Spring 2008 Tu/Th 3:30-5:15
Location: ED2-174
Office: MHB-506 (phone: 985 4247). Office hours: Tu/Th 2:20-3:20 pm.
Email: bhfinney@csulb.edu Web site: http://www.csulb.edu/~bhfinney
Purpose
This seminar focuses on a number of Shakespeare’s plays studied in their dramatic and theatrical context. Each play by Shakespeare will be looked at as a contribution to an existing dramatic genre and as in part a response to plays by contemporaries. Plays will be studied primarily as texts written for production, involving comparisons between past productions and, where available, different screen versions of the plays. This will inevitably privilege performance criticism, but not the exclusion of other theories, especially new historicism and cultural materialism. If appropriate, a visit to a current production of one of the plays in the course will be arranged.
Expected Outcomes
By the end of the course you should be able to:
* identify, describe, and understand the significance of the major historical, social, and literary/dramatic contexts for Shakespeare’s works
* identify the changing stage conditions of and contemporary responses to early modern theater and drama and relate these to selected works by Shakespeare
* explain and interpret Shakespeare’s use of and departures from generic conventions exemplified in contemporary playwrights’ works
* understand and employ relevant dramatic theories invoked in the interpretation of Shakespeare’s and his contemporaries’ plays
* show acquaintance with selected aspects of scholarship pertaining to Shakespeare, dramatists who were contemporary to him, and Elizabethan/Jacobean England
* use reinterpretations of Shakespeare’s work in performance at different times and/or in different countries for interpretative purposes
* know how to conduct research into the topics of the course
* offer clear arguments in oral and written form drawing on up-to-date scholarship and theory
Required Texts
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th ed. New York: MLA, 2003.
Jonson, Ben. Volpone. Ed. Brian Parker and David Bevington. Revels Student Editions. Manchester, UK: Manchester UP, 1999.
Marlowe, Christopher. Edward the Second. Ed. Charles R. Forker. Revels Plays. Manchester, UK: Manchester UP, 1994.
Maus, Katherine E., ed. Four Revenge Tragedies: The Spanish Tragedy; The Revenger’s Tragedy . . . New York, Oxford UP, 2000.
Plautus, T. Macchias. Menaechmi, or The Twin Brothers. Trans. Henry T. Riley. Available online at: <http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Pl.+ Men.+1>.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. Thyestes. Trans. Frank Justus Miller. Available online at: <http://www.theoi.com/Text/SenecaThyestes.html>.
Shakespeare, William. The Comedy of Errors. Ed. R. A. Foakes. 2nd ed. Arden Shakespeare. London: Thomson Learning, 1968.
---. Hamlet. Ed. Ann Thompson and Neil Taylor. 3rd ed. Arden Shakespeare. London: Thomson Learning, 2006
---. King Richard II. Ed. Charles R. Forker. 3rd ed. Arden Shakespeare. London: Thomson Learning, 2002.
---. Much Ado About Nothing. Ed. Claire McEachern. 3rd ed. Arden Shakespeare. London: Thomson Learning, 2005
---. Titus Andronicus. Ed. Jonathan Bate. 3rd ed. Arden Shakespeare. London: Thomson Learning, 1995.
---. The Winter’s Tale. Ed. J. H. P. Pafford. 2nd ed. Arden Shakespeare. London: Thomson Learning, 1995.
A small number of the following texts have been ordered from the university bookstore:
Bulman, James. Shakespeare, Theory and Performance. Routledge, 1995.
Dollimore, Jonathan, and Alan Sinfield, eds. Political Shakespeare: New Essays in Cultural Materialism. 2nd ed. Cornell UP, 1994.
Greenblatt, Stephen. Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2005.
Course Requirements
1. ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION. Regular attendance and participation in seminar discussions is important and counts towards your grade. If you are unavoidably absent please email me in advance. More than three unexcused absences will lower your course grade by a grade point. More than six unexcused absences could result in a course grade of F. See Makeup and Attendance Policy below. You are expected to read each text by the first class for which it is scheduled.
2. ORAL PRESENTATION. You are required to undertake one oral presentation chosen from those listed in the syllabus. Your oral presentation to the class should last about thirty minutes including questions and answers and should be accompanied by a two-page typed summary photocopied for everyone else in the class. You will be graded for this element on the basis of a 5-6 page paper typed in MLA style that you will give me a week after the presentation. This should be an argued paper citing sources concerning a major aspect of the topic of the oral presentation. Late papers will lose a grade point for each week late.
