| ENGL 2221: SHAKESPEARE SEMINAR: | W. Scott Howard & Catherine O'Neil |
| SHAKESPEARE & FILM | Sturm Hall 387-E & 365 |
| Spring Quarter, 2001 | showard@du.edu & coneil@du.edu |
| SH 491; M & W: 1-2:50 | x2887 & x2147 |
| Credits: 4 | Office Hours: M & W: 11-12 & by appointment |
COURSE URL: http://www.du.edu/~showard/2221.S01.html
BLACKBOARD URL: http://blackboard.du.edu/
*
To the Reader
This Figure, that thou here seest put,
It was for gentle Shakespeare cut,
Wherein the Graver had a strife
With Nature, to out-doo the life:
O, could he but have drawne his wit
As well in brasse, as he hath hit
His face; the Print would then surpasse
All, that was ever writ in brasse.
But, since he cannot, Reader, looke
Not on his Picture, but his Booke.
*
—Ben Jonson's commendation of the Droeshout engraving, 1623
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
Students in this seminar will study film productions of Shakespeare’s
plays from interdisciplinary and international perspectives. The class
will begin with close examinations of Shakespeare’s original texts with
regard to Elizabethan culture and English Renaissance literary traditions.
Students will then investigate the ways in which film adaptations of those
plays offer new cultural narratives that work within and against the discourse
of Shakespeare’s world. The seminar will follow Shakespeare through his
myriad transpositions into strikingly diverse cultural traditions—from
medieval Japan to Ivan the Terrible’s Russia to gang-infested Los Angeles,
shedding new light on the phrase "universal poet." Plays by Shakespeare
to be studied include: Richard III, Macbeth, Hamlet,
Romeo
& Juliet and The Tempest. Films to be investigated include:
The British Film Institute’s Silent Shakespeare, Pacino’s:
Looking
for Richard, Loncraine & McKellen’s Richard III, Kurosawa’s
Throne
of Blood, Polanski’s Macbeth, Zeffirelli’s
Hamlet, BBC’s
Hamlet,
Stoppard’s Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead, Luhrmann’s Romeo
& Juliet, Greenaway’s Prospero’s Books and Wilcox’s Forbidden
Planet. Other works to be examined include two plays—Pushkin’s Boris
Godunov and Stoppard’s Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead—and
one opera—Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov.
METHOD OF EVALUATION & GRADING:
8 short, informal essays (each 1-2 pages): 30%
2 longer, formal essays: 60%
#1 (5-7 pages): [30%]
#2 (8-10 pages): [30%]
Participation & attendance: 10%
FILMS: Unless otherwise specified, all students are required to attend screenings of all the films. Locations and times for film showings TBA. Students who do not attend a screening are responsible for watching the film on their own.
Note on essays: Unless otherwise specified, all essays are due at the beginning of class in hard copy form: typed, double spaced, in 12-point font and with pages stapled. Work submitted late will receive a deduction of –0.5 per day.
Note on attendance: Students are permitted only one unexcused absence from the course during the Quarter. For every additional unexcused absence the student’s grade in the class will be diminished by a whole point.
Note on plagiarism: Students are expected to submit original
work for all assignments. Plagiarism will not be tolerated and will result
in an automatic F in the course.
Pushkin, Alexander. Boris Godunov. Ed. & Trans. Nicholas Rzhevsky. Stony Brook: Slavic Cultural Center Press, 2000. ISBN: 0967839300; $12.95.
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of King Richard III. Ed. John Jowett. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. ISBN: 0192839934; $7.95.
---. The Tragedy of Macbeth. Ed. Nicholas Brooke. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN: 0192834177; $7.95.
---. Hamlet. Ed. G. R. Hibbard. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN: 0192834169; $7.95.
---. Romeo & Juliet. Ed. Jill L. Levenson. New York : Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN: 0192814966; $7.95.
---. The Tempest. Ed. Stephen Orgel. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN: 0192834142; $7.95.
