The Chandos Portrait PIcasso's Drawing of Shakespeare by Picasso

Portraits of Shakespeare

The Portrait Controversy

Shakespeare I (Web Enhanced)

En 213 (formerly En 355)

Dr. Richard Regan

DMH 103

Fall 2013

Course Objectives (IDEA Center)

Essential: Gaining a broader understanding and appreciation of intellectual/cultural activity (#7)
Important: Learning to analyze and critically evaluate ideas, arguments, and points of view (#11)
Important: Developing skill in expressing yourself in writing (#8)

This course studies the first half of the career of William Shakespeare, generally considered the greatest writer in the English language. We focus on early comedies, history plays, and some mature comedies. Shakespeare's work teaches us about our own human natures. As many psychologists, philosophers, theologians, historians, and scientists have observed, Shakespeare has acute powers of observation. We see in his plays how people behave, how they feel, how they act politically. And we understand ourselves and our own world better, even as we learn about the Renaissance, or Early Modern era.

There are several ways to describe our approach: a flipped classroom, blended learning, hybrid courses. The burden of preparation and learning lies with students, not with the professor. For those of you who have taken a Shakespeare course with me before, this will be an entirely different experience.

The books I have chosen (the Signet Classics) also give us a clear focus on the words of the play, and have helpful notes at the bottom of each page. I know it is tempting to save money by reading the plays online or by using editions you already own, but it is imperative that you buy these individual Signet Classic paperbacks. They are inexpensive, and available in the Fairfield U. bookstore or at amazon.com (search the play title and the words "Signet Classic"). Since you will be exploring the plays yourselves, you need the Introductions and short critical articles from these editions.

Instead of my going through the plays three times a week in the classroom, we will meet about every other week to discuss the learning that will take place online and through your own reading. I have been teaching Shakespeare Online in the summer since 2005, and I feel comfortable having you study the "Class" pages for each play and video clips from different productions, either streaming from the Class page or downloaded from iTunes U.

A vital part of the course will be online discussions through email several times a week. I will supply a prompt (topic or question) through email and ask everyone to Reply All. The class will be divided so there's not a flood of mail, but you must reply with a couple of paragraphs that everyone in your group can read. You can respond to my prompt or to any member of the class. You must Reply All within 24 hours.

Course hours: Monday and/or Thursday 3:30-4:45. I will be available for consultation before and after class.

Texts: Signet Classic editions of the plays listed below.

Grading: You will write a 5-7 page paper on each play, and a final portfolio-metanarrative for the course. I expect you to have your topics approved in advance. I encourage rewriting.

You should submit your papers electronically, written in Microsoft Word. Word has a feature called Track Changes which we can use to write comments on papers (in color). Click here to download a document that contains some suggestions for writing in Word and for emailing papers as attachments.

Students with documented learning disabilities, please see me. Alternative methods of testing and evaluation are available.

Course description:

In the first half of Shakespeare's career, comedy, tragedy, and history plays express both the spirit of the Elizabethan age and their own identities as different genres which reference each other. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Henry IV , and Much Ado About Nothing are among a selection of plays that explore dimensions of love, religion, and politics. We will learn how critics have approached Shakespeare in many different ways, and how to evaluate and respond to critical opinion. Multimedia presentations will show how performance and text combined enrich our understanding of this great writer.


Some fine Shakespeare productions can be viewed from this Library link:
http://ativ.alexanderstreet.com.libdb.fairfield.edu/Search/PersonID/219589/tab/video

Macbeth, with Anthony Sher
Measure for Measure, 2006 film
Hamlet, with Kevin Kline
The Taming of the Shrew, American Conservatory Theater
King Lear, with James Earl Jones
Much Ado About Nothing, New York Shakespeare Festival



Powerpoint Slide Shows from Hardy Cook and the Shaksper archives

Shakespeare's Life

Shakespeare's Theater

Shakespeare's Texts

The Elizabethan World Picture


Theater related websites

Shakespeare's Globe Online

"The Elizabethan Theatre": a lecture with slides

Designing Shakespeare (home)

Designing Shakespeare (digital resources)

Royal Shakespeare Company

Shakespeare in Performance Institute Acting Exercises

Interactive Shakespeare Project

Shakespeare at Hampton Court

Touchstone: Shakespeare in Performance


Internet MetaSites for Shakespeare

Terry Gray's Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet

SH:in:E

Encyclopaedia Britannica

Early Modern Literary Studies

Was Shakespeare Shakespeare? The Authorship Controversy

The Shakespeare Discussion List Archive

Shaksper Website

Teachers First

Polydore Vergil's Anglica Historica (1555)

Surfing with the Bard


Podcasts

American Shakespeare Center

The ASC offers a number of different podcasts, including This Week at the Blackfriars, the Blackfriars Backstage Pass, the American Shakespeare Center Chronicles, and Doctor Ralph Reveals All.
You can find links to all of these podcasts at the American Shakespeare Center's Podcast Central; you can also subscribe to all ASC podcasts through the iTunes Music Store Podcast Directory, or through any number of web-based podcasting sites, including Podcast Pickle.

American Shakespeare Podcast Central (Blackfriars Playhouse)


Mobile Phone Shakespeare

iTunes Store: Search <Shakespeare> for a free app for the iPhone with searchable text

Mobile Open Source Shakespeare


Here are the instructions for viewing the Class pages and video clips. You'll need a password from Dr. Regan: rjregan@fairfield.edu

Streaming video is a part of the course because I've written classes to be interactive with excerpts from performances. You will need a broadband internet connection. Cable or DSL will work. Satellite is probably OK too. Dialup is too slow for video, but you can view srteaming video on your iPhone or iPad (if it has 3G or 4G). Our method of streaming requires Safari or Firefox.

