Shakespeare
Sources and Contexts

REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS.

• Plautus, The Menaechmus Twins & Two Other Plays, ed. and trans. Lionel Casson (Norton, 1971), ISBN 0393006026,
• Ovid, Metamorphoses, trans. Rolfe Humphries (Indiana UP, 1955), ISBN 0253200016,
• Seneca, Four Tragedies and Octavia, ed. and trans. E. F. Watling (Penguin, 1966), ISBN 0140441743,
• Plutarch, Makers of Rome:  Nine Lives by Plutarch, trans. Ian Scott-Kilvert (Penguin, 1965), ISBN 0140441581,
• John Gassner, ed., Medieval and Tudor Drama (Applause, 2000), ISBN 0936839848,
• William Painter, trans., The Palace of Pleasure, vol. III (UP of the Pacific, 2002), ISBN 0898759935,
• David M. Bevington, et al., eds., English Renaissance Drama (Norton, 2002), ISBN 0393976556, and
• various resources on reserve at the library or in SOCS under “resources.”

• The Riverside Shakespeare, 2nd ed. (Houghton Mifflin, 1997), ISBN 0395754909.

I am assuming that you have seen or read at least a few of the major Shakespeare plays – e.g., A Comedy of Errors, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, and Richard II.  If you have never read or seen these plays by Shakespeare, I strongly recommend that, before the mid-term exam, you read (or see) all of them.  If you are already familiar with these plays, I recommend that you read (or see) a few more this semester (such as Coriolanus, As You Like It, King Lear, and Merchant of Venice).

COURSE DESCRIPTION.  The focus of LIT 321 will be the reconstruction of the literary “horizon of expectations” for Shakespeare’s comedies, histories, and tragedies at the time of their first performance.  The course will not be a course in Shakespeare per se but rather a course in the literary, dramatic, and cultural texts that shaped the literary expectations, perceptions, and tastes of Shakespeare and his audience.  We will reconstruct what an Elizabethan audience might have expected when it went to the theater to see a play – reconstructing Elizabethan expectations “from a pre‑understanding of the genre, from the form and themes of already familiar works, and from the opposition between poetic [or, in this case, dramatic] and practical language” (Hans Robert Jauss, Toward an Aesthetic of Reception, p. 22).

GOALS.  By the end of the course, I want you to

1. demonstrate familiarity with a significant body of texts within – and on the margins of – a variety of literary traditions (i.e., the dramatic traditions of classical Rome, medieval England, and Elizabethan England);
2. read, analyze, and synthesize literary texts and traditions from a critical, theoretical, multinational, and interdisciplinary perspective;
3. engage in the practice of comparative literary analysis by writing about literary texts and traditions from within a comparative framework and drawing conclusions about the significance of literary and cultural intersections and divergences/differences;
4. pursue a sustained investigation of the idea of literature itself by examining what literature is and how it is culturally, politically, philosophically and/or sociologically defined and influenced, and by exploring, from a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary perspective, how and why literary texts are categorized (in terms of traditions, periods, genres and movements); and
5. demonstrate sensitivity to the concrete historicity and cultural specificity of texts and to the development of literary traditions, cultural values, modes of thought, and uses of language over time and across national boundaries.

REQUIREMENTS.  For this course, you must complete the following graded assignments:

1. a mid-term exam (15% of your final grade),
2. 10 two-page response papers (2% each, 20% all together),
3. a short paper (15%),
4. a longer paper (30%), and
5. a final exam (20%).

ATTENDANCE.  Regular attendance is a virtual necessity for successful completion of the exams and papers in this class.  Class exercises and discussion constitute important, useful preparation for the course’s graded assignments.  If you miss a class, you will essentially lose out on that day’s contribution to your preparation, since it is never really possible to reproduce or recapture the dynamics and flow of information for a missed class meeting (even if you get notes from someone).  If, however, you positively must miss a class, I expect you to find out what you missed and to come fully prepared – without excuses – to the next class meeting.

OFFICE HOURS.  My office is Bliss 216, and my office hours are 2-4 p.m. on Mondays and Thursdays.  If you cannot see me during my office hours, feel free as needed to call my office (771-2106) or talk to me before or after class to arrange an appointment at another time.  You may also contact me by email (gsteinbe@tcnj.edu), or you may leave a message for me in my box at the English department offices in Bliss 124.  Email is generally the fastest way to contact me in an emergency.

