Graduate Studies in Shakespeare EH 562 Summer I, 2005
Jacksonville State University - English Department
Dr. J GatesSchedule # 9108: Section 01 Meets in SC 231
[206 Stone Center, 782-5548. Office Hours TBA]
My e-mail: jgates@jsucc.jsu.eduSyllabus | Fast Jump to Calendar of Class Schedule
MTWTF, 12:00 to 2:00 p.m. June 1-28, 2005
Disability Accommodations Statement:
Any individual who qualifies for reasonable accommodation under The Americans With Disabilities Act or Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 should contact the instructor immediately.STANDARD CIVILITY STATEMENT:
All students are expected to attend class fully prepared with appropriate materials and all devices which make noise turned to the off position (e.g., cellular phones, pagers, personal stereos, etc.). Any student behavior deemed disruptive by the professor will result in expulsion of the student from the classroom, with an absence for the day and possible disciplinary action.OTHER CLASSROOM PROTOCOL ISSUES: Recording devices are allowed only if you provide your DSS statement and a permission form. See me if you have a particular request that does not fall under the DSS considerations. It is assumed you are aware of Academic Honesty Issues as detailed in the JSU Student Handbook. Class breaks for a class that meets for this length of time will be integrated into the class meetings. However, please respect the professor's options to vary any automatically provided break at exactly midway through the class period. If there is an attendance or grade dispute, remember that your first responsibility is to make an appointment to speak with the professor.
I. COURSE DESCRIPTION (JSU Catalog): 562. Studies in Shakespeare: (3) [credits]. Readings in representative works of Shakespeare, with attention to the history of Shakespearean scholarship and criticism.
II. PREREQUISITES: Graduate standing in the University
III. OBJECTIVES
A. To study the plays of Shakespeare in their critical and historical contexts; to understand the ways that changing cultural contexts affect the production and interpretation of Shakespeare.
B. To understand the background for Shakespeare's plays, including, where appropriate, the study of Shakespeare's sources.
C. To understand the literary and dramatic aspects of the plays.
D. To study the dramatic aspects of the plays with attention to what is learned from comparative production analysis, especially through films, published reviews, and creative approaches to the staging of Shakespeare.
E. To develop critical skills in responding to literature, to be able to write critically and personally about the literature (and the different genres of literature) in ways that demonstrate understanding and appreciation for the variety of interpretations that literature invites.
F. To exercise students' techniques of critical thinking, questioning, and problem solving.
IV. ATTENDANCE POLICY. Cutting class is strongly discouraged. Because discussions, writing exercises, quizzes, and in-class assignments are graded or prepare you for graded work, cuts will likely affect your grade. Students at the 500 graduate level are expected to attend all class sessions. Unlike composition courses, there is no difference between excused and unexcused absences; but if you miss two or more classes in a row, I consider it courteous and part of your responsibility as a student to speak to me about what you have missed and whether there is a need to make up work. In addition, days when major assignments are due (every Tuesday) will require a legal, documented excuse in order to be allowed a make-up, which is at the discretion of the instructor. You are not expected to have unavoidable reasons for regularly arriving late, leaving early, or otherwise attending the class sporadically. Please inform the instructor ahead of time if there is a special need, for it is always to your advantage to attend whenever possible, even if that means part of a class session.
V. REQUIREMENTS. Graduates are awarded quality points for A or B grade. To receive a B, you must complete each separate unit of the course (Essay 1, Essay 2, the Seminar Report, the Final Exam) with a numerical average of 79.5 or above. The Final Exam and self evaluation will give you opportunity to demonstrate mastery of eight plays minimum as well as recall of criticism/ research methods important to the class. You are also expected to learn from other students' sharing of their reports on criticism and primary source material you yourself did not read. A-level grades are awarded for averages of 89.5 and/or demonstration of quantitative and qualitative superiority in at least three of the above areas. There will be frequent in-class exercises that prepare for the major grades or encourage daily reading. Missed class assignments can be made up only at the discretion of the instructor. Missing a major assignment requires pre-arrangement and or a written excuse and arranged at the discretion of the instructor.
VI. TEXTS
A. Shakespeare, William. The Riverside Shakespeare, 2nd ed. Eds. G. Blakemore Evans and J.J.M. Tobin. Boston and N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin, 1997. [ISBN: 0-395-75490-9.]
B. The reading of at least two shorter sources to Shakespeare's works, and the reading of a longer source study, which is made available as a handout and / or an internet link.
C. Occasional critical reading, placed on reserve (or handouts, or Internet links).
D. Reading and responding to my prompts and to the work of other students in the course.
VII. EVALUATION
A. 25 % - - Essay One (on at least two of three assigned plays compared as in-class essay, day 5)
B. 25% Essay Two. On at least two of the assigned weekly plays. This paper may require "Workshopping," or submitting in finished form but then revised after the Professor grades.
C. 25% Seminar Reports. Guidelines to be announced.
D. 25%. Final Exam and Evaluation. (see below for schedule)
In the Final, ample options in selections for essays and formal graded work allow students to focus and plan personal approaches to questions. Short answers test basic knowledge.
