Introduction to Shakespeare

Course Number:

ENG 203

Transcript Title:

Introduction to Shakespeare

Created:

Aug 10, 2022

Updated:

Jul 11, 2023

Total Credits:

4

Lecture Hours:

40

Lecture / Lab Hours:

0

Lab Hours:

0

Satisfies Cultural Literacy requirement:

No

Satisfies General Education requirement:

Yes

Grading Options

A-F, P/NP, Audit

Default Grading Options

A-F

Repeats available for credit:

0

Alignment with Institutional Learning Outcomes

Major

1. Communicate effectively using appropriate reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. (Communication)

Major

2. Creatively solve problems by using relevant methods of research, personal reflection, reasoning, and evaluation of information. (Critical thinking and Problem-Solving)

Not Addressed

3. Extract, interpret, evaluate, communicate, and apply quantitative information and methods to solve problems, evaluate claims, and support decisions in their academic, professional and private lives. (Quantitative Literacy)

Major

4. Use an understanding of cultural differences to constructively address issues that arise in the workplace and community. (Cultural Awareness)

Minor

5. Recognize the consequences of human activity upon our social and natural world. (Community and Environmental Responsibility)

To establish an intentional learning environment, Institutional Learning Outcomes (ILOs) require a clear definition of instructional strategies, evidence of recurrent instruction, and employment of several assessment modes.

Major Designation

1. The outcome is addressed recurrently in the curriculum, regularly enough to establish a thorough understanding.
2. Students can demonstrate and are assessed on a thorough understanding of the outcome.
   • The course includes at least one assignment that can be assessed by applying the appropriate CLO rubric.

Minor Designation

1. The outcome is addressed adequately in the curriculum, establishing fundamental understanding.
2. Students can demonstrate and are assessed on a fundamental understanding of the outcome.
   • The course includes at least one assignment that can be assessed by applying the appropriate CLO rubric.

Suggested Outcome Assessment Strategies

• Regular in-class writings
• Group discussions
• Student generated discussion questions
• Close-reading essays
• Quizzes, mid-term, final exam
• Responses to study questions
• Responses to critical texts and/ or podcasts
• Responses to films and live theater adaptions
• Group and Individual performances of soliloquies, scenes, and/ or sonnets
• Group and Individual projects

Course Activities and Design

The determination of teaching strategies used in the delivery of outcomes is generally left to the discretion of the instructor. Here are some strategies that you might consider when designing your course: lecture, small group/forum discussion, flipped classroom, dyads, oral presentation, role play, simulation scenarios, group projects, service learning projects, hands-on lab, peer review/workshops, cooperative learning (jigsaw, fishbowl), inquiry based instruction, differentiated instruction (learning centers), graphic organizers, etc.

Course Content

Outcome 1: Develop insightful interpretations of a selection of Shakespeare’s works by analyzing literary elements, identifying commonalities, and reading critical perspectives.

• Introduce students to changes in grammar since Shakespeare’s day, and some key items of Shakespearean vocabulary, so that students are better able to understand Shakespeare in the original.
• Guide students’ practice of close reading to accomplish interpretative goals including: understanding a work’s key ideas; identifying how a work’s craft and structure reinforce its themes; recognizing how a work connects to others, and evaluating a work’s quality.
• Present elements of dramatic structure (e.g. Aristotle’s Principles for Tragedy, the “Three Unities,” exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement)
• Teach, as relevant to the studied plays, dramatic sub-genres (e.g. Senecan Tragedy, Revenge Tragedy, Farce, and Romantic Comedy)
• Inform students about elements of play staging (e.g. setting, props, costuming, blocking, pacing, and special effects).
• Explore through close reading, writing and discussion and/ or creative projects the major characteristics of Shakespearean language focusing on rhyme scheme, structure and meter.
• Provide critical approaches as relevant to the studied plays (e.g. psychological (Freudian, Jungian, etc.), economic (Marxist), gender (feminist and queer studies), and historical (New Historicism).
• Explore common themes in Shakespeare’s works which may include (e.g. fate, honor, betrayal, revenge, identity/ mistaken identity, madness, gender, and family)
• Explore major motifs in Shakespeare’s early works (e.g. celestial imagery, animals and nature, tyrants, clothes and disguise, sight and blindness, hell, demons and monsters, blood, sleep/visions, substitutions)

Outcome 2: Critically think about Shakespeare and his contributions to Western literature and culture.

