Shakespeare AUB 116 B (In Graduate Office)
English 4430-001Dr. Jacqueline Vanhoutte
Shakespeare AUB 116 B (in Graduate Office)
T/R9:30-10:50AM e-mail:
LANG 215Office Hrs: T/R 11-12,
or by appointment
Honors Shakespeare
Course Description: This course surveys Shakespeare’s career through close readings of representative works.To acquaint ourselves with Shakespeare’s stylistic complexity, we will pay close attention to sentence structure, figurative language, image patterns,allusions, multiple meanings, and so on. Although our major focus will be on the works themselves, we will also consider their relation to various aspects of Renaissance culture, such as contemporary attitudes towards marriage, religion, and politics. Since most of the works we will read are plays, we will attend as well to issues of performance.
The basic goals of this course are to increase your confidence and enjoyment in reading, discussing, and writing about Shakespeare. You should read the assigned works, think about them, and come to class prepared to discuss them. To achieve the best results you should read individual playsat least twice.And take your time when reading: Shakespeare’s works have survived in part because they speak a language of feeling that can only be appreciated by an investment of your own emotional and intellectual energy. As you read, you should keep track of questions and ideas.In other words, you should not only read the material, but also begin thinking about it. I believe that the process of garnering meaning from literature is a communal one; accordingly, I shall structure the class around your contributions—questions and commentaries—as much as possible.Those who are having difficulties with the plays may supplement their reading by watching filmed productions of the plays, including those available through the UNT media library. Be careful, though—watching a film cannot substitute for careful reading. Not only do filmed versions often cut the plays, theyalso present one of many possible interpretations.Always read a play before watching a movie of it. Students unwilling to invest their time in careful reading should consider dropping the course.
Caveat: The reading material for this class contains “adult situations.”Students taking this class should be willing to consider in a mature and constructive fashion religious, political, and ethical perspectives alien to their own.
Honors Objectives:
- Honors courses emphasize development of analytical and evaluative skills through readings from primary sources, journal articles and other supplementary materials.
- Honors courses encourage students to engage in high-level thinking and learning through activities such as intensive discussion; writing in small, collaborative learning settings; and intensive research papers and projects.
- Honors courses promote independent thinking by making students accountable for important aspects of their learning.
- Honors courses place material in a conceptual context that illustrates its importance and relationship to other knowledge.
- Honors courses provide enhanced opportunities for students to develop research skills and produce independent, original research or creative products as part of the course requirements.
- Honors courses include innovative approaches to course content and teaching so that honors courses can serve as campus-wide prototypes.
Pearls: You will write two one-page, single-spaced papers over the course of the term. On the day your paper is due, you should bring enough copies of it to class to share with your peers.You will be reading the paper aloud in class. Before you write your pearls, you should complete all of the assigned reading for the day.Pearls should take the form of a focused argument about an aspect of the play assigned for the day; the most focused papers are invariably the most successful ones. You might think about focusing on a prop, an image, a costume choice, a metaphor, an allusion, scene, a minor character, a soliloquy, etc. Whatever you do, steer clear from broad generalizations.Your thesis should be as specific as possible and your argument should be organized, original, and plausible.I call these papers pearls because they should be polished: every word and every idea should be in its proper place, all extraneous material should be omitted. Please remember also that a thesis must be arguable, and that therefore it cannot be a statement that is generally acknowledged to be true by readers of the work.One good way of coming up with possible theses is to ask a series of “why” or “how” questions (e.g., why does Shakespeare introduce Lady Macbeth while she’s reading a letter? How might that set the audience up to think about her in certain ways?). Although I do not expect pearls to be as thorough from an evidentiary point of view as the final essay, I do expect you to exert care with the argumentation and with the writing. A successful pearl should also generate discussion in class. Submit your paper through Turnitin on Blackboard by 5 PM on the day BEFORE you are assigned to give in class. Students who fail to show up for class on a day that they have been assigned a pearl will earn an “F” for that grade.
Final Paper:You will write a 4-5 pages, double-spaced, final paper. All papers must be submitted via Turnitin on Blackboard. I do not accept late papers.
Quizzes: I will give quizzes regularly. These quizzes will test knowledge of the works and of the supplementary reading; they may also ask for information made available to you in class. Those who have kept up with the reading and who attend class should “ace” quizzes without a problem. Quizzes cannot be made up.Latecomers will not be allowed to take the quiz.
