ENGL 418

Fall 2012 All Classes

All Classes

Shakespeare

Credit: 3 OR 4 hours.

Survey of the plays and poems of William Shakespeare. Reading assignments will reflect the generic diversity and historical breadth of Shakespeare's work.

3 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours. Prerequisite: One year of college literature or consent of instructor.

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ENGL 418 class schedule data for fall 2012
CRN	Type	Section	Time	Day	Location	Instructor	Section Details
40436	Lecture-Discussion	1G	3:30PM -4:45PM	TR	386 Armory	Mohamed, F	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 08/27/12-12/12/12 Credit: 4 hours Section Info: This course will cover Shakespeare?s plays and poems. We will especially examine the generic complexities of the ?problem comedies? and of such major tragedies as Othello and King Lear; and the political and cultural climates of performance affecting the plays, both in early modern England and beyond Shakespeare?s time and place. The ability of plays both to reflect and challenge the expectations of their cultural milieux is evinced in Paul Robeson?s black Othello of 1930 London, or director Vishal Bharadwaj?s ?half-caste? Othello figure in the Bollywood film Omkara. What do we make of Lear?s three daughters become sons, and samurai, in the Japanese film Ran? Or Wole Soyinka?s transformation of Macbeth into a satire on African despots in King Baabu? These interpretations not only take Shakespeare in new directions, but also invite us to reconsider elements of the original that might initially go unnoticed. Students should expect to spend significant time reading material, especially if they are unfamiliar with Shakespeare?s English Restriction(s): Restricted to Graduate - Urbana-Champaign.
32335	Lecture-Discussion	1U	3:30PM -4:45PM	TR	386 Armory	Mohamed, F	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 08/27/12-12/12/12 Credit: 3 hours Section Info: This course will cover Shakespeare?s plays and poems. We will especially examine the generic complexities of the ?problem comedies? and of such major tragedies as Othello and King Lear; and the political and cultural climates of performance affecting the plays, both in early modern England and beyond Shakespeare?s time and place. The ability of plays both to reflect and challenge the expectations of their cultural milieux is evinced in Paul Robeson?s black Othello of 1930 London, or director Vishal Bharadwaj?s ?half-caste? Othello figure in the Bollywood film Omkara. What do we make of Lear?s three daughters become sons, and samurai, in the Japanese film Ran? Or Wole Soyinka?s transformation of Macbeth into a satire on African despots in King Baabu? These interpretations not only take Shakespeare in new directions, but also invite us to reconsider elements of the original that might initially go unnoticed. Students should expect to spend significant time reading material, especially if they are unfamiliar with Shakespeare?s English Restriction(s): Restricted to Undergrad - Urbana-Champaign.
40440	Lecture-Discussion	2G	11:00AM -12:15PM	TR	259 English Building	Newcomb, L	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 08/27/12-12/12/12 Credit: 4 hours Section Info: This course explores seven Shakespearean plays from a cross-section of dramatic genres. We?ll look especially at the features that made these plays popular in their day: their open staging, their playful language, their laying bare of the period?s familial, national, gender, and racial tensions. But we?ll also find that the cultural significance of ?Shakespeare? accumulated through the plays? later lives, thanks to their continuous, often resistant, reinventions by performers, literary critics, and adapters world-wide. That constant reinvention demands that we, too, employ multiple interpretive practices to continue opening up the plays: close reading; informal staging; film analysis; feminist, historicist, postcolonial, and queer studies critical approaches. Be ready for proactive discussion, performance experiments, and rigorous written work, including informal journals, a response to at least one on-campus Shakespeare production, two focused short papers, a longer paper using guided research (7-9 pp.), and a final exam. TEXTS: (Required) Greenblatt et al, eds., The Norton Shakespeare (1st or 2nd edition); McDonald, ed., Bedford Companion to Shakespeare (2nd edition); one contextual edition of a play TBA. Restriction(s): Restricted to Graduate - Urbana-Champaign.
32340	Lecture-Discussion	2U	11:00AM -12:15PM	TR	259 English Building	Newcomb, L	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 08/27/12-12/12/12 Credit: 3 hours Section Info: This course explores seven Shakespearean plays from a cross-section of dramatic genres. We?ll look especially at the features that made these plays popular in their day: their open staging, their playful language, their laying bare of the period?s familial, national, gender, and racial tensions. But we?ll also find that the cultural significance of ?Shakespeare? accumulated through the plays? later lives, thanks to their continuous, often resistant, reinventions by performers, literary critics, and adapters world-wide. That constant reinvention demands that we, too, employ multiple interpretive practices to continue opening up the plays: close reading; informal staging; film analysis; feminist, historicist, postcolonial, and queer studies critical approaches. Be ready for proactive discussion, performance experiments, and rigorous written work, including informal journals, a response to at least one on-campus Shakespeare production, two focused short papers, a longer paper using guided research (7-9 pp.), and a final exam. TEXTS: (Required) Greenblatt et al, eds., The Norton Shakespeare (1st or 2nd edition); McDonald, ed., Bedford Companion to Shakespeare (2nd edition); one contextual edition of a play TBA. Restriction(s): Restricted to Undergrad - Urbana-Champaign.
