Summer I & Fall 1996

ENGLISH 412: SHAKESPEARE

The broad questions we address in this course are historical ones: "How did Shakespeare's contemporaries understand Shakespeare's plays?" and "What can we learn about the intersection between Renaissance society and English literary culture by reading Shakespeare?" The answers to these questions are enriched by an expanded approach that makes use of the interdisciplinary perspective offered by contemporary extraliterary representations (narrative as well as visual) of early modern life, on the one hand, and on the other by various recent theoretical and analytical approaches to Shakespeare and early modern studies. We focus on issues of gender and sexuality in Shakespeare's plays in order to open up and to explore the complex historical issues involved in reading and performing Shakespeare then and now.

Course Focus: Gender & Sexuality in Shakespeare

Topic 1 - Theatrical Crossdressing: Gender in Flux

Merchant of Venice

As You Like It

Twelfth Night

Topic 2 - The Desiring Body: Heterosexual Anxieties

Troilus and Cressida

Antony and Cleopatra

Required Texts:

The Riverside Shakespeare has been ordered; however, any single-volume college text (that is, one that includes scholarly apparatus) of Shakespeare's complete works may be used. Students are responsible, whichever text they use, for general introductions as well as introductions to particular plays in the Riverside edition.

The Bedford Companion to Shakespeare, Russ McDonald

Xerox course packet available at Notes & Quotes includes a timeline of important historical moments in early modern culture, visual representations of Renaissance cosmology, and five supplementary critical essays on crossdressing, sexuality, and representations of gender on Shakespeare's stage.

Other Requirements:

In addition to the customary written requirements, such as exams and essays, assigned at the first class meeting, students will make group presentations based either on chapters in the Bedford Companion or on the supplementary critical essays in the course packet.

Students are also strongly encouraged to make use of the audio/visual resources, especially the tapes of the BBC productions of Shakespeare's plays, in the LRD on the 6th floor of Evans Library.

Web Sites for the Study of Shakespeare and Related Topics:

• International Shakespeare Globe Center at University of Cologne, Germany
• Professor Stuart Curran's Home Page (links to important libraries and reference works)
• English Short Title Catalogue Fact Sheet
• Early Modern Literary Studies: Electronic Texts
• Intro.to Renaissance Studies at Univ. of Pennsylvania (note the "Image Gallery" link)
• Shakespeare Illustrated
• Shakespeare on the Internet
• Shakespeare's Works online
• The Elizabethan Theater (an illustrated lecture)
• The Shakespeare Classroom
• University of Reading [UK] Renaissance Texts Research Centre: Shakepeare and the Globe
• Voice of the Shuttle: Renaissance and 17th Century (important site for research)

Instructor: Professor Harriette ANDREADIS

• office: 218A Blocker;
• phone: 845-9670 (direct line w/voice mail);
• email: h-andreadis@tamu.edu;
• hours: Fall 1996 hours to be determined