Journal: You will keep a journal in a notebook.In it, you will record your reactions to the reading assigned for that week and/or respond to assigned questions. The first few journal assignments are listed on the syllabus.After that, they will be posted on Black Board or you will write on topics of your own choosing. If you hope to earn a good grade, you should aim to havethree or foursubstantial entries for every week that the class meets. Journals are part of the participation grade for this class.Please bring your journals to class every day.
Group Performance: In order to pass the class, all students are required to participate in a performance projectclasses (see BB for more information this assignment).Although I will set aside some class time for this activity, you will also have to meet on your own time several times.
Required Texts:
The Essential Shakespeare (Norton).You must bring the text to every class meeting.
The Prince, Niccólo Machiavelli, any translation including the one available on project Gutenberg
(
Various Course handouts (on BB)
Course Work:
Pearl 110%
Pearl 210 %
Final Paper25%
Quizzes20%
Participation (attendance, contributions to discussion, journal)20%
Group performance15 %
Extra Credit Opportunities:Students who attend theatrical productions of plays by Shakespeare and who write a short review (one-page, double-spaced) will be awarded 100 points towards their quiz grade.Please hand in your ticket stubs with the review. The Dallas Shakespeare Festival is doing The Tempest this fall ( The Angelika Film Centers in Dallas and Plano screen live theater from the RSC and the Globe in England; check their websites for dates and times. These shows will count the same as a live theater production in D/FW area. The Winspear runs a series of staged readings that also count (
Americans with Disabilities Acts:
“The University of North Texas makes reasonable academic accommodation for students with disabilities. Students seeking accommodation must first register with the Office of Disability Accommodation (ODA) to verify their eligibility. If a disability is verified, the ODA will provide you with an accommodation letter to be delivered to faculty to begin a private discussion regarding your specific needs in a course. You may request accommodations at any time, however, ODA notices of accommodation should be provided as early as possible in the semester to avoid any delay in implementation. Note that students must obtain a new letter of accommodation for every semester and must meet with each faculty member prior to implementation in each class. For additional information see the Office of Disability Accommodation website at You may also contact them by phone at 940.565.4323.”
Essential competencies for this course include the abilities to read and interpret literature; to participate in class discussions about ideas in the literature; and to write mature, coherent essays about the literature.If you have a disability for which you will require accommodations, please register with the Office of Disability Accommodation and present your request for accommodation to me by September 15
Attendance, Participation, Basic Responsibilities: I will be taking attendance regularly and monitoring your behavior in class throughout the term.Please follow basic classroom etiquette: be on time, pay attention, stay awake, remain in your seats until the class is over, resist the lure of electronic equipment, and refrain from packing up until the end of class. The only reading material on your desk should be the reading assigned for this class. Once class starts, you may talk only to the class as a whole, about the subject under consideration. It is unacceptable to leaveclass to take a phone call or go the bathroom (you should turn your phone off during class). A simple rule of thumb: any behavior that is distracting to me or to the other students is discourteous and will not be tolerated.I retain the right to dock your participation grade (20% of your final grade) for infractions against common courtesy, for chronic lateness, or for absenteeism.Students who fail to show up for 5or more classes willearn an F for the course.I retain the right to reward students who make serious efforts of attendance and participation.Only students who participate regularly and constructively will earn a good grade (defined as a B or a B+) for participation.The only excused absences are the ones defined as such by university policy ( Unless your absence fits one of these categories, I do not need to know your reasons for absences.Be aware that if you skip classes to play hooky early in the term, you may end up in violation of the absence policy later, even if you have a legitimate excuse. By remaining in this class, you agree to the conditions stipulated in the syllabus.As an adult, you are responsible for your own actions and decisions. This responsibility includes keeping track of your own performance.I do not dispense warnings to students on the verge of violating the policies for this course. These rules apply to all students equally—that is what makes them fair.No one receives special treatment.
Electronic Devices:Please turn off all electronic devices—including watches, cell phones and laptops—during this class.An exception will be made for students who present me with a request from ODA.A failure to observe this request will affect your grade adversely.If you would like to know the rationale behind this policy, read the following column from the Washington Post,
Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty: Plagiarism is the representation of another’s words or ideas as one’s own.Penalties for plagiarism and other forms of cheating range from assigning an “F” for a specific assignment, to assigning an “F” for the course, to dismissing a student from the university.I take plagiarism very seriously. (see
Senate Bill 11 (“Campus Carry” Law): Students must read UNT’s policy on concealed handguns on campus (see Note that 1) only licensed persons may legally carry handguns on campus, and 2) this right only authorizes the licensed carrying of “handgun[s], the presence of which is not openly noticeable to the ordinary observation of a reasonable person.” Per policy, if a gun is “partially or wholly visible, even if holstered,” it is not legal on campus, whether or not it is licensed. I report all illegal activities to the UNT police, regardless of their nature.