40439	Lecture-Discussion	3G	10:00AM -10:50AM	MWF	259 English Building	Stevens, A	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 08/27/12-12/12/12 Credit: 4 hours Section Info: With the help of critical readings drawing from queer theory, feminist theory, and performance theory, we?ll consider the exciting and sometimes dangerous mobility of gender, identity, and erotic desire in seven of Shakespeare?s plays (and one play written by his contemporary, Ben Jonson). We?ll probably begin with The Taming of the Shrew and Midsummer Night?s Dream, and then move on to three comedies that feature the convention of the cross-dressed heroine: The Merchant of Venice; As You Like It; and Twelfth Night. Next, we?ll consider Jonson?s ingenious twist on this convention in his comedy Epicoene, and conclude by asking how ?masculinity? is achieved and maintained, won and lost, in the tragedies Macbeth and Coriolanus. Even as we pay attention to the range of subject positions, social relationships, and affective connections these plays imagine, we will endeavor to situate Shakespeare within his own theatrical context, reminding ourselves that these plays originated as scripts for performance that were conceived and produced under specific material conditions and in light of specific ?original practices? that we will come to understand as the course progresses. Nor will we neglect the afterlives of these plays, noting how Shakespeare consistently gets reinvented by successive generations. The class will be conducted as a discussion. Evaluation will be based on participation, including a willingness to read lines out loud and block scenes in class; clear and committed engagement to keeping up with the secondary readings; one group performance project; one final examination; and three short written assignments. This course assumes no prior college-level study in Shakespeare, but English 200 (or 101 and 102) is prerequisite; it is also strongly recommended that you take ENGL 301(?Critical Approaches to Lit?) before taking this class. Restriction(s): Restricted to Graduate - Urbana-Champaign.
32339	Lecture-Discussion	3U	10:00AM -10:50AM	MWF	259 English Building	Stevens, A	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 08/27/12-12/12/12 Credit: 3 hours Section Info: With the help of critical readings drawing from queer theory, feminist theory, and performance theory, we?ll consider the exciting and sometimes dangerous mobility of gender, identity, and erotic desire in seven of Shakespeare?s plays (and one play written by his contemporary, Ben Jonson). We?ll probably begin with The Taming of the Shrew and Midsummer Night?s Dream, and then move on to three comedies that feature the convention of the cross-dressed heroine: The Merchant of Venice; As You Like It; and Twelfth Night. Next, we?ll consider Jonson?s ingenious twist on this convention in his comedy Epicoene, and conclude by asking how ?masculinity? is achieved and maintained, won and lost, in the tragedies Macbeth and Coriolanus. Even as we pay attention to the range of subject positions, social relationships, and affective connections these plays imagine, we will endeavor to situate Shakespeare within his own theatrical context, reminding ourselves that these plays originated as scripts for performance that were conceived and produced under specific material conditions and in light of specific ?original practices? that we will come to understand as the course progresses. Nor will we neglect the afterlives of these plays, noting how Shakespeare consistently gets reinvented by successive generations. The class will be conducted as a discussion. Evaluation will be based on participation, including a willingness to read lines out loud and block scenes in class; clear and committed engagement to keeping up with the secondary readings; one group performance project; one final examination; and three short written assignments. This course assumes no prior college-level study in Shakespeare, but English 200 (or 101 and 102) is prerequisite; it is also strongly recommended that you take ENGL 301(?Critical Approaches to Lit?) before taking this class. Restriction(s): Restricted to Undergrad - Urbana-Champaign.
32337	Lecture-Discussion	4G	1:00PM -1:50PM	MWF	69 English Building	Behrens, M	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 08/27/12-12/12/12 Credit: 4 hours Section Info: English 418 is a survey of the plays and poems of William Shakespeare. Reading assignments will reflect the generic diversity and historical breadth of Shakespeare?s work. Restriction(s): Restricted to Graduate - Urbana-Champaign.
32334	Lecture-Discussion	4U	1:00PM -1:50PM	MWF	69 English Building	Behrens, M	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 08/27/12-12/12/12 Credit: 3 hours Section Info: English 418 is a survey of the plays and poems of William Shakespeare. Reading assignments will reflect the generic diversity and historical breadth of Shakespeare?s work. Restriction(s): Restricted to Undergrad - Urbana-Champaign.