LIT 321/Shakespeare’s Sources & Contexts – Fall 2021

 

LIT 321
1 course unit (4 credits)
Term:  Fall 2021
Time:  2:00-3:30 p.m. TF
Place:  Business 204 Forcina 205
Prerequisites: None		 Prof. G. Steinberg
Office: Bliss Hall 216
Office Phone: 609-771-2106
Office Hours:  3:30-4:50pm TF
Email: gsteinbe@tcnj.edu

REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS.

    • Ovid, The Metamorphoses, trans. Rolfe Humphries (Indiana, 2018), ISBN 9780253033598
    • Plautus, The Menaechmus Twins & Two Other Plays, ed. and trans. Lionel Casson (Norton, 1971), ISBN 97800393006025
    • Seneca, Four Tragedies and Octavia, ed. and trans. E. F. Watling (Penguin, 1966), ISBN 9780140441741
    • Plutarch, Makers of Rome:  Nine Lives by Plutarch, trans. Ian Scott-Kilvert (Penguin, 1965), ISBN 0140441581
    • Alan Stewart, ed., The Broadview Anthology of Tudor Drama (Broadview, 2021), ISBN 9781554814114
    • Arthur F. Kinney, ed., Renaissance Drama: An Anthology of Plays and Entertainments, 2nd ed. (Blackwell, 2005), ISBN 9781405119672

COURSE DESCRIPTION.  The official catalogue description of the course is available in PAWS.

The focus of LIT 321 is the reconstruction of the literary “horizon of expectations” for Shakespeare’s comedies and tragedies at the time of their first performance.  The course is not a course in Shakespeare per se but rather a course in the literary, dramatic, and cultural texts that shaped the literary expectations, perceptions, and tastes of Shakespeare and his audience.  We reconstruct what an Elizabethan audience might have expected when it went to the theater to see a play “from a pre‑understanding of the genre, from the form and themes of already familiar works, and from the opposition between poetic and practical language” (Hans Robert Jauss, Toward an Aesthetic of Reception, p. 22).

When the College went through a curriculum revision several years ago, the vast majority of undergraduate courses were “transformed” from 3-credit to 4-credit (1-unit) learning experiences.  While most of the classes continued to meet for only 3 academic hours per week (typically 150 minutes on the TCNJ schedule grid), it was understood that the “transformed” courses offered a depth of learning with additional learning tasks unfolding in the equivalent of a fourth hour, including, sometimes, an actual additional hour of class interaction.  As the equivalent of the fourth hour in this course,

F) The students are assigned additional learning tasks that make the semester’s learning experience more deeply engaged and rigorous, and no other additional classroom space is needed.

GOALS.  By the end of the course, I want you to

    1. demonstrate familiarity with a significant body of texts within – and on the margins of – a variety of literary traditions (i.e., the dramatic traditions of classical Rome, medieval England, and Elizabethan England);
    2. pursue a sustained investigation of the idea of literature itself by examining what literature is and how it is culturally, politically, philosophically and/or sociologically defined and influenced;
    3. demonstrate sensitivity to the concrete historicity and cultural specificity of texts and to the development of literary traditions, cultural values, modes of thought, and uses of language over time;
    4. understand how the literary, visual, and performing arts reflect and inspire the richness of human expression, and how language and other forms of expression convey meaning and story;
    5. analyze how forms of expression are used to reflect, exalt, or challenge the values of a culture;
    6. become acquainted with the many purposes for which art is created and the multiple contexts in which it acquires meaning and value; and
    7. acquire perceptual habits and conceptual lenses conducive to the appreciation of specific media, genres, and styles.

More officially, this course contributes to the following goals for the School of Humanities & Social Sciences and the English Department:

#1 Written Communication
#5 Critical Analysis and Reasoning:  Ability to critique the arguments of others in the discipline and the construction of one’s own arguments in the discipline, using data/evidence are a focus of instruction and/or the ability to analyze linguistic and cultural patterns
#7 Interpret Language and Symbol
#8 Intercultural Competence:  The development of understanding of other cultures and/or subcultures (practices, perspectives, behavior patterns, etc.)
#12 Students will be able to demonstrate familiarity with a range of critical, generic, and literary traditions (including recent theoretical approaches) that shape – and are shaped by – literary discourses and texts of particular periods or movements
#14 Students will be able to identify historically specific elements relevant to a particular text
#15 Students will be able to read a literary work and characterize its main aesthetic, structural, and rhetorical strategies in an argumentative, thesis-driven essay or in a writing workshop.