As you scroll down the course page, for each of the plays you will see a link called "Click." That will take you to the Class, and when you click on a video clip you will see a password box. The password will be given out in class, a security measure because the TEACH Act passed by Congress in 2002 allows only enrolled students to have access to copyrighted materials for educational purposes. Our method of streaming will open the clip in a window on your computer or mobile device. You need to use Safari or Firefox as a browser.

These video clips are also available from iTunes University, together with audio podcasts of our classes and some documents for each play. The clips can be expanded to full screen. Documents can be viewed as .pdf files only in iTunes. If you are on the class roster, you have access through:

http://itunes.fairfield.edu

Enter your NetID number as your user name. The password is your NetID password. This login will work as soon as the class begins.

If you are a Windows user, you can get iTunes free at:

http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/ (scroll to the Windows links)


Schedule

September 5 - Course orientation, Introduction to the first play, The Taming of the Shrew

Theory of Comedy

Open Source Shakespeare

Shakespeare Searched

The Internet Shakespeare Editions

RhymeZone Shakespeare Search Engine

Life in Elizabethan England

Shakespeare's Education

An Early Modern Chronology



CLICK to go to the Class on the play.

Read: the play and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Mack, Greer, Bamber, Newman, and Slights

"Personations: The Taming of the Shrew..."

"'Caparisoned like the horse': Tongue and Tail in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew"

"A Shrew and The Shrew"

The Works of the Bard: including a SEARCH engine

Scanning Shakespeare's Lines
(click on Teacher's Guide, then Scansion Guide)

Shakespeare: Subject to Change (Cable in the Classroom)


September 19 - Discussion of The Taming of the Shrew, introduction to Richard III

Read: the play and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Rossiter, Ornstein, and Kahn

CLICK to go to the class on the play.

 

Richard III Onstage and Off

Richard III Society Online Library

Thomas More's "The History of King Richard III"

"The Misogyny of Richard III..."

Polydore Vergil's account (1555)


Paper #1 due September 23 - The Taming of the Shrew

Paper #2 due October 3 - Richard III


October 3 - Discussion of Henry IV, Part One

Preparation for Henry V

Read: the play and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Ornstein and Goldman

CLICK to go to the class on the play.

"The Education of a Prince"

"The Prudence and Kinship of Prince Hal..."

Polydore Vergil's account

"The Prudence and Kinship of Prince Hal..."

"Hal Imitates the Sun"

Henry V



Read: the play and the Signet Introduction, and the article by Collimore/Sinfield

CLICK to go to the Class on the play.

"The Myth of Henry V"

"Holy War in Henry Fifth"

Polydore Vergil's account


Paper #3 due October 14 - 1 Henry IV and Henry V

Paper #4 due October 24 - Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream


October 17 - Romeo and Juliet

Read: the play and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Goldman, Snyder, and Novy

CLICK to go to the Class on the play.

"Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet: Kitsch and Tears"

A Baz Luhrmann Fansite

"Shakespeare and the Tragic Virtue"

Shakespeare's Unruly Women

Women in Shakespeare

Bibliography on Shakespeare's Women

 


A Midsummer Night's Dream

Read: the play and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Myers, Bamber, and Slights

CLICK to go to the class on the play.

 

"...Petrarch and Pyramus in the Woods of Athens"

"From the Ridiculous to the Sublime"

A Study Guide to A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Web and MOO

A Hypertext Version of A Midsummer Night's Dream


October 31 - The Merchant of Venice


Read: the play and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Bamber and Smallwood

CLICK to go to the Class on the play.

Shakespeare and Anti-Semitism: The Question of Shylock

Trevor Nunn's Merchant

"Redeeming Shylock"

"A Second Daniel: The Jew and the 'True Jew' in The Merchant of Venice"

"Law and Love in The Merchant of Venice"

"Shylock Is Us"

"Contract in The Merchant of Venice" (Project Muse access)

Excerpt from Sir Thomas More, II, i

Articles and reviews pertinent to the Radford/Pacino film

"A very Jewish villain"

The Merchant of Venice -Interview with director and screenwriter Michael Radford

Shylock and History

Shylock on Appeal

"Shylock’s isolation as character mirrors Shakespeare’s isolation as author"


"Sanitizing Merchant: Pacino Plays Shylock Like a Grouchy Tevya"


Paper #5 due November 4 - The Merchant of Venice


November 14- Much Ado About Nothing

Read: the play and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Stauffer and Neely

CLICK to go to the Class on the play.

"Bringing Deformed Forth: Engendering Meaning in Much Ado About Nothing"

"The Role of the Clown in Shakespeare's Theater"


Paper #6 due November 18 - Much Ado About Nothing


November 25 - As You Like It

Read: the play and the Signet Introduction, and the articles by Gardner, Erickson, and Howard

CLICK to go to the class on the play.

"Instruction Versus Deception: from Rosalynde to As You Like It"

"Orlando and the Golden World: the Old World and the New in AYLI"


THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY


December 5 - Final Class - Discussion of Metanarrative due the day of, and instead of the Final Exam

Paper #7 due December 9 - As You Like It

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