• Familiarize students with William Shakespeare in terms of his biography and education.
• Provide an overview of Shakespeare’s greatest works and their contributions to Western literature.
• Acquaint students with the origins of Shakespearean drama in Greek theater, and the major figures who likely shaped his work.
• Identify how Shakespeare contributed to the English language vocabulary.
• Explore the legacy of dramatic forms of tragedy, history, comedy and romance (e.g. Senecan Tragedy, Revenge Tragedy, Farce, and Romantic Comedy) and how genre shapes a play’s development.
• Discuss how Shakespeare fundamentally changed English drama with innovated language and avant-garde approaches to plot and characterization.
  • Integrated characterization with plot
  • Mixed tragedy and comedy
  • Created new romantic tragedy genre
  • Used soliloquies to create complex characters

Outcome 3: Draw on relevant biographical, social, cultural, historical, and political information to interpret Shakespeare’s purpose, perspective, and use of rhetorical, literary and dramatic techniques.

• Identify key biographical, historical, social, and intellectual issues of the Renaissance, Reformation, and Tudor-Elizabethan England in relation to the plays.
• Analyze the plays by comparing dramatic elements with selected intellectual, historical and/or biographical issues.
• For later plays, apply comparative analysis to show development of dramatic methods.
• Explore relevant critical approaches to interpreting Shakespeare texts including, psychological, economic, gender and historical.

Outcome 4: Engage in close reading, thoughtful discussion and self-reflection about the complex questions Shakespeare’s works present regarding the human experience.

• Assign regular prompts for discussion and/ or writing that explore Shakespeare’s themes regarding the human condition which could include:
  • Different manifestations of love
  • Nature of time and human mortality
  • Implications of Revenge
  • Ideas of Family honor
  • Causes and effects of jealousy 
  • Influences of War
  • Implications of Ambition
  • Kingship
  • The role of fate and freewill
  • The role of justice and law
  • Wealth and corruption
  • Religion and faith
  • Forgiveness and mercy
  • The nature of love and marriage
  • Ideas of gender
  • The role of women
  • Implications of sexuality and unbridled emotion
  • The role of class and social status
  • The relationship between parents and children
  • Appearances versus reality
  • Interrelation responsibility, loyalty and power
  • The nature of suffering
• Provide opportunities for students to contemplate Shakespeare’s relevance to today and to their own experience. Consider the following questions:
  • What is the nature of innocence and what are the implications of being too trusting?
  • What is the role of honor in the human experience?
  • To what extent can humility and discretion save life?
  • Why do humans seek revenge and is it ever justified?
  • What are the relative positions of men and women in the marriage relationship?
  • What is the nature of love and is it always for sale?
  • To what extent can we successfully escape predetermined roles and expectations, including gender roles?
  • Why is it so difficult to make relationships work?
  • Why is there a need for a balance between the rational and irrational, between rules and magic, in the interests of love, harmony and creativity?
  • Why are people and events often not as they seem?
  • Why does creativity rely on the unconscious, the magical, and the mysterious?
  • What are the many forms love takes?
  • Why is young love often impetuous?
  • Is hate irrational? Can it destroy love?
  • Why do young people struggle to make their own choices? How do parents' vested interests contribute to the struggle?
  • Does fate exist?
  • How do chance and choice mix to determine outcomes?
  • What are the implications of pride and vanity?
  • What are implications of passivity?
  • Does divine right exist?
  • How does Shakespeare indicate that time may be conquered in his works? 
  • Discuss the theme of immortality as presented in his works.
  • What role does nature play in Shakespeare’s works? 
  • How do gossip, conversation and overhearing function? 
  • Explore what Shakespeare’s works say about relationships between men and women. 
  • What is the nature of honor?
  • Consider the concept of deception and its many manifestations.
  • What makes a villain?
  • Consider the validity and usefulness of revenge.
  • What are motivations for jealousy?
  • Consider how age, social position and race affect relationships.
  • What makes relationship healthy and unhealthy?
  • What happens when ambition oversteps moral boundaries?
  • When does appropriate use of power become tyranny?
  • To what extent do we control our own destinies?
  • How are people and events often not what they seem?
  • What happens to the natural world when morality is disregarded?
  • How are light and darkness connected to good and evil?
  • How do children both represent the future and highlight evil?
  • How does sleep represent a facture of moral order?
  • How do visions represent guilty conscience?
  • Can there be wealth without corruption? Or, does wealth lead to corruption?
  • Can religion and faith be separated? Can you have one without the other?