REQUIREMENTS.  For this course, you must complete the following graded assignments:

    1. a mid-term exam (15% of your final grade),
    2. 10 two-page response papers (2% each, 20% all together),
    3. PAPER 1 (15%),
    4. PAPER 2 (25%), and
    5. a final exam (25%).

Your final grade will be based on the following scale:  A = 93%-100%, A- = 90%-92%, B+ = 87%-89%, B = 83%-86%, B- = 80%-82%, C+ = 77%-79%, C = 73%-76%, C- = 70%-72%, D+ = 67%-69%, D = 60%-66%, and F = below 60%.  This scale is absolute.  Because the response papers are in a sense a form of extra credit built into this course from the start, I do not give extra credit at the end of the semester to help students raise their grade even a whisker.  So, even if, at the end of the semester, you are just .0001 points away from an A-, your final grade will be a B+.

PROFESSOR’S AVAILABILITY.  My office is Bliss Hall 216.  My office hours this term are 3:30-4:50pm on Tuesdays and Fridays (except second Tuesdays of the month) and by appointment.  You may contact me by email (gsteinbe@tcnj.edu) or by calling my office phone (609-771-2106) and leaving a message (if I do not answer), but email is usually the best way to get in touch with me.  You may also leave a message for me in my box at the English Department offices in Bliss Hall 124.

LANGUAGES ACROSS THE CURRICULUM.  A ¼ unit (one credit) Languages Across the Curriculum independent study (LAC 391) may be added to this course for those students who have intermediate level proficiency in another language and who wish to complement the work in this course by utilizing their language skills. LAC 391 (P/U grading only) will be noted on the student’s transcript. Please contact Dr. Deborah Compte at dcompte@tcnj.edu for more information. Students must contact Dr. Compte to enroll in the LAC independent study no later than Tuesday, September 7, 2021.

ATTENDANCE.  Regular attendance is a virtual necessity for successful completion of this class.  Class discussion constitutes important, useful preparation for your graded work.  If you miss a class, you will essentially lose out on that day’s contribution to your preparation, since it is never really possible to reproduce or recapture the dynamics and flow of information for a missed class meeting (even if you get notes from someone).  If, however, you positively must miss a class, I expect you to find out what you missed and to come fully prepared – without excuses – to the next class meeting.  For more information on the College’s attendance policy, please go to https://policies.tcnj.edu/?p=77.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY.  Academic dishonesty is any attempt by a student to gain academic advantage through dishonest means, to submit, as his or her own, work which has not been done by him/her or to give improper aid to another student in the completion of an assignment. Such dishonesty would include, but is not limited to, submitting as his/her own a project, paper, report, test, or speech copied from, partially copied, or paraphrased from the work of another (whether the source is printed, under copyright, or in manuscript form). Credit must be given for words quoted or paraphrased. The rules apply to any academic dishonesty, whether the work is graded or ungraded, group or individual, written or oral. TCNJ’s academic integrity policy is available on the web at https://policies.tcnj.edu/?p=130.

ACCOMMODATIONS.  The College of New Jersey prohibits discrimination against any student on the basis of physical or mental disability or perceived disability. The College will also provide reasonable and appropriate accommodations to enable students with disabilities to participate in the life of the campus community. If you require special accommodations, I will make every reasonable effort to accommodate your needs and to create an environment where your special abilities are respected. For more information, please go to https://policies.tcnj.edu/?p=145 and https://arc.tcnj.edu/.

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION. We are all enriched by greater diversity, and we all bring different perspectives to this class. I want to create a learning environment that supports diversity and honors your identities and perspectives (including your race, gender, class, sexuality, religion, mental and physical health, differing abilities, politics, etc.). If you go by a name and/or set of pronouns that differ from those that appear in your official records, please let me know. If you feel that your performance in class is being impacted by experiences related to your identity outside of class, please don’t hesitate to talk to me. If something is said or posted in class (by anyone, including me) that makes you feel uncomfortable, targeted, misunderstood, or disparaged as a person, please talk to me about it. I will expect our whole class (including me) to strive always to honor every form of diversity. To see TCNJ’s official diversity statement, please go to https://diversity.tcnj.edu/campus-diversity-statement/.

FINAL EVALUATION.  As required by the College’s Final Exam/Evaluation Policy (https://policies.tcnj.edu/?p=266), this course has a final evaluation in the form of a final exam that is comprehensive and integrative in nature and counts for at least 15% and not more than 50% of your final grade.

