Course Description
A special topic not otherwise offered in the English curriculum. Topics and instructors vary from semester to semester.
Athena Title
Topics in Renaissance Lit
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in ENGL 4390W
Prerequisite
Two 2000-level ENGL courses or (one 2000-level ENGL course and one 3000-level ENGL course) or (one 2000-level ENGL course and one 2000-level CMLT course)
Semester Course Offered
Offered every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
•Students will become familiar with the plots, characters and major themes of a range of Shakespeare's plays and poems, and with some basic literary terms necessary for understanding and responding to Shakespeare's works. •Students will learn to read Early Modern English comfortably or even with pleasure and to enjoy viewing performances of the plays on stage or screen. •Students will become familiar with the historical and cultural background of the English Renaissance. •Students will learn to respond orally and in writing to the material that they are studying. •Students may become aware of or even critical of the significance of Shakespeare in twenty-first century American culture.
Topical Outline
•Each instructor will have the freedom to vary the course structure, assignments, and material. •One version of the course might move through a selection of the plays and poems topically, pausing to give students necessary political and historical background. Such a course might begin with a topical unit on Shakespeare's History plays, reading the two parts of Henry IV and Henry V in the context of the Tudor myth and disputes about succession. Next the course might move to on some comedies (such as The Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night) in the context of questions of female subordination during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. A historical review of the reign of King James might accompany a reading of Othello, Lear, Hamlet and Macbeth), and the course might conclude with material on the emergence of the nuclear family during the period as it considered the parent-child relationships in The Tempest). •Another version of the course might begin with an overview of the English Renaissance before moving into sustained discussion of the plays and poems, organized chronologically, relating them to the known facts about Shakespeare's life and the political, religious, and literary developments surrounding them. •Assignments might similarly vary. One instructor might assess students with examinations designed to draw out through short questions the knowledge they have acquired in the course; another might mandate essay examinations to assess students' new skills in discussion and synthesis. All instructors would emphasize class participation and discussion, some by requiring oral presentations, some by assigning short response papers or postings, some by requiring frequent quizzes.
Syllabus