Stoppard, Tom. Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. New York: Grove/Atlantic Incorporated, 1988. ISBN: 0802132758; $11.00.
PHOTOCOPIES: Selected works in theory and criticism are available
at The Penrose Library, reserve desk. The cost for photocopying these materials
will be between $5 and $10.
CALENDAR: (subject to change)
Week 1 Shakespeare on the Page, Stage & Screen
M 3/26 Course introduction
W 3/28 Shakespeare: Richard III & BFI: Richard III
Week 2 Looking for Shakespeare in London & New York
M 4/2 Shakespeare: Richard III & Pacino: Looking for
Richard
W 4/4 Essays due & Shakespeare: Richard III & Pacino:
Looking
for Richard
Week 3 Staging Villainy I: from England to Germany to Scotland
M 4/9 Shakespeare: Richard III & Loncraine & McKellen:
Richard
III & Corrigan: A Short Guide to Writing about Film
W 4/11 Essays due & Shakespeare: Macbeth
Week 4 Staging Villainy II: from England to Scotland to Japan
M 4/16 Shakespeare: Macbeth & Kurosawa: Throne of Blood
& Corrigan: A Short Guide to Writing about Film
W 4/18 Essays due & Shakespeare: Macbeth & Kurosawa:
Throne
of Blood
Week 5 Staging Villainy III: from England to Scotland to Russia
M 4/23 Polanski: Macbeth & Pushkin: Boris Godunov
& Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov & Nancy Gunn: guest lecture
1:50-2:50
W 4/25 Paper #1 due & Pushkin: Boris Godunov & Mussorgsky:
Boris
Godunov
Week 6 Whose Hamlet?: Shakespeare’s
M 4/30 Shakespeare: Hamlet & BBC: Hamlet
W 5/2 Essays due & Shakespeare: Hamlet & BBC: Hamlet
Week 7 Whose Hamlet?: Zeffirelli’s & Stoppard’s
M 5/7 Shakespeare: Hamlet & Zeffirelli: Hamlet &
Stoppard: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead & Corrigan:
A
Short Guide to Writing about Film
W 5/9 Essays due & Stoppard: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern
are Dead
Week 8 Whose Romeo & Juliet?: Shakespeare’s
M 5/14 Stoppard: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead &
Shakespeare: Romeo & Juliet
W 5/16 Essays due & Shakespeare: Romeo & Juliet
Week 9 Whose Romeo & Juliet?: Luhrmann’s
M 5/21 Shakespeare: Romeo & Juliet & Luhrmann: Romeo
& Juliet & Corrigan: A Short Guide to Writing about Film
W 5/23 Essays due & Shakespeare: The Tempest & BFI:
The Tempest
Week 10 In Other Words/Worlds: The Tempest from Shakespeare to
Greenaway
M 5/28 Memorial Day: University closed
W 5/30 Essays due & Shakespeare: The Tempest & Greenaway:
Prospero’s
Books
Week 11 In Other Words/Worlds: The Tempest from Shakespeare to
Greenaway to Wilcox
M 6/4 Shakespeare: The Tempest & Greenaway: Prospero’s
Books & Wilcox: Forbidden Planet
T 6/5 Examinations commence
W 6/6 Paper #2 due
Th 6/7 Examinations conclude
Shakespeare:
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: http://tech-two.mit.edu/Shakespeare/works.html
Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet: http://daphne.palomar.edu/Shakespeare/
Shakespeare's Globe Research Database: http://www.rdg.ac.uk/globe/
Internet Shakespeare Editions: http://web.uvic.ca/shakespeare/index.html
Shakespeare Timeline: http://daphne.palomar.edu/shakespeare/timeline/summarychart.htm
Shakespeare's Life and Times: http://web.uvic.ca/shakespeare/Library/SLT/intro/introsubj.html
The Furness Memorial (Shakespeare) Library: http://www.library.upenn.edu/etext/furness/
The MIT Shakespeare Project: http://www-ceci.mit.edu/projects/shakespeare/