PLEASE CHECK BLACKBOARD AND YOUR UNIVERSITY EMAIL REGULARLY FOR MESSAGES.All emails that you send me should identify you clearly as a student in this class in the subject heading.Remember that when you write an email to a professor, you are presenting a version ofyourself to someone charged with evaluating you and whose good opinion you should therefore wish to secure. Be sure to observe all the niceties.I do not check my university email on the week-end or over holidays.
Reading Schedule (open to revision and updating):
Read all primary sources carefully, completely, and repeatedly.Be sure to consult the notes provided by your edition. Unless I explicitly direct you to read only part of a play,you should read a play in its entirety by the first day of discussion. Please be sure also to readany additional material assigned below.
8/30:Introduction
BOOTCAMP
9/1:Montaigne, “Of Friendship” (BB)
Castiglione, excerpts from The Book of the Courtier(handout)
Shakespeare, Sonnets 1, 20, 116, 130, 138
Journal #1:Approach the primary works assigned for today as if you were an
anthropologist.What can these readings tell us about Renaissance culture?What sort of values,
habits of thought, or assumptions do these different works have in common? What can you deduce about relational structures in Renaissance society? How are these similar to, or different from, our own? What other similarities or differences can you find with our own culture?
Journal #2: Identify a key metaphor, simile, antithesis, personification, oxymoron, or pun in sonnet 20 (look up the terms if you are not sure what they mean). Why might Shakespeare have chosen this poetic device?What meanings, nuances, or associations does it allow him to introduce into the poem?Look up words that strike you as significant in the Oxford English Dictionary (available on line via UNT library).
9/6:Stephen Greenblatt, “General Introduction,” in Norton Shakespeare
Excerpts from Ovid’s Metamorphosis and Plato’s Symposium (on BB); sonnets, cont.
Journal #1: Identify a(nother) key metaphor, simile, antithesis, personification, oxymoron, or pun in one of the assigned sonnets (look up the terms if you are not sure what they mean). Why might Shakespeare have chosen this poetic device? What meanings, nuances, or associations does it allow him to introduce into the poem? Look up words that strike you as significant in the Oxford English Dictionary (available on line via UNT library).
Journal #2:Shakespeare is a master of “allusion” (again, make sure to look up any terms that you don’t know). Identify an allusion, to a work I have provided or to another work that you have identified, in one of the assigned sonnets.Why do writers make allusions? How does the allusion you have identified exemplify these general functions? What does it achieve more specifically? Why might Shakespeare have made the allusion to this particular workin this particular poem or play?What sorts of meanings or possibilities does the allusion introduce into his work?
9/8:A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Journal #1: A Midsummer Night’s Dream opens on an exchange between Theseus and Hippolyta.
Do a close reading of that exchange, analyzing any figurative language, puns, allusions, etc. Look up words that strike you as significant in the Oxford English Dictionary (available on line via UNT library). What does Shakespeare achieve by opening the play in this way? What themes are introduced? What seem to be potential sources of tension and conflict? What do you make of the relationship between these two characters? What might they be wearing and how does that matter? What sort of actor might you cast in these parts?
Journal #2: MND has two settings: Athens and the woods.How would you describe the relationship between them? If you were a director, what would you want emphasize about each setting?How would you go about emphasizing it?How does Shakespeare use the different setting to develop thematic conflicts in the play?
9/13: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Andrew Gurr, “The Shakespearean Stage,” in Norton Shakespeare
Journal Question #1: What is the relation between the main plot (the lovers) and the subplot (the
rude mechanicals) in MND? Why might Shakespeare have included the business with Bottom and his fellows?What ideas/themes/concerns does the subplot develop? In considering this
question, you should take into consideration Theseus’s big speech at the beginning of Act 5.
Journal Question #2: Apply what you learn about staging conditions to a specific aspect of MND
(a character, a scene, a bit of dialogue). What extra-textual (nonverbal) tools for meaning
does Shakespeare rely on in MND? How might you turn to issues of performance to solve specific interpretative problems or emphasize certain thematic aspects of the play?How, in other words, might you convey an interpretation of the scene/character/dialogue on stage?
9/15:MND, cont.; Act 1 of Much Ado about Nothing
Katharine Eisaman Maus,“Shakespearean Comedy” in Norton Shakespeare