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Fall 2002
This information effective
for Fall 2002.
Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.
Introduction to Shakespeare is designed to be valuable to students in many ways: it satisfies the T4 requirement, it fulfills a lower-division requirement for the literature major, it provides training in reading and writing about literature. Above all, it introduces students to major works by one of the most important figures in Western literature, a writer whose works have played a major part in cultural debates inside and outside the English speaking world, one of the great verbal artists whose work still challenges its interpreters and gives pleasure.
The course presumes no prior knowledge of Shakespeare, although nearly everyone coming to the class seems to have read at least one play before, usually Romeo and Juliet. I do require students who take the course to have fulfilled the Subject A requirement in advance.
The class will meet on MWF from 12:30 p.m. till 1:40 p.m. I require regular and prompt attendance at all lectures. There will not, I regret to say, be mandatory, TA-led discussion sections. In consequence, students will need to be particularly responsible, dedicated, and independent in their studies.
In Fall Quarter 2002 the
texts for the course will probably be:
I have chosen these plays because their understanding involves important historical and interpretive issues: relations between the sexes and the nature of marriage; the concept and the rights of authority—the nature of order, law, and justice in society; the role of art in human culture. They are all full of brilliant language, and each usually provides exciting experiences in the theater.
I shall order Pelican editions of these works at the Bay Tree Bookstore; it is desirable that we all use the same editions. They are relatively inexpensive. Some will be available in the new Pelican format; the new Pelican edition of King Lear that I shall order contains both the Quarto and Folio texts, unlike any other inexpensive edition, and is therefore irreplaceable. The Bedford Companion is a supplementary book of materials about the age of Shakespeare, history, social customs, playhouse structures, etc; it is relatively inexpensive. There may be a supplementary reader with some critical essays.
My method is to begin with a couple of lectures on the Sonnets in which I exemplify the kind of attentive reading that students should learn if they wish to be sensitive and successful readers of literature and especially of poetry and drama. After that about six lectures are devoted to each play, so that we explore each text thoroughly. I pay particular attention to questions of interpretive choice in relation to the language in performance, since I believe in attending to the origins of these plays in the Elizabethan playhouse and to their production in theaters today. In this connection, I shall use videotapes from time to time in lectures to illustrate problematic passages by showing different interpretations.
Written work for the course will probably consist of four brief quizzes, one on each play; two papers, each of four to five pages; a midterm; and a final.
In advance of the class, I would urge interested students to see any Shakespeare productions that they can during the summer, and especially Shakespeare Santa Cruz's productions of "The Merry Wives of Windsor" and "Coriolanus" (playing mid-July to the end of August).