Professor Holmberg Spring, 2016
THA 102b
[preliminary syllabus for 2016]
Shakespeare: On Stage and Screen
There are many different and valid ways to engage with Shakespeare’s masterpieces. One can read his plays and critical essays about them. One can also see his plays performed on stage and screen. Although one can approach Shakespeare using different methodologies, he did not write his plays to be read. In fact, he had no interest in publishing the plays. He conceived them as scripts for specific actors and wrote them to be seen and heard on stage. Only with the rise of the institution of literature in the nineteenth century did reading supplant performance as the dominant mode of approaching Shakespeare.
This course sees Shakespeare as a man of the theatre who thought visually as well as verbally. Students will explore Shakespeare’s texts in their original theatrical context, subsequent production history, and migration to film.
The goal of the course is to learn about Shakespeare by seeing how great artists have interpreted his works. Landmark performances on stage and screen have much to teach us about the plays. Many of these performances have changed the way we understand Shakespeare. Although we will look at the historical evolution of Shakespeare in production, the emphasis will be on twentieth-century innovators. To achieve this end and to explore the relationship between a performance and the script that inspired it, I will work on the assumption that you have read recently or will read or reread the key texts we are working with. Before exploring each play’s production history, we will look at the text in class.
Although other plays may be discussed in terms of their importance to the history of Shakespeare on stage and screen, the following plays will serve as the basis for our analysis of Shakespeare:
The Taming of the Shrew
The Merchant of Venice
Hamlet
Macbeth
The bookstore has the Signet edition of these plays. If you have a reputable edition of Shakespeare already, that is fine, although there may be differences in pagination and in the numbering of lines. On the days that we look at the text, please bring your copy of the play with you, as we will be analyzing scenes carefully. There will also be slide lectures to trace the history of Shakespeare in production. In other classes we will analyze scenes from various films of the same play to explore how different productions represent the same play differently. The reading list will be supplemented by slide lectures and films, and you can stream many films from the course’s website. After each class, I will e-mail you to confirm the subject of the next class. Although there may be variations in the following general pattern, we will first look at Shakespeare’s script, then at the history of the play in production, and finally at cinematic representations.
In addition, essays that explore the negotiations between text and performance will be distributed as handouts or posted on the website. Students will also perform scenes in class to experience how actors live a text. Although this is not a course in acting or directing Shakespeare, actors and directors will learn much by seeing how great artists have approached the plays. The course will be organized around the following topics:
Negotiating Shakespeare
Script, Stage, Screen
Shakespeare Through the Ages
Slide lecture: Reinventing Shakespeare on Stage
Visual Poetry: From Word to Image
Cinematic Shakespeares: Olivier, Welles, Kurasowa, Branagh
The Grammar of Cinema
Lights, Camera, Editing, Sound
Problem Plays: Tragic Laughter
The Taming of the Shrew
The Merchant of Venice
Power Politics or Existential Despair?
Whose Shakespeare?
Appropriations: Freud, Marx, Brecht, Kott: Psychology, Politics, Existentialism
Macbeth
Hamlet
Brush Up Your Shakespeare
Laughing at the Bard: Parodies of Shakespeare
Shakespeare in Popular Culture
Requirements
Students will write one short paper and one final research paper. Details will follow. Hopefully, the short papers will be a response paper to a production. It may be possible to substitute a creative paper for the research paper (creative papers in the past have included videos, plays or parodies based on Shakespeare, songs, short stories, poems, etc.)
Late papers without written documentation of a medical emergency or other similar emergency documented in writing will be downgraded one letter grade. Each subsequent week the paper is late will bring the grade down another letter. Students who miss the in-class quiz without a written excuse for the emergencies outlined above will receive a zero for that exercise. Please do not claim any extenuating circumstances without written documentation from a recognized authority to substantiate an emergency that falls under the above categories. Any extensions must be requested in writing and must receive a written response in writing before the due date. The written response must be submitted with the paper.
Papers are due at the start of the class on the day of the deadline. Papers turned in after the start of the class will be downgraded one letter grade.
Electronic submissions are not accepted. Papers must be double spaced and printed on only one side of each sheet of paper. Number the pages.
Time constraints may necessitate some alterations in this schedule. Handouts will be passed out only once. If you are absent, please call a classmate to pick up a copy for you. Otherwise, borrow a copy from a classmate and xerox it.
Handouts will be passed out only once. Do not ask for a handout from a previous class.
I am always eager to hear your questions and comments. Before intervening in class, however, be sure that the comment is relevant to the topic under discussion and is of interest to all the students in the class. Questions or comments of an individual nature should be saved for after class or during my office hours.
If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis University and wish to have a reasonable accommodation made for you in this class, please see me immediately.
Always bring your copy of the text we are discussing to class with you.
Success in this 4 credit hour course is based on the expectation that students will spend a minimum of 9 hours of study time per week in preparation for class (readings, papers, discussion sections, preparation for exams, etc.).
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