Outcome 5: Demonstrate critical thinking about contemporary Western culture adaptations (filmic and/or theatrical) of a selection of Shakespeare’s works.

• Define the nature of adaptation as it relates to film and theater and consider the problem of adaptation.
• Emphasize careful viewing of the films and theater, applying an understanding of filmic elements to accomplish interpretative goals.
• Familiarize students with elements of film and theater including mise-en-scène, staging, cinematography, sound, and editing.
• Upon viewing the assigned films and/or theater, observe and evaluate how Shakespeare has been remade across time and across continents. Discussions may include the following questions:
  • Do elements of film (mise-en-scène, cinematography, sounds, etc.) enhance or detract from an audiences’ understanding of the “original” work?
  • Evaluate a director’s decision to remake characters. How do these alterations contribute to or detract from understanding?
  • Assess a director’s decisions to invent character backstories. Is this an effective technique?
  • Evaluate a director’s decision to retain the Shakespearean language, character and plot, abandon it completely, or create some sort of hybrid where some “original” elements are kept and others are modernized. Should we be able to call these adaptations Shakespeare?
  • Do adaptations enhance or undermine Shakespeare’s work and the audiences’ appreciation of it?
  • How does modern clothing and occasional diversions from the script affect an understanding of the work?
  • Consider the selection of the setting, how does it function?
  • What are the implications of staging events unspoken in the Shakespeare’s play?
  • What are the implications of a director’s decision to invent events in their adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays? Why is this done? How effective is it?

Outcome 6: Compose critical close reading analyses of literary texts using MLA format, citing and explaining textual evidence in support of a thesis.

• Emphasize close reading as the means to composing thoughtful, critical analyses.
• Practice in-depth formal literary criticism, applying relevant critical opinions to one’s own analysis and interpretation of Shakespearean plays (both text and visual). Illustrate these in writing assignments using appropriate selected examples from the plays and from the scholars.
• For later plays, practice comparative analysis of applicable literary approaches and “schools” of literary analysis including theories of “the other,” feminist theory, gender studies, diversity issues, New Historicism, and psychological and economical approaches.
• Develop an understanding of interrelating themes and motifs Shakespeare’s works through discussion, regular writing prompts, close reading essays, and/or creative projects.
  • Instruct students about how to use thematic instances to arrive at general conclusions regarding how the theme works in the analyzed texts.
    • Teach students how to read carefully, looking for the selected theme or motif and possibly researching ways in which other critics have examined the theme.
    • Show students how to organize their responses around the works, making each point deal with a distinct work. Emphasize connections and transitions.
• Introduce students to the OWL Purdue Online Writing Lab as a resource to help them with all aspects of essay writing including thesis and content generation, citation, organization, and proper formatting: https://owl.english.purdue.edu
• Through lecture, teach students “tracking” methods to help them achieve a rich understanding of the text including highlighting, marginal notes, free writing, etc.
• Review with students the “pitfalls” to literary analysis including plot summary, black and white thinking, and everything is “subjective.”

