during Class
Spring Break
3/21 "Is
this the promis'd end?" Or: Interrogating Political, Familial, and Sexual
Power Relations: King Lear (c. 1605-06)
King
Lear: Acts 1 and 2; AND Garber, “King Lear” (Shakespeare After All 649-94)
Focus Question #16 Due
(2 questions—one on the play
and one on Garber’s chapter)
Viewing:
excerpts, Olivier's Lear
3/23 King Lear: Acts 3 and 4; AND Rudnytsky, “’The dark and
vicious place’: The Dread of the Vagina in King
Lear” (in
Readings in Shakespearean Criticism” available
through
Focus Question #17 Due (2 questions—one on the play and one on Rudnytsky’s
article)
3/28 King Lear: Act 5;
AND Bevington’s introduction (Necessary
Shakespeare 656-62)
Viewing:
excerpts from Olivier’s Lear
3/30 "Fair is Foul, and Foul is
Fair ..." Or: Language and power unravel: Macbeth (c. 1606-7)
Macbeth: Act 1 and 2; AND Garber, “Macbeth”
(Shakespeare After All 695-724)
Focus Question #19 Due (2 questions—one on the play and one on Garber’s
chapter)
4/4 Macbeth: Act 3 and 4; AND Bevington’s introduction
(Necessary Shakespeare 710-14)
Focus Question #20
Due (2 questions—one on the play
and one on Bevington’s introduction)
4/6 Macbeth: Act 5; AND Biggins, “Sexuality,
Witchcraft, and Violence in Macbeth”
(in Readings in Shakespearean Criticism available through WebCT).
Focus Question #21 Due (2 questions—one on the play and one on
Biggins’ article)
4/11 "An Old Black Ram is
Tupping Your White Ewe":
Or, Gaps in the Discourses of Racial and Sexual Difference: Othello (c. 1603-04)
Othello
: Act 1 and 2; AND Garber,
“Othello” (Shakespeare After All 588-617)
Focus Question #22
Due (2 questions—one on the play
and one on Garber’s chapter)
4/13 Othello: Act 3 and 4
Focus Question #23 Due (2 questions—one on each act)
4/18
Othello: Act 5; AND
EITHER Newman's "'And
4/20 "That Foul Conspiracy of the Beast
Caliban" Or: Gaps in Legitimizing Colonialism: The Tempest (c. 1610-11)
The Tempest: Act 1 AND Bevington’s
introduction
Focus Question #25 Due (2 questions—one on the play and one on Bevington)
4/25 The Tempest: Acts 2 and3 AND Marjorie Garber, “The
Tempest” (Shakespeare After All 852-75)
Focus Question #26
Due (2 questions—one on the play
and one on Garber)
4/27 The Tempest: Acts 4-5
and Barker and Hulme's "Nymphs and Reapers Heavily Vanish: The Discursive Contexts of The Tempest”(in
Readings in Shakespearean Criticism
available through WebCT).
Focus Question #27 Due (2 questions—one on the play and one on
Barker and Hulme’s article)
5/3 Final Exam 11:00 A.M.
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