3. BOOK REPORT. You are expected to select one of the books 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 typed/printed report (mainly a summary but also an appraisal of it) should be 2-4 pages long and submitted to me at the end of the class.
4. FIRST SHORT PAPER. Using two reputable sources, you are required to write a short paper of 5-6 pages in MLA style analyzing the different ways in which Marlowe and Shakespeare stage the operation of political power in Edward II and Richard II.
5. RESEARCH PAPER. In consultation with me you will need to choose a suitable topic related to the syllabus (other than one already covered in your first short and oral papers) for your term research paper by no later than 8 April (and earlier if possible). You will need to clear the topic with me in advance. Your term paper of 12-13 pages must incorporate secondary sources (from books, articles or reliable Web pages) as well as a list of works cited, using MLA style. During the last two weeks you will be asked to present to the seminar group an outline of your proposed final paper. You will need to distribute a two-page summary of it to all members of the seminar. The intention is for everyone else to help you improve your paper by suggestions and constructive criticism.
Grade Point Computation
See the University Catalog: Regulations – Grades and Grading Procedures for definitions of grades A-F.
Attendance and participation: 10%.
Oral presentation paper: 25%.
Book Report: 15%.
First short paper: 20%
Term research paper: 30%.
Once a paper has been submitted and graded, no re-write is allowed.
Syllabus
T Jan 29 Introduction. The Renaissance in Europe and England. Humanism.
Th Jan 31` Morality plays.
T Feb 5 Edward II (Marlowe)
ORAL: The use of sources for analyzing Renaissance history plays: Marlowe’s use of Holinshed’s Chronicles of 1587 in Edward II.
BOOK REPORT: Richard Dutton and Jean E. Howard, eds, A Companion to Shakespeare’s Works. Vol. II: The Histories, Blackwell, 2003 (chapters 1 and 2).
Th Feb 7 Edward II (Marlowe).
ORAL: Derek Jarman’s film interpretation of Edward II.
BOOK REPORT: Patrick Ryan, “Marlowe’s Edward II and the Medieval Passion Play.” Comparative Drama 32.4 (1998-99): 465-95.
T Feb 12 Richard II (Shakespeare).
ORAL: Tudor chroniclers’ pro-and anti-Lancastrian interpretations of Richard II’s reign.
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.
Th Feb 14 Richard II (Shakespeare).
ORAL: Complementary theories of new historicism and cultural materialism and their use in interpreting Richard II.
BOOK REPORT: Margaret Shewring, Richard II. Shakespeare in Performance. Manchester UP, 1998.
T Feb 19 Thyestes (Seneca).
ORAL: From Seneca to Gorboduc: the origins of English tragedy (cf. Gordon Braden’s Renaissance Tragedy and the Senecan Tradition, 1985).
Th Feb 21 English Renaissance drama and theatre – authorship, collaboration, social location of theatres, players and playhouses.
ORAL: Puritan attacks on the theater and its defenders.
BOOK REPORT: Charles A. Hallett and Elaine S. Hallett, The Revenger’s Madness: A Study of Revenge Tragedy Motifs, U of Nebraska P, 1981 (Introduction and chapters 1-5).
T Feb 26 The Spanish Tragedy (Kyd). FIRST SHORT PAPER DUE .
ORAL: Kyd’s adaptation of the Senecan model.
BOOK REPORT: Catherine Belsey, The Subject of Tragedy: Identity and Difference in Renaissance Drama. Methuen, 1985.
Th Feb 28 The Spanish Tragedy (Kyd)
ORAL: Machiavelli’s The Prince, Gentillet’s Contre-Machiavel, and the Machiavellian stage villain of Elizabethan drama.
BOOK REPORT: William Schoenbaum, William Shakespeare: A Compact Documentary Life. Oxford UP, 1987.
T^ Mar 4 Titus Andronicus (Shakespeare)
ORAL: Ovid’s Metamorphoses and its appropriation by Shakespeare and his contemporaries.
BOOK REPORT: Deborah Willis, “’The Gnawing Vulture’: Revenge, Trauma Theory and Titus Andronicus.” Shakespeare Quarterly 53.1 (2002): 21-52.
