ENGL 117

Summer 2024 Part of Term S2

Part of Term S2
(8 week) Jun 10-Aug 1

Shakespeare on Film

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Credit: 3 hours.

Explores the ongoing reinterpretation and appropriation of Shakespeare plays in twentieth- and twenty-first century film. Expect to read around five plays and analyze two productions of each play, and to consider how Shakespeare can be transformed to meet different cultural and contextual demands of the screen. Lecture and discussion.

Same as MACS 117.

This course satisfies the General Education Criteria in Fall 2022 for:

Humanities – Lit & Arts

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ENGL 117 class schedule data for summer 2024
	CRN	Type	Section	Time	Day	Location	Instructor	Section Details
	41708	Online	AS	ARRANGED	n.a.	n.a.	Stevens, A	Part of Term: S2 Date Range: 06/10/24-08/01/24 Degree Notes: Humanities - Lit & Arts course. Section Info: SU24 ENGL 117 - Shakespeare on Film - Andrea Stevens - This introductory-level survey covers eight of Shakespeare’s plays alongside two film adaptations, one which retains the language of the original and one which sets aside the original text to reinvent the Shakespearean source altogether. So, for example, we begin with Franco Zeffirelli’s ‘realistic’, largely faithful film version of The Taming of the Shrew and consider it alongside the teen comedy Ten Things I Hate About You, which retains little if any of Shakespeare's language, but adapts the taming motif to an American high school setting. Some of the driving questions of the course include our interrogation of the ‘rules’ for adaptation – how far can a film-maker depart from the source material and still have his or her film ‘count’ as a Shakespeare adaptation? Why was there such a boom for Shakespeare marketed to teens and mass audiences in the late 90s/early oughts? What happens when film-makers recast Shakespeare's love stories as stories of same-sex desire? How do casting practices shape our perception of a film, and who gets excluded from being able to embody, and tell, Shakespearean narratives in the first place? Above all, we will ask ourselves why Shakespeare continues to exert such an influence on our popular culture—for good or for ill. Students will be encouraged to imagine their own ideal stagings of Shakespeare on screen via different activities and will engage with their peers in the class via recorded discussion responses uploaded to our course canvas. Although some familiarity with Shakespeare helps, it isn't necessary or required, nor are you expected already to be experts in the vocabulary of film criticism; we'll build and refine that terminology as we move through the course. The class is asynchronous, but you are expected to keep pace with the module work-load and assignment deadlines, namely the weekly discussion posts as well as the four essays (please note that these oral and written assignments are designed in particular to promote course objective 5). You will have ample opportunity to engage with the professor over synchronous formats (email; zoom office hours). This course is sequenced in order, from one module to the next. It is recommended that you follow the course schedule, navigating through each module alongside your classmates. All activities are submitted digitally. The primary modes of communication are email announcements.