RESPONSE PAPERS.  In the course of the term, you are required to write 10 short, informal papers (about 2 pages each) on the readings for class.  You may choose for which days you want to write a response paper, as long as you have completed ten response papers by the end of the term.  For each response paper, choose one of the following topics and analyze the reading assignment for the day with respect to the topic you’ve chosen:

    1. Values.  What tastes or values does the work seem to reinforce, question, or criticize?  On what values and tastes does the work seem to rely?  What values and tastes does it assume?  What seems to be the work’s main purpose in terms of cultural work – propaganda, social critique, education, social bonding, pacification?  To what social class(es) might the values and tastes of the work appeal?  To what social class(es) might the work be directed?  Why might this text appeal specifically to an Elizabethan audience?  How do its values compare to those of previous assignments in class?
    2. Conflict.  Does the conflict and action of the text focus more on the personal, the social, or the political?  Is the focus more on private affairs and family life, on communal situations and social norms, or on civic events and political repercussions?  Is the focus more on morality (personal), group identity (social), or power (political)?  Is there a personal, a social, and a political aspect to the story?  How do the personal, social, and political elements of the conflict relate to one another?  What do Elizabethans seem to expect in terms of conflict in their plays and stories?
    3. Setting.  Where is the text’s story set?  How does the setting affect our perception of the plot and characters?  Does the setting change?  How is change of setting significant to the action and characterization of the play?  Is the setting symbolic?  If so, how?  How does the symbolism of the setting compare to the symbolism of setting in previous reading assignments?  What assumptions do Elizabethans seem to make about the significance of certain settings (e.g., forests, Italy)?
    4. Genre.  NOTE:  This topic only applies to dramatic texts (i.e., plays).  To what genre does the play belong (comedy, tragedy, romance, history play, something else)?  Does it belong to a particular sub-genre of that genre?  What seem to be the critical elements in the play that associate it with its particular genre?  How does the play reflect or upset the “horizon of expectations” for its genre?  How does it compare to other examples of its genre that we have read for class?  How does it fit or change the specific conventions of its genre (as suggested by other reading assignments from the same genre)?  Is its genre easy or difficult to identify?  What dramatic genres seem to have been popular in Elizabethan England?
    5. Spectacle.  NOTE:  This topic only applies to dramatic texts (i.e., plays).  What kind of “special effects” does the text use?  What kind of props and costuming?  How does the staging work?  How is the staging awkward, sophisticated, simple, complex, innovative, fantastical, realistic?  In what ways does the spectacle of the performance fit the themes and ideas of the play?  How does the spectacle of the play compare to that of other plays we’ve read?
    6. Language.  If the text was originally written in English, what are the characteristics of the language of the text?  What kind of language is used?  What kind of tone and style is exhibited?  Is the text’s language bombastic, elegant, contrived, colloquial, educated, simple, coarse, conventional, all of the above, none of the above?  How do the text’s language and tone compare to that in earlier assignments?
    7. Gender.  How are men and women portrayed in the text?  What seems to be the attitude of the author toward men and women?  What are the characteristics of a good man in the text? a good woman? a bad man? a bad woman?  Does the text generalize about male and female gender roles?  What does the text imply or say about what are appropriate roles for each gender?  Does the text seem to favor or criticize either gender, portray one or the other gender negatively or positively?  How does the text’s treatment of gender relate to that of previous reading assignments in class?  How might the text’s treatment of gender fit (or not fit) the “horizon of expectations” in Elizabethan England?  How do the Elizabethans seem to conceive of gender and gender roles?
    8. Religion.  How are religion and religious ideas portrayed in the text?  How Christian is the work in outlook, doctrine, and/or symbolism?  Does the text use Christian images?  Does it allude to Christian stories?  Does it espouse Christian values (with or without explicit Christian content)?  Does it reflect on or mention Christian doctrine?  How is organized religion portrayed?  How are Church figures (such as the pope, friars, monks, priests, ministers, and nuns) portrayed?  Does the text seem specifically Catholic or Protestant in outlook?  If so, how so?  How does religion in the text compare to that in previous readings?  What do the Elizabethans seem to expect in terms of religious content or sympathies in their popular stories and plays?

Keep in mind that some topics are more relevant to some readings than others (and some topics aren’t relevant at all to some readings).  Don’t choose to focus on a topic for a reading for which that topic is irrelevant.