Th Mar 6 Titus Andronicus (Shakespeare)
ORAL: Aaron and the treatment of race in Titus Andronicus.
BOOK REPORT: Coppelia Kahn, Roman Shakespeare. Routledge, 1997 (chapter 3).
T Mar 11 Hamlet (Shakespeare)
ORAL: Attitudes towards ghosts in the England of Elizabeth and James I.
BOOK REPORT: Stephen Greenblatt, Hamlet in Purgatory. Princeton UP, 2002.
Th Mar 13 Hamlet (Shakespeare)
ORAL: Ideas about melancholy and madness in Shakespeare’s day.
BOOK REPORT: Catherine Belsey, Shakespeare and the Loss of Eden. Palgrave, 2001 (intro and chap: “Sibling Rivalry: Hamlet and the First Murder”).
T Mar 18 The Revenger’s Tragedy (Middleton/Tourneur).
ORAL: Conventions and abuses in the court of King James I.
BOOK REPORT: Jonathan Dollimore, Radical Tragedy. 2nd ed. Duke UP, 1993 (Introduction and chapters 3, 4, 5, and 9).
Th Mar 20 The Revenger’s Tragedy (Middleton/Tourneur).
BOOK REPORT: J.W. Lever, “Tragedy and State,” and K.S. Coddon, “‘For Show or Useless Property’: Necrophilia and The Revenger’s Tragedy,” in Revenge Tragedy, ed. Stevie Simkin. Palgrave, 2001.
T Mar 25 Menaechmi (Plautus).
ORAL: The interludes of John Heywood and his circle.
BOOK REPORT: Erich Segal, Roman Laughter: The Comedy of Plautus, Oxford UP, 1987 (Introduction and chapters I and II).
Th Mar 27 NO CLASS. Read and/or view The Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare).
T, Th Apr 1, 3 SPRING RECESS
T Apr 8 The Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare).
ORAL: The plays of the University Wits (Greene, Peele, Lyly, Nashe, Lodge).
BOOK REPORT: Shankar Raman, “Marking Time: Memory and Market in The Comedy of Errors.” Shakespeare Quarterly 56.2 (2005): 176-205.
Th Apr 10 The Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare).
ORAL: The Italian commedia dell’arte and its appropriation by English Renaissance dramatists.
BOOK REPORT: Patricia Parker, Shakespeare from the Margins. U of Chicago P, 1996 (chapter 2).
T Apr 15 Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare). Combining romance and comedy.
ORAL: Shakespeare’s use of music, dance and song. (cf. David Lindley, Shakespeare and Music. Arden, 2005).
BOOK REPORT: Jean Howard, The Stage and Social Struggle in Early Modern England. Routledge, 1993 (chapters 1-3).
Th Apr 17 Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare). Gendering the subject.
ORAL: Shakespeare’s construction of the female subject in his comedies.
BOOK REPORT: David Scott Kastan and Peter Stallybrass, eds, Staging the Renaissance. Routledge, 1991 (chapters 6 and 7).
T Apr 22 Volpone (Jonson).
ORAL: The rise of satire in the London theatre after the censorship of printed satires and epigrams in 1599.
BOOK REPORT: Mathew R. Martin, Between Theater and Philosophy: Skepticism in the Major City Comedies of Ben Jonson and Thomas Middleton. U of Delaware P, 2001.
Th Apr 24 Volpone (Jonson).
BOOK REPORT: James Hirsh, “Cynicism and the Futility of Art in Volpone,” and Aleander Leggatt, “Volpone: The Double Plot Revisited,” in New Perspectives on Ben Jonson. Associated UP, 1997.
T Apr 29 The Winter’s Tale (Shakespeare).
ORAL: Shakespeare’s appropriation of romance in drama (cf. Charles Frey, Shakespeare’s Vast Romance. U of Missouri P, 1980).
BOOK REPORT: Janet Adelman, Suffocating Mothers. Routledge, 1992 (Introduction and chapter 8).
Th May 1 The Winter’s Tale (Shakespeare).
May 6-15 Student presentations in class of outline final papers
Dec 19 Leave your final paper in my mailbox in MHB-413 by 12 noon.
Useful web sites:
http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/
http://ise.uvic.ca/Foyer/sitemap.html
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Lit/ren.html
http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/renaissanceinfo.htm
http://www.renaissance.dm.net/sites.html
http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=2816
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 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 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.