Suggested Texts and Materials

Texts should include a sampling of Shakespearean works:

• 1589:  Comedy of Errors
• 1590:  Henry VI, Part III;   Henry VI, Part II
• 1591:  Henry VI, Part 1
• 1592:  Richard III
• 1593:  Titus Andronicus; Taming of the Shrew
• 1594:  Two Gentlemen of Verona; Romeo and Juliet; Loves Labours’s Lost
• 1595:  Midsummer Night’s Dream; Richard II
• 1596:  King John; Merchant of Venice
• 1597:  Henry IV, Part II; Henry IV, Part I
• 1598:  Much Ado about Nothing; Henry V
• 1599:  Julius Caesar;  As You Like It; Twelfth Night
• 1600:  Hamlet; Merry Wives of Windsor
• 1601:  Troilus and Cressida
• 1602:  All’s Well That Ends Well
• 1604:  Othello; Measure for Measure
• 1605:  Macbeth; King Lear
• 1606:  Antony and Cleopatra
• 1607:  Timon of Athens; Coriolanus
• 1608:  Pericles
• 1609:  Cymbeline
• 1610:  Winter’s Tale
• 1611:  Tempest
• 1612:  Henry VIII

Film Resources:

• The Taming of the Shrew (BBC Shakespeare RE-told, 2005); 
• Adrian Noble, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2000); 
• Baz Luhrmann, Romeo and Juliet (1996);  
• Rupert Goold, Richard II (BBC Hollow Crown, 2012).

Much Ado About Nothing

• (Recommended) David Nicholls, Much Ado About Nothing (BBC Shakespeare RE-told, 2005); AVAILABLE AT CGCC LIBRARY
• Kenneth Branagh, Much Ado About Nothing (1993); AVAILABLE  ONLINE or AT CGCC LIBRARY
• Robert Delamere Much Ado About Nothing (2011): AVAILABLE ON YOU TUBE
• Much ado about nothing [videorecording] (2000) BBC TV: AVAILABLE AT CGCC LIBRARY
• Several film and stage versions are available on You Tube

Measure for Measure

• (Recommended) Desmond Davis, 1979 Measure for Measure AVAILABLE ON AMAZON OR ITUNES
• Measure for Measure videorecording (2000) BBC TV: AVAILABLE AT CGCC LIBRARY
• Several film and stage versions are available on You Tube

Othello

• (Recommended) Tim Blake Nelson, O (2001); AVAILABLE ONLINE
• (Recommended) Orson Welles, Othello (1951): AVAILABLE ONLINE
• Othello (2002) BBC TV; AVAILABLE AT CGCC LIBRARY
• Stuart BurgeOthello (1965) AVAILABLE TO RESERVE AT CGCC LIBRARY
• Several film and stage versions are available on You Tube

Macbeth

• (Recommended) Macbeth (BBC Shakespeare RE-told, 2005); AVAILABLE AT CGCC LIBRARY
• Macbeth PBS Great Performances (2010): AVAILABLE FOR RESERVE FROM CGCC LIBRARY
• Macbeth BBC TV (2002): AVAILABLE AT CGCC LIBRARY
• Macbeth A & E Home Video (2004): AVAILABLE AT CGCC LIBRARY
• Macbeth Anchor Bay Entertainment (2016) AVAILABLE AT CGCC LIBRARY
• Several film and stage versions are available on You Tube

Other Texts:

The following plays are found in Adaptations of Shakespeare: An Anthology edited by Daniel Fischlin,(ISBN-13: 978-0415198943 and ISBN-10: 0415198941) which can be bought at the CGCC bookstore, on Amazon, or an online version can be purchased or rented by creating an account on Vitalsource (most economic option).

• Desdemona: A Play About a Handkerchief by Paula Vogel
• Measure for Measure by Charles Marowitz
• Umabatha by Welcome Msomi

Other Resources:

• The University of Oxford Approaching Shakespeare Podcast by Professor Emma Smith
• OWL Purdue Writing Resource: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/
• OER resources – Open Educational Resources available from CGCC library:

https://mail.cgcc.edu/gw/webacc?action=Item.Read&User.context=97243e9f869276123eccba0a11c78b4cd92c8e1&Item.drn=584ED1BA.CGC