Please note that, when you do a response paper, you are writing about the reading assigned for the day on which you’re submitting the paper. So, you’re writing about the reading before we discuss it in class and submitting the paper on the day for which that reading is assigned. You can’t submit a response paper about a past day’s reading assignment.  You should submit each response paper by “sharing” it with me as a Google Doc before class on the reading’s assigned day.  Be sure to grant me “editing” or “suggesting” status when you share the Google Doc with me (so that I can comment directly on the paper).

Response papers will be graded Pass/Fail,.  I ask you to type them (so that they are easier for me to read), but and they need not be a perfect, polished product.  Rather, response papers should be just what their name says – a response.  Think about one of the topics  that I have asked you to consider; then write a response.  Don’t worry about typos or comma splices or organization.  Don’t worry about answering every question I ask under the particular topic.  In fact, focus on the one question that seems most interesting to you, and be as specific as you can, getting down as much as you can, as quickly as you can.  Treat response papers more like a journal entry than like a formal paper.  I don’t want a five-paragraph theme.  Rather, I want an exploration – as detailed and specific as possible – of the reading assignment for the day.  But don’t focus too narrowly on just one scene or passage from the text.  Try to generalize about the text and then look at specific examples from all over to support your generalization.

Normally, as long as you submit a response paper of suitable length, detail, and thoughtfulness (and as long as you submit it in hard copy in before class on the assigned day), you will receive all the points that the response paper is worth.  The purpose of the response papers is

    1. to help you in your preparation for class discussion,
    2. to help me see where you’re struggling with the readings for class,
    3. to help you develop your intellectual independence and your confidence as a reader,
    4. to help you explore the relationships among the texts we’re reading, and
    5. to practice comparative literary analysis (in preparation for PAPER 1 and PAPER 2).

You may submit more than 10 response papers in the course of the semester (to make up for any response papers that do not pass), but no matter how many extra response papers you turn in, you will not receive credit for more than 10 total.  You may not submit more than one response paper on a single day, nor may you submit a response paper for a day that you are absent from class. (NOTE: Even if you do not submit a response paper on a particular day, you should still come to class prepared to discuss the response paper topics in relation to the reading assignment, since we will focus on these topics in our in-class discussions all semester; in other words, the response paper topics above are a great guide for your class prep every day.)

PAPER 1.  Choose either Romeo and Juliet or A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  In a paper of 5-7 pages, argue a clear and specific thesis about how Shakespeare’s play reflects or upsets the Elizabethan “horizon of expectations.”  Think about which works that we have been reading for class are most relevant to the play that you have chosen and focus on just one class reading in your paper (in addition to your chosen Shakespeare play).  To help you think about what to write, consider the topics listed under “Response Papers” above.  How does Shakespeare’s play compare to the material that we have been reading for class in the areas of values, conflict, setting, genre, spectacle, language, etc.?  What is the most important similarity or difference between Shakespeare’s play and one of the readings for class?  How does that most important similarity reinforce (or how does that most important difference challenge) the Elizabethans’ “horizon of expectations”?  (NOTE:  The answer to this last question should be the thesis of your paper.)  Remember that, in addition to your chosen Shakespeare play, you should only use one of the texts that we’ve read for class in order to characterize what the Elizabethan “horizon of expectations” would have been.  You may refer in passing to other readings from class, but your paper should focus in detail on just one class text.  You need not use any other sources for this paper.  In fact, I would encourage you not to use other sources (because I’d rather hear what you think than what some published scholar thinks).  But if you do use any other sources, be sure to cite and document those sources appropriately.

I encourage you, about a week before the paper is due, to submit a thesis paragraph (a draft first paragraph of your paper or just a paragraph that describes what you plan to write about) to me by email; if you do so by the date noted in the course schedule below, I will give you feedback on your proposed thesis.

Your paper will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

    1. Does the paper have a clear, specific thesis?  Does the thesis offer an interesting perspective or “hook” that is provocative without being gimmicky or offensive?  Does the paper compare its Shakespeare play to a text from class that highlights an interesting and illuminating feature of the relation of Shakespeare to the Elizabethan “horizon of expectations”?
    2. Does the paper’s comparative analysis progress logically?  Does the paper have a clear and consistent overall organization that relates all the ideas of the paper together in support of the thesis with appropriate transitions to aid the reader (rather than simply a list of random similarities and differences without relation to one another or to the thesis)?  Does the paper have appropriate transitions to aid the reader in following the paper’s logic (rather than weak transitions, such as “The first…,” “Another…,” and “…also…”)?
    3. Does the paper provide relevant, concrete evidence and logically persuasive reasons for every assertion?
    4. Does the paper show sensitivity to the concrete historicity of the literary works under consideration (rather than treat them as timeless museum pieces or reflect on them anachronistically)?
    5. Does the paper exhibit confidence and insight when analyzing literary works not discussed in class?
    6. Does the introduction to the paper offer an interesting, helpful preview of the content, logic, and organization of the paper?
    7. Is factual information in the paper accurate?
    8. Is the writing in the paper clear, effective, and appropriate to an academic setting?

