Syllabus for Spring 2022

First day: Introductions and course outline

First (brief) assignment, due by the end of today. (Normally, assignments here are due before class, but because this is the first day, this one is due after class.)

First, go to the Self-introductions document in our class OneDrive folder and introduce yourself.

Then, find your Classwork Document and type "Hello, World!" in the space for the first assignment, so that we can ensure that all the Classwork Documents are up and running.

• Professor Simpson's two-part video introduction to imagery, metaphor, and repetition (class YouTube channel through PWeb)
• Speech #1 (Viola from Twelfth Night) in Pioneer Web Documents
• The excellent BBC podcast In Our Time on Shakespeare's Life

Assignment for the classwork document: by 10:00 a.m. on class day, write a paragraph that uses two separate, specific moments from Viola's speech and connects them to one of the concepts from the video.

Note: here and throughout this syllabus, the first (less indented) reading or link is required, while the second (more indented) reading or link is supplemental and optional. Here, for example, the videos and speech are required, whereas the podcast episode is optional.

• Professor Simpson's handout on Close Reading (PDF)
• Speech #2 (Gloucester, the future Richard III, from Richard III) in Pioneer Web Documents

Assignment for the classwork document: on your own, use the steps described in the close reading document to work through the speech. Choose one of those steps that you find especially interesting or productive. By 10:00 a.m. on class day, write a paragraph about what you did for that step and what you discovered when you applied the close reading method.

• Professor Simpson's video introduction to meter (prosody and scansion) (class YouTube channel through PWeb)
• Connections on blank verse (Pioneer Web Documents)

Assignment for the classwork document: on the University of Virginia's "For Better or Verse" site, go to the page for Shakespeare's Sonnet 18. The interactive interface can be fun; try it out, and if you like it, scan the stresses and feet of at least the first eight lines of the poem, and use the online tool to check your work with the buttons to the right of the line. (If the interface is not working for you or if you would rather work by hand, you can also print or write the eight lines and your scanning.) By 10:00 a.m. on class day, write a paragraph about a line of the sonnet you find difficult or confusing to scan, and why.

• Film: from John Barton's 1979 Playing Shakespeare: Trevor Nunn and David Suchet on Sonnet 138

• Professor Simpson's introductory video on Shakespeare's sonnets (use the Pweb link to the class YouTube channel)
• Read Connections on The Sonnet: web version or PDF version

• Shakespeare's Sonnets 1, 2, 3, 5, 15, 16, and 20
• The Folger Shakespeare Library's page with lots of great information about the sonnets

Assignment for the classwork document: by 10:00 a.m. on class day, using one of the week's videos or readings, write a paragraph about something unusual and interesting you find in one of the sonnets, connecting at least three specific moments in the text.

Close Reading Assignment due by 10:00 a.m. on the day of class. You have no other assignment for today. We will use the close reading assignments as the basis for class discussion.

We will not have class on this "Working Differently" day. At some point before Wednesday's class, watch Being Shakespeare with Simon Callow.

• Hamlet, Act I
  • Facebook Hamlet (spoilers, sort of)

First Act Response from the Weekly Routine

• Hamlet, Act II

Middle Acts Response, version A, from the Weekly Routine

• Hamlet, Act III

  • Ben Crystal performing the "To Be Or Not To Be" speech in Shakespearean Original Pronunciation (OP)

Middle Acts Response, version B, from the Weekly Routine

• Hamlet, Acts IV and V

Final Acts Response from the Weekly Routine

• Erik Simpson, Five Ways of Looking at a Thesis
• Critical history of Hamlet

We will do an in-class writing exercise based on the readings.

• Film of Hamlet, Royal Shakespeare Company, directed by Robin Lough and with Paapa Essiedu as Hamlet

Adaptation/Criticism Response from the Weekly Routine

• Parker on feminism
• Elaine Showalter, "Representing Ophelia: Women, Madness, and the Responsibilities of Feminist Criticism"
  • In Our Time on Shakespeare and Literary Criticism

Adaptation/Criticism Response from the Weekly Routine

• Parker on historicism and cultural studies

• Stephen Greenblatt, from Hamlet in Purgatory, at least to the middle of page 237, optionally to the end of the chapter (Pioneer Web Documents)

• Complete the Treasure Hunt of the MIND (in our OneDrive folder) and bring your findings to the library for class.

We will meet in the Burling Library computer lab (lower floor) today.

Your assignment for the Classwork Document (due by 10:00 a.m. on class day) is the first set of Paper Prototypes. We will do a workshop with them in class.

Your assignment for the Classwork Document (due by 10:00 a.m. on class day) is to take a couple of additional steps building each of two paper prototype ideas. Write three paragraphs: one summarizing what you learned in the workshop on Friday, and then one about each of two possible papers. In most cases, I would expect these paper ideas to be building on two of the ideas you prototyped and workshopped on Friday, but if you have been inspired to try out a new idea for one of them, that is fine as well.