EMAIL.  I may, on occasion, want to email everyone in class.  I generally only have access to your TCNJ email addresses, however.  As a result, if you regularly use an email address other than your TCNJ address, I recommend that you have mail from your TCNJ address forwarded to the address that you use more regularly.  That way, if I email your TCNJ address, my message will be forwarded to your other address automatically.  To forward mail from your TCNJ address, just go to http://managemail.tcnj.edu/ and click “Mail Forwarding Manager.”  Follow the directions there to set up the mail forwarding.

If you would like to send an email message to one or more of your classmates, you can do so through SOCS.  To access SOCS, go to http://socs.tcnj.edu and, after you have logged in with your TCNJ email username and password, choose this class from the list of your courses this semester.  Then, when our course page comes up, click the “Email” button.  From there, you can select individual email addresses or the entire class and send a message to the addresses you’ve selected.

LANGUAGES ACROSS THE CURRICULUM.  Languages Across the Curriculum is an initiative to infuse foreign language study across the curriculum, thus building on the skills of language-proficient students in courses where foreign language sources are not a regular component of the curriculum. Those students who have completed at least two 200-level courses in a foreign language or have intermediate level proficiency in a language and are interested in enhancing their work in this course through complementary readings or research in that language may enroll in a one credit Languages Across the Curriculum Independent Study, LAC 391. The specific assignments will be identified by the course professor and the LAC supervisor, Deborah Compte of the Modern Languages Department. Dr. Compte will assist you in accessing appropriate materials and engaging in course-related research and activities in another language, and will monitor your progress. A brief biweekly report of ongoing progress in relation to the LAC component of the course is required. The LAC independent study is offered on a Pass/Fail basis only and thus does not impact on your GPA, but indicates your initiative in utilizing your language skills to enhance your coursework. It will be noted as LAC 391 on your transcript.

You must register for the LAC independent study by the end of the first week of classes. The specific work involved in the independent study will be clearly identified and articulated in the Independent Study Summary Proposal which you will draw up with Dr. Compte, with the approval of the course professor. If you are interested, please contact Dr. Compte promptly at dcompte@tcnj.edu or at 771-2392 so that the necessary forms can be completed by the College’s deadline. The LAC website contains further information, Frequently Asked Questions, a list of courses that support LAC, sample student projects and student comments: http://internationalstudies.intrasun,tcnj.edu/. This is an exciting opportunity for students with the requisite language skills to build on their expertise and complement their academic studies.

Accommodations.  The College of New Jersey prohibits discrimination against any student on the basis of physical or mental disability or perceived disability.  The College will also provide reasonable and appropriate accommodations to enable students with disabilities to participate in the life of the campus community.  Individuals with disabilities are responsible for reporting and supplying documentation verifying their disability, and requests for accommodations must be initiated through the Office of Differing Abilities Services (Eickhoff Hall 159).  If you require special assistance, I will make every reasonable effort to accommodate your needs and to create an environment where your special abilities will be respected.

NEW JERSEY PROJECT.  For students who write a paper in this class that addresses issues of gender or that approaches its topic from the perspective of gender studies, I recommend that you submit your work to the New Jersey Project’s Student Achievement Awards for Excellence in Feminist/Multicultural Scholarship Competition.  This competition is a contest in which authors of winning essays receive a monetary award ($300) and get their essays published by the New Jersey Project.  I have uploaded more information about the contest in SOCS.

RESPONSE PAPERS.  In the course of the term, you are required to write 10 short, informal papers (about 2 pages each) on the readings for class.  You may choose for which days you want to write a response paper, as long as you have completed ten response papers by the end of the term.  For each response paper, choose one of the following topics and analyze the reading assignment for the day with respect to the topic you’ve chosen:

