Engl. 4420: Shakespeare - General Syllabus
Augusta State University Catalog Description
"The major Shakespearean histories, comedies, and tragedies within the context of the Elizabethan theater."
General Course Syllabus
Defining what
is "major" among Shakespeare's 37 plays (or 38 plays, if
The Two Noble
Kinsmen, included in the major one-volume editions of Shakespeare's
works, is counted) is difficult. In the abridged edition (The Necessary
Shakespeare) of his one-volume complete edition of Shakespeare's works,
David Bevington, one of the best Shakespeare editors, as well as one of
the best Shakespeare and Renaissance scholars, includes twenty plays as
"major." Even twenty plays out of the 37 (or 38) would be far too many
for a single-term college or university course. In this course, the following
plays will be covered, chosen to connect to the required analysis paper
and to represent the four major genres (not three, as referred to in the
ASU catalog description) as represented in all major one-volume editions:
from the comedies, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Taming of the Shrew,
and The Merchant of Venice; from the histories,
Richard II,
1 Henry IV, and 2 Henry IV; from the tragedies,
Romeo
and Juliet, Othello, and Antony and Cleopatra; and from
the romances, The Tempest. About three class sessions, in a class
that meets twice a week, will be spent on each play. The order of the plays
will be comedies first, histories second, tragedies third, and romances
last, with the plays in the order listed within each genre or category,
above.
Required Textbook
The Complete Works of Shakespeare, ed. David Bevington, 5th ed. Pearson-Longman, 2004. (Placed at the ASU bookstore.)
The only required textbook for the course (and placed at the ASU bookstore) is The Complete Works of Shakespeare, ed. David Bevington, 5th ed. (Pearson-Longman, 2004). The reason for choosing this one-volume edition is actually part of the research paper in the course, which will involve examining a short passage from all four main one-volume Shakespeare texts, to ascertain if one of the texts is (as thought by some Shakespeare scholars) to be somewhat superior in annotation. The Bevington edition is reputedly slightly superior to the other three (listed chronologically and by editor surname): The Riverside Shakespeare, eds. G.B. Evans and J.Tobin, 2nd ed. (Houghton Mifflin, 1997); The Norton Shakespeare, eds. Stephen Greenblatt, Walter Cohen, Jean Howard, and Katharine Maus (Norton, 1997); and The Complete Pelican Shakespeare, eds. Stephen Orgel and A.R. Braunmuller, 2nd ed. (Viking-Penguin, 2002). All of these texts are good, though the Complete Pelican lacks the extensive background chapters contained in the other three one-volume Shakespeare editions. A descending ranking of the four volumes in annotation and overall, from superior to good, would be Bevington (first place), Norton (second place), Riverside (third place), and Complete Pelican (fourth place). Since the ASU/Reese library apparently has none of these, I will place all four, from my personal library, on library reserve for use in the library. No one has done a careful, thorough study of this problem of superiority in annotation among the four main one-volume Shakespeare textbooks (though some comment is available in two prestigious-journal essays I have posted in my online Engl. 4420/Shakespeare materials), so the research will be authentically new (an extremely difficult accomplishment in writing about Shakespeare), and potentially useful for many Shakespeare teachers and scholars!
If you already
own one of the other three one-volume Shakespeare editions referred to
above (Norton, Riverside - 2nd, Complete Pelican - 2nd), you do not need
to purchase the Bevington in addition.
Recommended but not required textbooks
All English majors or minors or just persons committed to literateness, should own a good collegiate dictionary (which theoretically should be a carryover from English 101 or English 1101). A good collegiate dictionary means a hardcover with 1500 large-format pages (or more) and 150,000 (or more) entries. See lists of such collegiate dictionaries and where to purchase them at a discount (if not already owned) in my English 1101 General Syllabus or my English 1102 General Syllabus, found in my online English 1101 materials or my online English 1102 materials. In Shakespeare's time, students were extensively drilled in what today would be called the "language arts," and so knew what such terms as anadiplosis meant, as well as how to apply the term in writing, first in Latin, and then in English translation. A collegiate dictionary, as well as some online sources of rhetorical terms, will give a definition of anadiplosis and similar rhetorical terms.
