Spring 2005

E 321 • Shakespeare: Selected Plays

Course Description

Shakespeare should be enjoyed through performance; we will watch, listen to, and analyze a selection of his plays, which are readily available on video, cd-rom, and audio-tape. We will investigate the humor in these plays and the rhetorical and linguistic peculiarities that so delighted Elizabethan audiences, as well as captivated the rest of the world in subsequent eras. The active participation of the student will be an essential feature of the seminar, both through oral exchange and through several short papers and one longer paper at the end of the semester. The internet and on-line resources will form a central core of the course.

Grading Policy

Four (4) 3 pp "position" papers; one (1) final 5 pp paper; one (1) hour mid-term examination; one (1) final examination

Writing 50%
Class work 20%
Exams 30%

Texts

The Oxford Shakespeare, The Complete Works, with a general introduction and introductions to individual works by Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor, General Editors, One volume, Clarendon Press, OUP, 1988
W.Sh. Comedies, Histories & Tragedies, First Folio, London, 1623, Folger Shakespeare Library, Octavo Digital Editions, 2001, CD-Rom
Open Source Shakespeare Edition, CD-Rom, University of Central Lancashire, 2000
The Norton Facsimile of the First Folio of Shakespeare, By C.Hinman, New York, 1968

back