Instead of meeting as a group, we will have individual conferences about your paper ideas.

• Much Ado about Nothing, Act I
  • Shakespeare's Works in online texts from the Folger Shakespeare Library

  • In Our Time on Shakespeare's Work

First Act Response from the Weekly Routine

• Erik Simpson, Two Functions of Academic Transitions

Your assignment for the Classwork Document (due by 10:00 a.m. on class day) is to choose one of your paper ideas-in-progress and try out some transitions. Just write three sentences that you could imagine starting three different body paragraphs in your paper, trying to be sure that each of them meets the two criteria in the transitions handout.

• Much Ado about Nothing, Acts II and III

Middle Acts Response, version A, from the Weekly Routine

• Much Ado about Nothing, Acts IV and V

Final Acts Response from the Weekly Routine

HAMLET PAPER DUE BY EMAIL ATTACHMENT OF WORD PROCESSOR DOCUMENT at 4:00 p.m.

We will not have class today as you finish your papers.

• Film: Kenneth Branagh, Much Ado about Nothing (1993, on DVD reserve at Burling or on many streaming services if you want to rent it or use a free trial)
  • The film's IMDB page

  • And its MRQE page

Adaptation/Criticism Response from the Weekly Routine

• The Merchant of Venice, Act I

• Parker on queer studies

First Act Response from the Weekly Routine

• The Merchant of Venice, Acts II and III
  • Contextual readings on finance (Pioneer Web Documents)

Middle Acts Response, version B, from the Weekly Routine

• The Merchant of Venice, Acts IV and V
  • [optional] Contextual readings on religion (Pioneer Web Documents)

Final Acts Response from the Weekly Routine

• Film: Michael Radford, The Merchant of Venice (2004) (online streaming through the College, also on DVD reserve at Burling Library)
  • Film: Barton, section 4 of Playing Shakespeare: Exploring a Character (on Shylock)
  • The Radford film's IMDB page

  • And its MRQE page

Adaptation/Criticism Response from the Weekly Routine

• Othello, Act I

• Parker on postcolonial and race studies

First Act Response from the Weekly Routine

• Othello, Acts II and III

Middle Acts Response, version A, from the Weekly Routine

• Othello, Acts IV and V
  • Shakespearean Marbury

Final Acts Response from the Weekly Routine

Your assignment for the Classwork Document (due by 10:00 a.m. on class day) is the second set of Paper Prototypes. We will do a workshop with them in class.

• The Annotated Bibliography Assignment (including the full PDF version linked on that page). Note that your task for today is to READ the assignment, not to do the assignment. We're leading up to that.

• Professor Simpson's Quick Guide to Chicago NB Style

We will do an in-class workshop on sample bibliography entries.

In place of class and in the spirit of "working differently," we will have individual conferences about your paper prototypes during the middle of this week.

• King Lear, Act I

First Act Response from the Weekly Routine

SECOND (NON-HAMLET) PAPER DUE BY EMAIL ATTACHMENT OF WORD PROCESSOR DOCUMENT at 11:00 a.m. Iowa time

This is also the deadline for pre-portfolio revisions of the first paper. (You can always revise your portfolio submissions until you submit the portfolio.) Remember to mark clearly the changes you have made, so I can focus on them as I read.

In class, we will watch do a performance activity based on the beginning of King Lear.

• King Lear, Acts II and III

Middle Acts Response, version B, from the Weekly Routine

• King Lear, Acts IV and V
  • An excellent conversation about Lear from the podcast Entitled Opinions, with Stephen Orgel and host Robert Harrison

Final Acts Response from the Weekly Routine

PEER REVIEW OF RESEARCH PRODUCTS: Bring to class THREE COPIES of a) two full entries for your annotated bibliography and b) two paragraphs taken from current versions of your papers in which you quote an external source.

Put the text of this assignment in your Classwork Document as well, so that you (and I) have a record of your work that you can find easily.

PEER REVIEW OF SKELETON PAPERS: Bring to class THREE COPIES of a current version of one of your papers that removes the body paragraphs except for the first sentence of each one. Your version should have a title, first paragraph, transition sentences, last paragraph, and Works Cited list. In class, you will share this skeletal paper with a group and work through a set of questions to evaluate it.

Put the text of this assignment in your Classwork Document as well, so that you (and I) have a record of your work that you can find easily.

No responses: we will leave time for end-of-course carnival events, contests of skill, and parades.

PORTFOLIO DUE BY EMAIL ATTACHMENT AT NOON

The portfolio submission will consist of an email with three attachments: the completed portfolio template and the final copies of each of your two papers.