1. Plot.    What are the main elements of the plot?  Don’t simply summarize what happens.  Tell me what seem to be the major sections or main divisions of the plot.  How do those sections/divisions relate to one another (or not)?  What is the organizing principle of the plot?  Is there a sense of a beginning (an introduction), a middle (rising action to a climax), and an end (a resolution)?  Are there sub-plots?  How do the sub-plots relate to the main plot?  What do Elizabethan audiences seem to expect or seek in terms of plot elements?  How do the plot elements in this reading assignment compare to those in previous assignments?
2. Character.  Are the characters in the text more important than the plot?  Is the text primarily about a particular character or a group of characters?  How is character developed in the text?  What kind of characters are portrayed?  With which characters do you sympathize?  Which characters do you find fascinating?  Are characters well-rounded or one-dimensional?  What makes them so?  How do the characters compare to characters from earlier assignments?  What do Elizabethans seem to expect from the characters in their stories and plays?
3. Values.  What tastes or values does the work seem to reinforce, question, or criticize?  On what values and tastes does the work seem to rely?  What values and tastes does it assume?  What seems to be the work’s main purpose in terms of cultural work – propaganda, social critique, education, social bonding?  To what social class might the work be appealing?  Why might this text appeal specifically to an Elizabethan audience?  How do its values compare to those of previous assignments in class?
4. Conflict.  Does the conflict and action of the text focus more on the personal or on the social and political?  Is the focus more on private affairs and family life or on public events and social repercussions?  Is there both a personal and a social/political aspect to the story?  How do the personal and social/political elements of the conflict relate to one another?  What do Elizabethans seem to expect in terms of conflict in their plays and stories?
5. Setting.  Where is the text’s story set?  How does the setting affect our perception of the plot and characters?  Does the setting change?  How is change of setting significant to the action and characterization of the play?  Is the setting symbolic?  If so, how?  How does the symbolism of the setting compare to the symbolism of setting in previous reading assignments?  What assumptions do Elizabethans seem to make about the significance of certain settings (e.g., forests, Italy)?
6. Genre.  NOTE:  This topic only applies to dramatic texts (i.e., plays) – not poetry or narratives.  To what genre does the play belong (comedy, tragedy, romance, history play, something else)?  Does it belong to a particular sub-genre of that genre?  How does it reflect or upset the “horizon of expectations” for its genre?  How does it compare to other examples of its genre that we have read for class?  How does it fit or change the specific conventions of its genre (as suggested by other reading assignments from the same genre)?  Is its genre easy or difficult to identify?  How does its genre compare to that of previous assignments?  What dramatic genres seem to have been popular in Elizabethan England?
7. Form.  What are the characteristics of the form of the text?  Is the text poetry, prose, or a combination of both?  If poetry, what kind of poetry is used (blank verse, rhymed couplets, iambic pentameter, fourteeners)?  How does the form fit (or not fit) the content?  How does the poetic form compare to that of previous reading assignments?  If the text is drama, what kind of “special effects” does it use?  What kind of props and costuming?  How does the spectacle of the play compare to other plays we’ve read?  If it is not a dramatic text, in what ways is it dramatic?  How and why might it lend itself to being recast as a drama?  What would have to change for it to be recast as an Elizabethan play?
8. Language.  If the text was originally written in English (or is an Elizabethan translation of something written in another language), what are the characteristics of the language of the text?  What kind of language is used?  What kind of tone and style is exhibited?  Is the text’s language bombastic, elegant, contrived, colloquial, Latinate, simple, coarse, conventional, all of the above, none of the above?  How does the text’s language compare to that in earlier assignments?
9. Gender.  How are men and women portrayed in the text?  What seems to be the attitude of the author toward men and women?  What are the characteristics of a good man in the text? a good woman? a bad man? a bad woman?  Does the text generalize about male and female gender roles?  What does the text imply or say about what are appropriate roles for each gender?  Does the text seem to favor or criticize either gender, portray one or the other gender negatively or positively?  How does the text’s treatment of gender relate to that of previous reading assignments in class?  How might the text’s treatment of gender fit (or not fit) the “horizon of expectations” in Elizabethan England?  How do the Elizabethans seem to conceive of gender and gender roles in their popular stories and plays?
10. Religion.  How are religion and religious ideas portrayed in the text?  How Christian is the work in outlook, doctrine, and/or symbolism?  Does the text use Christian images?  Does it allude to Christian stories?  Does it espouse Christian values (with or without explicit Christian content)?  Does it reflect on or mention Christian doctrine?  How is organized religion portrayed?  How are Church figures (such as friars, monks, priests, and nuns) portrayed?  Does the text seem specifically Catholic or Protestant in outlook?  If so, how so?  How does religion in the text compare to that in previous readings?  What do the Elizabethans seem to expect in terms of religious content or sympathies in their popular stories and plays?

You should have written on each one of these topics over the course of your 10 response papers for the term.  Keep in mind that some topics are more relevant to some readings than others (and some topics aren’t relevant at all to other readings).

Response papers will be graded Pass/Fail.  I ask you to type them (so that they are easier for me to read), but they need not be a perfect, polished product.  Rather, response papers should be just what their name says – a response.  Think about one of the topics  that I ask you to consider; then, write a response.  Don’t worry about typos or comma splices or organization.  Don’t worry about answering every question I ask under the particular topic.  In fact, focus on the one question that seems most interesting to you, and be as specific as you can, getting down as much as you can, as quickly as you can.  Treat response papers more like a journal entry than like a formal paper.  I don’t want a five-paragraph theme.  Rather, I want an exploration – as detailed and specific as possible – of the reading assignment for the day.