PAPER 2.  Choose either Merchant of Venice or Hamlet and one of the plays from the 1580s or 1590s that we have read for class.  In a paper of 5-7 pages, argue a clear and specific thesis about how Shakespeare’s play reflects or upsets the Elizabethan “horizon of expectations.”  To help you think about what to write, consider the topics listed under “Response Papers” above.  How does Shakespeare’s play compare to the plays from the 1580s and ’90s in the areas of values, conflict, setting, genre, spectacle, language, etc.?  What is the most important similarity or difference between Shakespeare’s play and one from the 1580s or ’90s?  How does that most important similarity reinforce (or how does that most important difference challenge) the Elizabethans’ “horizon of expectations”?  (NOTE:  The answer to this last question should be the thesis of your paper.)  Remember that, in addition to your chosen Shakespeare play, you should only use one of the texts that we’ve read for class in order to characterize what the Elizabethan “horizon of expectations” would have been.  You may refer in passing to other readings from class, but your paper should focus in detail on just one class text.  You need not use any other sources for this paper.  In fact, I would encourage you not to use other sources (because I’d rather hear what you think than what some published scholar thinks).  But if you do use any other sources, be sure to cite and document those sources appropriately.  Your PAPER 2 will be evaluated according to the same criteria as PAPER 1.

I encourage you, about a week before the paper is due, to submit a thesis paragraph (a draft first paragraph of your paper or just a paragraph that describes what you plan to write about) to me by email; if you do so by the date noted in the course schedule below, I will give you feedback on your proposed thesis.

COURSE SCHEDULE.  This schedule is subject to revision at the discretion of the professor.  Changes in the schedule made after the first day of class will be shown in red.  All the play titles in the schedule below appear in one or another of the course textbooks or are available in Canvas under “Files.”

Dates Assignments
T Aug 31 Introductions
F Sep 3 The Murder of Abel and Noah
T Sep 7 NO CLASS (Monday schedule instead)
F Sep 10 The Second Shepherds’ Play and Mankind
T Sep 14 Plautus, The Menaechmus Twins (usually called The Menaechmi)
F Sep 17 Plautus, Pseudolus
T Sep 21 Ovid, Metamorphoses, Books I, IV, and VI
F Sep 24 Ovid, Metamorphoses, Books X-XI and XV
T Sep 28 Seneca, Thyestes
F Oct 1 Seneca, Phaedra
T Oct 5 Plutarch, “Brutus”
F Oct 8 Plutarch, “Coriolanus”
T Oct 12 NO CLASS (Fall Break)
THESIS PARAGRAPH for PAPER 1 DUE (submit your thesis paragraph to me via email by midnight, and I will provide you feedback)
F Oct 15 John Heywood, The Play of the Weather
M Oct 18 PAPER 1 DUE in the dropbox of Canvas by midnight
T Oct 19 Nicholas Udall, Ralph Roister Doister
F Oct 22 Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville, Gorboduc
T Oct 26 Thomas Preston, Cambises
W Oct 27 OPTIONAL REVIEW SESSION at 4:30pm in Forcina 206 (Bring questions about whatever you want to review and what you’re missing in your notes.)
F Oct 29 MID-TERM EXAM
T Nov 2 John Lyly, Gallathea
F Nov 5 Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy
T Nov 9 Christopher Marlowe, The Jew of Malta (available in Canvas under “Files”)
F Nov 12 Robert Greene, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay
T Nov 16 Christopher Marlowe, The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus
F Nov 19 Arden of Faversham
T Nov 23 Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke, The Tragedy of Antony
F Nov 26 NO CLASS (Thanksgiving)
T Nov 30 Thomas Dekker, The Shoemaker’s Holiday
W Dec 1 THESIS PARAGRAPH for PAPER 2 DUE (submit your thesis paragraph to me via email by midnight, and I will provide you feedback)
F Dec 3 Francis Beaumont, The Knight of the Burning Pestle
T Dec 7 John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi
W Dec 8 PAPER 2 DUE in the dropbox of Canvas by midnight
F Dec 10 Ben Jonson, Bartholomew Fair
Thomas Middleton, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside
Finals Period
 FINAL EXAM