ENGL2711: Shakespeare's Problem Plays

• Any Single or Joint Honours finalist student wishing to take this Special Topic must have satisfactorily completed the required number of core modules. Combined Honours and Outside Honours students must have satisfactorily completed either two Level 1 core introductory modules, or at least one Level 1 core module and one further lecture based module in English at Level 2

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• This module provides a general introduction to formalist aesthetic theory and its application to literary criticism, ranging from classic texts such as Platos Republic and Aristotles Poetics to more recent paradigms such as Deconstruction, New Criticism, and the new pragmatism.
• It covers several of Shakespeares plays not typically read in an undergraduate survey.
• It examines Shakespeares relationship with medieval sources such as Boccaccios Decameron, Gowers Confessio Amantis, and Chaucers Troilus and Criseyde.
• It explores Shakespeares relationship with Renaissance humanist sources such as Castigliones Book of the Courtier, as well as plays by other contemporary playwrights, such as Marlowes Jew of Malta.

• This course focuses on the subset of Shakespeares plays known as the problem plays, as well as other plays from his corpus that are not typically included in a standard survey. In addition, the course provides some exposure to problems and debates in formalist criticism. The premise behind this combination of theory and text is that these plays are problematic not only because they tend to violate literary conventions, but also because they are unusually ambiguous, resisting critical questing for organic unity. These aesthetic concerns are often accompanied by other critical problems: questions about authorship, for example, or Shakespeares relation to various proposed sources. We will read extracts from classic treatises of aesthetic theory, ranging from Plato and Aristotle to the present day, as well as some of Shakespeares own sources, including in particular medieval authors such as Boccaccio, Gower, and Chaucer. Analysis of Shakespeares adaptations of his source material will help students identify and respond to questions of intention, meaning, influence, and literary form.
• Primary material will include Shakespeares notoriously difficult short poem, The Phoenix and the Turtle, and his epyllion, Venus and Adonis, as well as several of Shakespeares plays: Loves Labours Lost, The Merchant of Venice, Troilus and Cressida, Alls Well that Ends Well, Measure for Measure, Timon of Athens, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, The Winters Tale, and The Two Noble Kinsmen.
• Primary material will also include Shakespeares most important sources for these plays, usually in excerpt or an abridged form. Examples include Marlowes Jew of Malta, Boccaccios Decameron, Gowers Confessio Amantis, and Chaucers Knights Tale.
• Secondary material assigned for discussion in class will comprise classic works of aesthetic theory, in the form of self-contained essays or short excerpts from longer treatises. In chronological order: Plato, Republic, Aristotle, Poetics, Sidney, Defence of Poesy, Johnson, Preface to Shakespeare, Coleridge, Lectures on Shakespeare, Hegel, Introduction to the Philosophy of Art, Kant, Critique of Judgment, Cleanth Brooks, Irony as a Principle of Structure, Paul de Man, Semiology and Rhetoric, Walter Benn Michaels and Steven Knapp, Against Theory, David Bromwich, What do Shakespeares Heroes Learn?
• In sum, typical reading each fortnight will comprise one problem play by Shakespeare, one key source for that play, and one work of aesthetic philosophy or literary theory. The plays will always be read in their entirety; other texts, however, may sometimes be read in excerpt, or an abridged form.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• On completion of this module, students will be able to demonstrate a detailed knowledge of several of Shakespeares plays, as well as their most important classical, medieval, and contemporary sources. Students will also develop a richer sense of aesthetic theory and its various possible applications to the practice of literary criticism.

Subject-specific Skills:

• Students studying this module will develop:
• an ability to analyse selected literary works, taking account of their historical, generic and social or religious contexts
• critical skills in the close reading and analysis of texts
• an ability to demonstrate knowledge of a range of texts and critical approaches
• informed awareness of formal and aesthetic dimensions of literature and ability to offer cogent analysis of their workings in specific texts
• sensitivity to generic conventions and to the shaping effects on communication of historical circumstances, and to the affective power of language
• an ability to articulate and substantiate an imaginative response to literature
• an ability to articulate knowledge and understanding of concepts and theories relating to literary studies
• skills of effective communication and argument
• awareness of conventions of scholarly presentation, and bibliographic skills including accurate citation of sources and consistent use of scholarly conventions of presentation
• command of a broad range of vocabulary and an appropriate critical terminology
• awareness of literature as a medium through which values are affirmed and debated

Key Skills:

• Students studying this module will develop:
• a capacity to analyse critically
• an ability to acquire complex information of diverse kinds in a structured and systematic way involving the use of distinctive interpretative skills derived from the subject
• competence in the planning and execution of essays
• a capacity for independent thought and judgement, and ability to assess the critical ideas of others
• skills in critical reasoning
• an ability to handle information and argument in a critical manner
• information-technology skills such as word-processing and electronic data access information
• organisation and time-management skills

• The module is taught through seminars, which encourage collective responsiveness through interactive discussion as well as the development of independent, individual thought.
• The consultation session with the seminar leader before the first essay allows for further, guided exploration of individual ideas and arguments. Assessed essays give students the opportunity for focused independent study, permitting them to explore their own ideas and insights as well as demonstrating a requisite knowledge of the subject.
• The written feedback that is provided after the first assessed essay allows students to reflect on examiners' comments, giving students the opportunity to improve their work for the second essay.
• Typically, directed learning may include assigning student(s) an issue, theme or topic that can be independently or collectively explored within a framework and/or with additional materials provided by the tutor. This may function as preparatory work for presenting their ideas or findings (sometimes electronically) to their peers and tutor in the context of a seminar.

Before the first essay, students will have an individual consultation session in which they are entitled to show their seminar leader a list of points relevant to the essay and receive oral comment on these points. Students may also, if they wish, discuss their ideas for the second essay at this meeting.

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