Normally, as long as you submit a response paper of suitable length, detail, and thoughtfulness (and as long as you submit it in hard copy in class on the assigned day), you will receive all the points that the response paper is worth.  The purpose of the response papers is

1. to help you in your preparation for class discussion,
2. to help me see where you’re struggling with the readings for class,
3. to help you develop your intellectual independence and your confidence as a reader,
4. to help you explore the relationships among the texts we’re reading, and
5. to practice comparative literary analysis (in preparation for PAPER 1 and PAPER 2).

You may submit more than 10 response papers in the course of the semester (to make up for any response papers that do not receive a grade of Pass), but no matter how many extra response papers you turn in, you will not receive credit for more than 10 total.  You may not submit more than one response paper on a single day, nor may you submit a response paper for a day that you are absent from class – absolutely no exceptions.

PAPER 1.  Choose a Shakespeare play written before 1600.  I would recommend Titus Andronicus, The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, or A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  In a paper of 5-7 pages, argue a clear and specific thesis about how Shakespeare’s play reflects or upsets the Elizabethan “horizon of expectations” for drama?  Think about which material that we have been reading for class is most relevant to the play that you have chosen and focus closely on just one or, at most, two readings from class in your paper (in addition to your chosen Shakespeare play).  To help you think about what to write, consider the topics listed under “Response Papers” above.  How does Shakespeare’s play compare to the material that we have been reading for class in the areas of plot, character, values, conflict, setting, genre, form, language, etc.?  What is the most important similarity or difference?  How does that similarity reinforce (or how does that difference challenge) the Elizabethans’ “horizon of expectations” for a play?  (NOTE:  The answer to this last question will probably make an excellent thesis for your paper.)

You need not use outside sources for this paper; in fact, I would encourage you not to use outside sources (because I'd rather hear what you think than what some published scholar thinks).  Your paper will likely have two parts:

1. a section in which you characterize what the Elizabethan “horizon of expectations” would likely have been for your chosen Shakespeare play, based on one area (genre, character, conflict, values, setting, religion, or other) and with reference to just one or two readings from class, and
2. a section in which you discuss your chosen Shakespeare play and its relation to the Elizabethan “horizon of expectations” that you characterized in section #1.

You will submit this paper to me electronically in the “dropbox” of SOCS (not in hard copy or in class).

Your paper will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

1. Does the paper have a clear, specific thesis?  Does the thesis offer an interesting perspective or “hook” that is provocative without being gimmicky or offensive?
2. Does the paper's comparative analysis progress logically?  Does the paper have a clear and consistent overall organization that relates all the ideas of the paper together in support of the thesis with appropriate transitions to aid the reader (rather than simply a list of random similarities and differences without relation to one another or to the thesis)?  Does the paper have appropriate transitions to aid the reader in following the paper’s logic (rather than weak transitions, such as "The first...," "Another...," and "...also...")?
3. Does the paper provide relevant, concrete evidence and logically persuasive reasons for every assertion?
4. Does the paper show sensitivity to the concrete historicity of the literary works under consideration (rather than treat them as timeless museum pieces or reflect on them anachronistically)?
5. Does the paper exhibit confidence and insight when analyzing literary works not discussed in class?
6. Does the introduction to the paper offer an interesting, helpful preview of the content, logic, and organization of the paper?
7. Is factual information in the paper accurate?
8. Is the writing in the paper clear, effective, correct (according to the norms of standard American English), and appropriate to an academic setting?

PAPER 2.  Choose a play by Shakespeare (not the same play as for PAPER 1 and, I recommend, not a history play).  Research the specific literary sources of that play.  Focus on one source and read that source (not one of the sources that we read for class).  In a paper of 8-12 pages, argue a clear and specific thesis about the relationship between Shakespeare’s play and the source in the context of the “horizon of expectations” that we have been reconstructing in class.  To help you think about what to write, consider the following questions:

• Which are the most important sources for the play?  Why choose as your focus the source that you’ve chosen?  Why is it a particularly interesting or important source?
• How does your chosen source fit (or not fit) into the “horizon of expectations” that we have been reconstructing in class?  If the source is a play, how does it compare to the kinds of plays that we have been reading for class?  How is it related to other plays we’ve read?  If it is not a play, how does it compare to the kinds of stories that we have been characterizing as most popular for development on the Elizabethan stage?  How does Shakespeare’s choice of source reflect or upset the Elizabethan “horizon of expectations”?
• How does Shakespeare’s play compare to the source?  How has Shakespeare used and revised his source to create his play?  How do Shakespeare’s use of and changes to the source reflect or upset the Elizabethan “horizon of expectations”?

