English 305
Section 1 [H]
Summer 1999 — (May 10 – June 18)
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 1999 — Delahoyde
May 10 — False Intro, Film Week
May 11 — Much Ado About Nothing
May 12 — Much Ado About Nothing
May 13 — Othello
May 14 — OthelloMay 17 — Real Introduction
May 18 — Selected Sonnets
May 19 — A Midsummer Night’s Dream
May 20 — A Midsummer Night’s Dream
May 21 — Friday Reading GroupMay 24 — Memorial Day: No Class
May 25 — Henriad Background
May 26 — Henry IV, Part 2
May 27 — Henry IV, Part 2
May 28 — Friday Reading GroupMay 31 — Subsequent Henry
June 1 — Merry Wives of Windsor
June 2 — Merry Wives of Windsor
June 3 — Othello
June 4 — Friday Reading GroupJune 7 — Othello
June 8 — Much Ado About Nothing
June 9 — All’s Well That Ends Well
June 10 — Ashland Trip, or Film
June 11 — Ashland Trip, or FilmJune 14 — Ashland Trip, or Film
June 15 — All’s Well That Ends Well
June 16 — All’s Well That Ends Well
June 17 — Popular Culture
June 18 — Final Exam
Dr. Michael Delahoyde, Instructor, Department of English
delahoyd@wsu.edu
WSU Copyright, Disclaimer, & Freedom of Expression Policies
Washington State University
This site last updated 30 October 2008.