All English majors or minors or just those interested in becoming truly literate should own one of the following 550-page plus dictionaries of literary terms (listed alphabetically by editor and compiler): Cuddon and Preston, Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, 3rd edition or later (Penguin, 1991 or later); Kathleen Doherty, Mary Cornog, et al., Merriam Webster's Reader's Handbook (Merriam-Webster, 1997); Harmon and Holman's A Handbook to Literature, 7th edition or later (Prentice-Hall, 1996 or later). (A best buy, including not only the dictionary of literary terms and theory by Doherty and Cornog, but also an encyclopedia of important literary authors and national literatures, is the Merriam-Webster [or Merriam-Webster's] Encyclopedia of Literature [Merriam-Webster, 1995].)
A second invaluable textbook is a good introduction to literature textbook-anthology, usually the main textbook for English 1102 or English 102; my personal favorite (and I'm not biased by the inclusion of my name as a contributor in later editions of the book, of course) is Edgar Roberts' and Henry Jacobs' Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing, 5th edition or later (Prentice-Hall) [the book is now in its 7th edition].
(Additional
non-Shakespeare related materials are three music CD's including both sides
or one side of the 45 r.p.m. record made by Dr. Prinsky's rock group back
in 1965; these are discussed and displayed in the "Dr. Prinsky's Rock and
Roll Career" materials of the Prinsky ASU website. Purchase of one or more
of these CD's might give students 1 billion extra credit points, applicable
not only to this course but all other English courses already taken or
to be taken in the future. Just kidding. But some of Shakespeare's comedy
is just as corny.)
Required Work
One analytical paper (already mentioned above); one research paper (already mentioned above); and the writing of interpretive-question multiple-choice quizzes on a rotation basis (i.e., one student writes questions on Act 1 or a few scenes from Act 1 of a particular play, another on Act 2 or a few scenes from Act 2 of the play, and so on), as well as taking, out of class, of the student-written multiple-choice quizzes, which will be combined for each play and then posted online in my Engl. 4420/Shakespeare materials on my ASU website, "www.aug.edu/~nprinsky" (without the quotation marks).
The analytical paper is an analytical comparison and contrast of the expressive or significant or thematic use of the gallery or upper stage in the plays read for the course. The "gallery" or "upper stage" or "the above" was a part of the English Renaissance stage, and is shown in a diagram or picture at the end of the volume 1 of The Norton Anthology of English Literature, most one-volume editions of Shakespeare's works, and in my Notes and Questions on Shakespeare's Hamlet in my online Humanities 2001 materials or my Notes and Questions on Christopher Marlowe's Dr. Faustus in my online Engl. 3002/English Renaissance literature materials on my ASU website. More details, as well as reference to other relevant Shakespeare plays, will be found in the directions for this paper posted in my online Engl. 4420/Shakespeare materials on my ASU website.
The research paper is an analytical comparison and contrast of the annotation in the four main one-volume editions of Shakespeare's works of about 200 lines in one particular Shakespeare play. All editions will be on reserve at the ASU/Reese library, and secondary sources will be posted online, included in the detailed directions for the paper in my online Engl. 4420/Shakespeare materials. (Besides being original research, this topic, like the analytical paper topic, does not contribute to the plagiarism problem that tends to plague Shakespeare courses.)
A sample of
a multiple-choice quiz is included in the detailed directions for this
work posted in my online Engl. 4420/Shakespeare materials on my ASU website.
Grades
My grading
scale in all matters is A = 100-90; B = 89-80; C = 79-70; D = 69-60; F
= 59 and below. The analytical paper is worth 40% of the course grade,
the research paper 40%, and the multiple-choice quizzes (writing and taking)
20% (writing = 10%; taking = 10%). If submitted in time for me to comment,
the analytical paper, the research paper, and the writing of the quizzes
can all be revised for a higher grade. The analytical paper is worth 400
points, the research paper is worth 400 points, and the multiple-choice
quizzes (writing and taking) are worth, cumulatively, 200 points.
An optional extra-credit paper, posted online in my Engl. 4420/Shakespeare
materials on my ASU website, is worth 65 points. Only one extra credit
paper may be done, even if more than one extra-credit paper topic is posted.
Contacting Me
My office
is E-238 of Allgood Hall; photocopies of my music CD's (where have I seen
reference to those CD's in this syllabus? Hmmmm . . . ) are posted on the
office door to add color to the hallway and building (and in no way for
self promotion). My telephone number is 706-667-4431; my e-mail is "nprinsky@aug.edu"
(without the quotation marks). My ASU website is "www.aug.edu/~nprinsky"
(without the quotation marks).