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ENGLISH 463: SHAKESPEARE II
Schedule: Tu, Th 9:30pm - 10:45pm
Location: LA1-302
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 Purpose
Prerequisite: English 363. The aim of this course is to study in greater detail than does English 363: Shakespeare 1 a small selection of Shakespeare's plays. Attention will be paid to problems of textual editing, sources, the social, historical and cultural context, staging and performance, and critical interpretations. You will be encouraged to become familiar with some of the recent Shakespeare criticism, especially new historicist and performance criticism. Emphasis will be placed on the fact that these plays were written to be performed, not read. Where possible different screen versions of the plays will be compared. If convenient the class will visit a live performance of a Shakespeare play.
Expected Outcomes
By the end of the course you should be able to:
- read, watch and analyze a Shakespeare play in depth
- place a given play by Shakespeare in its literary and dramatic context, showing an understanding of how various genres
and individual texts bear directly upon it
- identify, describe, and understand the significance of the major historical, social, and literary/dramatic contexts for
Shakespeare’s works
- read plays as texts that are intended to be realized in productions that involve a range of non-verbal sign systems
- show acquaintance with selected aspects of scholarship pertaining to Shakespeare
- know how to conduct research into the topics of the course and embody it in written assignments
- offer clear arguments in oral and written form drawing on up-to-date scholarship and theory
Required Texts
The following texts have been ordered from the university bookstore:
- Greenblatt, Stephen, et al, eds. The Norton Shakespeare. 4 vols. New York: Norton, 2001.
- Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th ed. New York: MLA, 2003.
- McDonald, Russ. The Bedford Companion to Shakespeare: An Introduction with Documents. 2nd ed. New York:
Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2001.
- The course text is The Norton Shakespeare in four volumes. Should you choose to bring individual play texts to class choose
the latest edition of the Arden Shakespeare.
Course Requirements
REACTION PAPERS. You are required to offer a one-page typed reaction to each new play. You will be asked to read out - or preferably talk about - your reaction to each play to your fellow students and me during the first class that considers it. You are required to leave your typed version with me at the end of that class. Reactions will be graded acceptable (a check), unacceptable (a cross), or exceptional (two checks). Reaction papers will be accepted up to a week late, but recorded as late and treated as if they had had a grade point deducted.
BOOK REPORT. You are expected to select one of the books/texts listed in the syllabus under “BOOK REPORT” and offer the class a succinct summary of its arguments as well as commenting on their effectiveness. Your report should last approximately 15-20 minutes, and your printed report (mainly a summary but also an appraisal of the text) should be 3-4 pages long using MLA style and submitted to me at the end of the class.
MID-TERM EXAM. There will be a pre-released mid-term examination for which you will be allowed to bring into the exam room whatever texts you wish. See Beachboard (Assignments) after February 19 for questions.
RESEARCH PAPER. Suggested topics for your term research paper will be posted on Beachboard by 14 April. You are required to bring to my office during the last three classes of the semester a draft or outline of your final research paper. Your term paper of 10-11 pages must incorporate at least 3 reputable secondary sources (from books, articles or reliable Web pages) as well as a list of works cited, using MLA style.
Grade Point Computation
See the University Catalog: Regulations – Grades and Grading Procedures for definitions of grades A-F.
- Attendance and participation: 15%
- Reaction papers: 15%
- Book Report: 10%
- Mid-term exam: 25%
- Drafts and outlines for term paper: 5%
- Term research paper: 30%
Syllabus
- T Jan 27 Introduction. Shakespeare and the European Renaissance.
- Th Jan 29 Medieval drama.
- T Feb 03 Richard II: power and divine right (1.1; 1.3).
- Th Feb 05 Richard II: allegory (3.4; 4.1; 5.1).
- BOOK REPORT: F.W. Brownlow, “Richard II and the Testing of Legitimacy,” in
Critical Essays on Shakespeare’s Richard II, ed. Kirby Farrell. G. K. Hall, 1999.
- T Feb 10 Richard II: tragedy (5.3; 5.5).
- BOOK REPORT: Essays by Ruth Nevo and Northrop Frye in William Shakespeare’s Richard II, ed.
Harold Bloom. Chelsea House, 1988.
- Th Feb 12 Richard II: overview and production history.
- BOOK REPORT: Peter Saccio, Shakespeare’s English Kings: History, Chronicle and Drama.
Oxford UP, 2000 (pp. 3-36).
- BOOK REPORT: Margaret Shewring, Richard II. Shakespeare in Performance. Manchester UP, 1998
(selected sections).
- T Feb 17 As You Like It: Act 1: court corruption.
- BOOK REPORT: Andrew Barnaby, “The Social Conscious of Shakespeare’s As You Like It.”
Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 36.2 (1996): 373-95.
- Th Feb 19 As You Like It: Rosalind and cross-dressing
- BOOK REPORT: Jean Howard, The Stage and Social Struggle in Early Modern England. Routledge,
1993 (chapter 5).
- T Feb 24 As You Like It: the forest and conventions of pastoral.
- BOOK REPORT: Rosalie Colie, “Perspectives on Pastoral,” in William Shakespeare’s As You Like It.
Ed. Harold Bloom. Chelsea House, 1988.
- Th Feb 26 As You Like It: Act 5: the resolution of the play.
- BOOK REPORT: Catherine Belsey, Shakespeare and the Loss of Eden, Rutgers UP, 1999
- T Mar 03 Theatres and players in Shakespearean England.
- BOOK REPORT: Russ McDonald, The Bedford Companion to Shakespeare. Bedford, 2001
(chapter 2: “Performances, Playhouses, and Players”).
- Th Mar 05 MID-TERM EXAM
- T Mar 10 The origins of English tragedy.