Do not try to answer all these questions in your paper.  Instead, use these questions to help you think about a clear and specific thesis that you want to argue in your paper.  Your paper will likely have three parts:

1. a section in which you characterize what the Elizabethan “horizon of expectations” would likely have been for your chosen Shakespeare play, based on one area (genre, character, conflict, values, setting, religion, or other) and with reference to just one or two readings from class,
2. a section in which you discuss Shakespeare’s source and its relation to the Elizabethan “horizon of expectations” that you characterized in section #1, and
3. a section in which you discuss Shakespeare’s play and its relation to its source and to the Elizabethan “horizon of expectations” that you characterized in section #1.

You will submit this paper to me electronically in the “dropbox” in SOCS (not in hard copy or in class).

Your PAPER 2 will be evaluated according to the evaluation criteria for PAPER 1, plus the following additional criterion:

9. Is the paper’s research thorough, reliable, informative, but not intrusive?
10. Has the paper developed an argument that is comprehensive, nuanced, and historically informed with attention to larger contexts as well as to specific texts?

COURSE SCHEDULE.  This schedule is subject to revision at the discretion of the professor.  Changes in the schedule will be shown in red.

Dates	Assignments
R Sep 1	Introductions
M Sep 5	NO CLASS (Labor Day) – class will be held on Tuesday instead
Cycle Plays of Shakespeare’s Youth
T Sep 6	The Murder of Abel and Noah and His Sons (in Medieval and Tudor Drama)
R Sep 8	the Brome Abraham and Isaac and The Second Shepherds’ Play (in Medieval and Tudor Drama)
Roman Influences
M Sep 12	Plautus, The Menaechmus Twins (elsewhere known as The Menaechmi)
R Sep 15	Plautus, Pseudolus
M Sep 19	Seneca, Thyestes
R Sep 22	Seneca, Phaedra
Tudor Plays of Shakespeare’s Youth
M Sep 26	Nicholas Udall, Ralph Roister Doister (in Medieval and Tudor Drama)
R Sep 29	Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville, Gorboduc (in Medieval and Tudor Drama)
The 1580s
M Oct 3	Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy (in English Renaissance Drama)
R Oct 6	John Lyly, Endymion (in English Renaissance Drama)
M Oct 10	Robert Greene, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (in English Renaissance Drama)
R Oct 13	Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great, Part I (in English Renaissance Drama)
M Oct 17	Christopher Marlowe, The Jew of Malta (in English Renaissance Drama) OPTIONAL THESIS PARAGRAPH for PAPER 1 DUE to me by email before class.
R Oct 20	MID-TERM EXAM
M Oct 24	NO CLASS (Mid-term Break) PAPER 1 DUE in the “Dropbox” of SOCS
The 1590s
R Oct 27	Christopher Marlowe, Edward II (in English Renaissance Drama)
F Oct 28	PAPER 1 DUE in the “Dropbox” of SOCS
M Oct 31	Arden of Faversham (in English Renaissance Drama)
R Nov 3	Thomas Dekker, The Shoemaker’s Holiday (in English Renaissance Drama)
The 1600s
M Nov 7	Francis Beaumont, The Knight of the Burning Pestle (in English Renaissance Drama)
R Nov 10	John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi (in English Renaissance Drama)
Sources of Elizabethan Plots
M Nov 14	Ovid, Metamorphoses, Books I, IV, and VI
R Nov 17	Ovid, Metamorphoses, Books X-XI and XV
M Nov 21	Plutarch, “Brutus”
R Nov 24	NO CLASS (Thanksgiving)
M Nov 28	Plutarch, “Mark Antony”
R Dec 1	“Duchess of Malfi” in The Palace of Pleasure
M Dec 5	“Romeo and Juliet” in The Palace of Pleasure
R Dec 8	“Diego and Ginevra” in The Palace of Pleasure OPTIONAL THESIS PARAGRAPH for PAPER 2 DUE to me by email before class.
R Dec 15	FINAL EXAM (2-4 p.m. in our regular room) PAPER 2 DUE in the “Dropbox” of SOCS

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