English 305
Section 1 [H]
Summer 2000 — (May 8 – June 16)
MTWThF
Dr. Michael Delahoyde
Avery Hall 355 — Washington State University
Phone: 335-4832
email: delahoyd@wsu.edu
Shakespeare
Course Description:
This course will focus partly on Shakespeare plays that you can see performed this summer in the Pacific Northwest (Ashland, U of I, movie theaters, etc.) if you were so inclined. If you’re taking the plunge for the first time, this course will be non-threatening and usually merciful. If you’re “brushing up your Shakespeare,” here is an assortment of mostly greater and some lesser works of the Bard. If you have to teach some Shakespeare every once in a while or “Will” eventually, you’re not alone. If you take this class every summer for the variety of plays, welcome back.
Course Objectives:
To gain exposure to Renaissance, or Early Modern, thought, poetic craft, and drama by poring over the works of one rather well-known English author.
To increase intellectual maturation and clarification of our own values through examination of ideas and attitudes in literary/cultural contexts and through articulation of these.
To develop skills in verbal analysis and detection of subtlety through reading, discussion, and writing about especially tricky literature.
Recommended Text:
The Riverside Shakespeare. 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1997.
Course Requirements:
A significant part of your life this semester has to become Shakespeare studies. Studying this stuff can be demanding, but at least we’ll be doing it together as a learning community. Because classroom interaction is essential for this to be a valuable experience, more than a few absences will affect your grade regardless of reason. [Alleviation from the strain will be built into the schedule.] Additionally, no late assignments of any sort will be accepted.
I will frequently ask for relatively minor homework assignments to be turned in, designed primarily to stimulate subsequent discussion [although it will arise anyway because the readings are so provocative (i.e., cool)] and to practice conventions for writing about literature. At other times I will ask you to answer questions in writing in class, often ad lib responses to the reading before class discussion begins. Homework assignments and quizzes will receive numerical grades (points) and, although these writings cannot be made up, the final semester totals will be curved if necessary.
The summer-session abbreviated version of a “paper” will be required, but how demanding can I possibly get away with making that?
Your presence will be kindly requested at whatever form of final exam takes place on the last day of class.
Shakespeare Syllabus
Summer 2000 — Delahoyde
May 8 — Introductions
May 9 — Renaissance Sonnets
May 10 — Shakespeare Sonnets
May 11 — To Be Decided
May 12 — To Be DecidedMay 15 — Re-Introductions if Necessary
May 16 — The Taming of the Shrew
May 17 — The Taming of the Shrew
May 18 — The Taming of the Shrew
May 19 — Henriad BackgroundMay 22 — Henry V
May 23 — Henry V
May 24 — Henry V
May 25 — Twelfth Night
May 26 — Twelfth NightMay 29 — Memorial Day: No Class
May 30 — Mid-Term Exam
May 31 — Hamlet
June 1 — Hamlet
June 2 — HamletJune 5 — Hamlet
June 6 — Hamlet
June 7 — Love’s Labor’s Lost
June 8 — Love’s Labor’s Lost
June 9 — Love’s Labor’s LostJune 12 — A Midsummer Night’s Dream
June 13 — A Midsummer Night’s Dream
June 14 — A Midsummer Night’s Dream
June 15 — Last Thoughts and Review
June 16 — Final Exam
Dr. Michael Delahoyde, Instructor, Department of English
delahoyd@wsu.edu
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This site last updated 3 November 2008.