King Lear: Sources and opening scene (1.1).
- BOOK REPORT: G.K.Hunter, “Shakespeare and the Traditions of Tragedy,” in
The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare Studies, ed. Stanley Wells,.Cambridge UP, 1986;
Tom McAlindon, “What is Shakespearean Tragedy?” in The Cambridge Companion to Shakespearean Tragedy, ed. Claire McEachern. Cambridge UP, 2002.
- BOOK REPORT: Stanley Cavell, Disowning Knowledge in Six Plays of Shakespeare.
Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1987 (chapter 2 “The Avoidance of Love: A Reading of King Lear.”).
- Th Mar 12 King Lear: Lear and his Fool
- BOOK REPORT: Sandra J. Pyle, Mirth and Morality of Shakespeare’s Fools. Edwin Mellen P, 1997
(Intro. and chapter on Lear’s Fool).
- T Mar 17 King Lear: The Gloucester sub-plot
- BOOK REPORT: Janet Adelman, Suffocating Mothers. Routledge, 1992
(chapter 5: “Suffocating Mothers in King Lear”).
- Th Mar 19 King Lear: The storm and Lear’s madness
- BOOK REPORT: Stephen Greenblatt, Shakespearean Negotiations. U of California P, 1988
(“Shakespeare and the Exorcists.”).
- T Mar 24 King Lear: The finale and comparative screen productions.
- BOOK REPORT: Jonathan Dollimore, Radical Tragedy. Duke UP, 1993
(chapter 12: “King Lear and Essentialist Humanism”).
- Th Mar 26 Sonnets 18, 73, 116, and 138.
- Mar 30-Apr 03 SPRING RECESS
- T Apr 07 NO CLASS. (Read and/or view Antony and Cleopatra).
- Th Apr 09 Antony and Cleopatra: Rome and Egypt.
- BOOK REPORT: Catherine Belsey, “Cleopatra’s Seduction,” in Terence Hawkes, ed,
Alternative Shakespeares, Vol. 2. Routledge, 1996
- T Apr 14 Antony and Cleopatra: Enobarbus
- BOOK REPORT: Coppelia Kahn, Roman Shakespeare. Routledge, 1997 (chapter 5).
- Th Apr 16 Antony and Cleopatra:
- BOOK REPORT: Sara Munson Deats, ed., Antony and Cleopatra: New Critical
Essays, Routledge, 2004 (chapters 3 and 4).
- T Apr 21 Antony and Cleopatra: act 5: Cleopatra as other.
- BOOK REPORT: John Drakakis, ed., Antony and Cleopatra. New Casebooks. Palgrave, 1994
(essays by Dollimore and Loomba).
- Th Apr 23 A Winter’s Tale: 1.2.
- BOOK REPORT: Anne Barton, “Leontes and the Spider,” in Essays Mainly Shakespearean.
Cambridge UP, 1994 (pp. 161-81).
- T Apr 28 A Winter’s Tale: 3.2.
- BOOK REPORT: Catherine Belsey, Shakespeare and the Loss of Eden. Rutgers UP, 1999 (chapter 4).
- Th Apr 30 A Winter’s Tale: 4.4.
- BOOK REPORT: James A. Knapp, “Visual and Ethical Truth in The Winter’s Tale.”
Shakespeare Quarterly 55.3 (2004): 253-78.
- T May 05 A Winter’s Tale: act 5.
- Th May 07 Individual appointments with outlines in my office (MHB-506)
- T May 12 Individual appointments with outlines in my office (MHB-506)
- Th May 14 Individual appointments with outlines in my office (MHB-506)
- T May 18 Leave your final paper in my mailbox in MHB-413 by 12 noon.
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Useful Websites
Plagiarism
If you use the ideas or words of another writer as if they were your own without giving credit to the other writer you are guilty of plagiarism. Please consult the Schedule of Classes (“Cheating and Plagiarism”) for details of the University’s policy regarding plagiarism. If you are found to have plagiarized another writer’s words you will receive an F for the paper the first time and an F for the course on a repeat occasion.
Campus Technology Help Desk
The CSULB Technology Help Desk in the Horn Center Lobby is available for students. The Help Desk can assist you on a wide range of computer issues including: Operating Systems, CSULB Email Accounts, My CSULB, Beachboard, Remote Connection to CSULB, Microsoft Desktop Applications, Anti-Virus, Internet and Web related topics,. Contact the Help Desk by phone at 562-985-4505, email to helpdesk@csulb.edu or visit them on the web at www.helpdesk.csulb.edu.
Withdrawal Policy
Students who choose not to complete this course should withdraw officially as soon as possible and inform me. Withdrawals during the first two weeks do not appear on official records. Withdrawals between the third and twelfth weeks must be for “serious and compelling reasons” and require signed approval by me and the department chair. Withdrawals during the final three weeks of instruction are generally permitted only for accident or serious illness. They require signatures from me, the chair, and the Dean of the College, who may require withdrawal from all classes in which the student is enrolled.
Makeup and Attendance Policy
For a definition of “excused absences” see the University Catalog: Regulations – Class Attendance. Excused absences require you to inform me a week in advance of your absence. More than three unexcused absences will result in the lowering of your course grade by a grade point or more depending on the number of such absences. Students who miss exams or fail to meet deadlines for graded papers for what I consider a compelling reason (such as a religious holiday or jury duty) may make up that part of the grade. It is your responsibility to arrange with me an alternative if you miss the deadline for an assignment. If you submit an assignment late without a documented excuse a penalty for lateness will be imposed. A student who misses the final exam or fails to submit a final paper in lieu of a final exam without a documented excuse will probably receive an F or an Incomplete, depending on the circumstances and previous work.
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