VIII. SYLLABUS: Schedule of classes and assignments
See calendar for each day's emphasis, subject to alteration as announced.
Note these standard dates, part of the University calendar for the semester:June 2: LAST DAY TO ADD
June 7: Last day to withdraw and receive 80% refund on tuition.
June 14: LAST DAY TO DROP WITHOUT ACADEMIC PENALTY
June 15: Last day to withdraw and receive 50% refund on tuition.
June 21: LAST DAY TO DROP PASSING OR WITHDRAW (Prof.'s signature required)
Week One: Hamlet, Titus Andronicus, As You Like It. Some consideration of the two tragic plays in relation to Aristotle's definition of Tragedy and to Elizabethan notions of tragedy as refined by Seneca. Recent reception and trends in critical analysis. An in-class essay comparing features of the plays assigned for Tuesday..
Week Two: Introduction to Source study, Using Cinthio's "The Moor of Venice" (principle source for Othello).
Othello and The Winter's Tale; King Lear and Cymbeline; and their sources.
Paper 2.Week Three:
Romeo and Juliet and and Antony and Cleopatra
A Midsummer Night's Dream and Two Noble Kinsmen.
Seminar ReportsWeek Four Macbeth and Richard III.
Revisit Hamlet.Each read an additional play as assigned, from Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night, Taming of the Shrew, or another to be approved by the instructor.
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IX. FINAL EXAM in the classroom at class time, will test basic factual and analytical knowledge of at least 8 plays. Evaluation and final summary of your research emphasis is also measured.
GENERAL GUIDELINES:
My daily exercises and expectations for class participation tend to vary a great deal in format. You should always be prepared for a rigorous quiz that tests the basic content of the play--keeping characters straight, knowing the plot--on the first day the play is listed on the syllabus. My preference, however, is to have creative responses or discussion participation quizzes; but expect a straight factual quiz which tests your reading before we discuss the work.Papers and essays for the course should conform to the standard MLA format. Remember that when quoting from verse plays, it is necessary to list Act, Scene, and line numbers. Whenever you use a quotation for class purposes, especially for seminar reports and handouts, proper citation form is expected. There are two acceptable ways to do this.
Arabic numbers with periods (no spaces) separating the numbers: 4.3.115-117.
Roman numerals with commas and spaces: IV, iii, 115-117.
Follow the Introductory phrasing, punctuation and formatting guidelines as directed. Information that comes from a CRITICAL source must always be properly introduced and identified. This includes MONARCH NOTES, CLIFF NOTES, On-Line sites, and all other guides to the plays. It is academic dishonesty not to give complete credit to your source, whether or not the idea is directly quoted. You should immediately and completely understand the unacceptability of not properly attributing all your sources, that formal academic scholarship is much other, much more, than Student guides to plays or sample student papers. When in doubt, please look up AND ask. When a critic or a class discussion leads you to an appropriate quote, make sure to give credit for that locator of the play's quotation if it is appropriate. Those who do want to make use of, refute, or expand on interpretations of the play by previous scholars will check with me to make sure that they are using proper methodology.
I will distribute detailed guidelines for the papers at a later date. All topics must be approved.
NOTE WELL: The instructor respects student individuality and innovative interpretive strategies. Group work and class discussions aim for the most populist/democratic discussion: all students are encouraged to contribute; those monopolizing discussion time will be asked privately to moderate their vocal responses. You are expected to maintain academic standards, to turn in only original work, and to properly credit all sources not your own. This class is designed to properly train and assist you in doing so. Whenever a grade dispute, an attendance record dispute, or other issues of decorum arise, your FIRST responsibility is to arrange a private conference with the instructor.
Currently, I participate in an on-going Teacher Inquiry support group, which uses classroom based research to analyze and improve teaching techniques and strives to publish results. For this reason, I have added a supplement to the class which employs technology of Blackboard's Discussion Board. I'll provide training for use of this and though I expect all to contribute to the required assignments with full name identifying their posts. Your participation assumes you give permission for your own posts to be read by others and used by me in informal pedagogy focused presentations. If I see something that has potential for publication I may ask for permission to publish selections from student comments and written work. I expect that at this formal stage, all student writing will be referenced with either pseudonyms or as anonymous comments, but if there is a contribution you make that deserves author credit, for instance to my permanent web site, I will make sure you are have a permission agreement on file.
My working strategy for a focus in this class encompasses a broad and an all-inclusive strategy that is tentatively entitled "Collect Something Every Class." I may use this to focus the particular challenges of reading and analyzing Shakespeare, or I may incorporate the strategies I use into a study that includes other courses, for instance a focus on the need to recognize and respond to students' learning styles or on the backgrounds, comfort level and training lessons for general citation work.
Some of my interests also lie in the use of the computer environment to make accessible electronic texts and supplements to the works in the text. Even though this course is not designated a computer-assisted class, there will be several class assignments where you will have the option to work in the lab using internet resources (especially with JSU Library and scholarly Shakespeare research). If you are computer-phobic or do not feel you want to work with on-line resources, alternate projects can be arranged.
TERMS YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO WORK WITH.
[Some of these are less relevant to Shakespeare studies, but this list is a good review of terms you mastered in EH 102.]