English 4140 DMWA Berggren
SHAKESPEARE
We will be using the Signet Classic Shakespeare texts, individual paperbacks published by Penguin Putnam and now available at the Baruch College Bookstore and Shakespeare & Co., at 137 East 23rd Street. These are compact books, easy to carry, and every student is required to have the play for reference at each class meeting, since our method of study will include close reading of individual speeches and scenes.
The Signet editions provide notes to aid you in your first reading, but they will hardly solve all problems. You should make it a habit to mark any materials that seem difficult or important (or both) so that you can raise questions and offer comments in class. You are to re‑read each play at least once before we complete our consideration of it. Before your second reading, study the editor’s introduction (which won’t make much sense before your first reading) and glance at the various articles available at the back of the book. Some essays and source materials printed there are more valuable than others; I will recommend the best of them at the appropriate time.
Please read the general introduction (“Shakespeare: An Overview”) that appears in each of the Signet texts for Wednesday, 31 August.
Learning Goals
Students who successfully complete ENG 4140 should be able to
- interpret Shakespearean texts by paying close attention to his choice of detail, vocabulary, and style
- articulate a critical evaluation of a play’s themes and methods
- write critical essays employing a strong thesis statement, appropriate textual citations, and contextual and intertextual evidence for their ideas
- relate Shakespeare’s works to each other and to other works you have read in terms of historical period, stylistic and/or generic development, and the arc of his career
Tentative Reading List
The Taming of the Shrew (1593-94)
Monday, 29 August – Introduction/Induction
Wednesday, 31 August – Acts 1-2
Wednesday, 7 September — Acts 3-4
Monday, 12 September – Act 5
Much Ado About Nothing (1598-99)
Wednesday, 14 September – Acts 1-2
Monday, 19 September – Act 3; Scene Study 1
Wednesday, 21 September – Act 4; Scene Study 2
Monday, 26 September – Act 5
Henry V (1598-99)
Monday, 3 October — Act 1
Wednesday, 5 October – Act 2
Wednesday, 12 October – Act 3
Monday, 17 October –Act 4; Scene Study 3
Wednesday, 19 October – Act 5; Scene Study 4
MID‑TERM EXAMINATION: Monday, 24 October
Troilus and Cressida (1601-02)
Wednesday, 26 October – Act 1
Monday, 31 October—Act 2
Wednesday, 2 November – Act 3; Scene Study 5
Monday, 7 November – Act 4
Wednesday, 9 November – Act 5
Macbeth (1606))
Monday, 14 November – Act 1
Wednesday, 16 November – Act 2; Scene Study 6
Monday, 21 November – Act 3
Wednesday, 23 November – Act 4
Monday, 28 November – Act 5; Scene Study 7
The Winter’s Tale (1610)
Wednesday, 30 November – Act 1
Monday, December 5 – Acts 2-3
Wednesday, 7 December – Act 4; Scene Study 8
Monday, 12 December – Act 5
FINAL EXAMINATION: Monday, 19 December, 1:00-3:00 p.m.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
WRITING:
You will write a mid-term and a final examination, two critical essays, of which the first must be revised and re-submitted, a group-authored self-critique of approximately 300 words in connection with your scene study and oral presentation, and the six blog posts described below. The first essay will be due on Tuesday, 21 September, a day when we do not meet (you may, of course, hand the paper in earlier). NEVER CUT CLASS BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT READY TO HAND IN A PAPER. Appointments will be made for private conferences to discuss your written work after the first essay is returned, but you are invited to stop by my office or catch me after class whenever you have questions.
OUR SHAKESPEHERIAN BLOG: https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/eng4140fall11/
1. INDIVIDUAL COMMENTS AND RESPONSES:
We are reading six plays this semester. Each student will be individually responsible for writing six blog posts of about 150 words each. You will work on a schedule based on alphabetical order beginning on the second day of class discussion of the play in question. Three of your posts will initiate a conversation about something that strikes you as problematic, difficult, or remarkable in the reading for a given day; three of your posts will be responses to someone else’s original comment. Your posts should be short, argumentative essays that propose a thesis that you defend by citing textual evidence. You should check the pages that I will be uploading for each plays with links to supplement your reading.
2. GROUP SCENE STUDIES/ORAL PRESENTATIONS:
Students will work in small groups on two related projects: an oral presentation to the class analyzing a scene after they have videotaped their dramatic reading of the scene being discussed. The dramatic reading and the critique will be posted to our blog for review by the whole class. In class, the group will have 15 minutes to teach the class in response to questions about the scene.
ACADEMIC HONESTY: The English Department fully supports Baruch College’s policy on Academic Honesty, which states, in part:
“Academic dishonesty is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Cheating, forgery, plagiarism and collusion in dishonest acts undermine the college’s educational mission and the students’ personal and intellectual growth. Baruch students are expected to bear individual responsibility for their work, to learn the rules and definitions that underlie the practice of academic integrity, and to uphold its ideals. Ignorance of the rules is not an acceptable excuse for disobeying them. Any student who attempts to compromise or devalue the academic process will be sanctioned.” In this class, any evidence of plagiarism, however minute it may be, will earn you an F grade on the work in question and will result in your being formally reported to the Office of the Dean of Students.
GRADING POLICIES: You will be encouraged to revise the papers you hand in. Exams may not be revised. Lively class participation is expected and will count toward your final grade, which depends as well, of course, on the writing assignments and exams mentioned above. In determining your final grade, I will weigh your various contributions to the class in roughly these proportions:
Scene Study/Oral Presentation/Blog 15%
Blog Comments/Responses/class participation 10% First essay 15%
Second essay 20%
Mid-term examination 20%
Final examination 20%
100%
HONORS SECTION OF THIS CLASS: I have been asked to create an Honors section of this class, which would be ENG 4140H, for students who have the requisite 3.4 GPA and a desire to gain honors credit. For this parallel section of this Shakespeare class, we will choose another two plays to add to the reading list; there will be a special lunch meeting at which we’ll discuss this extra reading and students will write an extra paper to earn the Honors designation. Thanks to the Honors Program, we will also have a chance to see an off-Broadway production of a Shakespearean play together. If this is of interest to you, please be in touch with me immediately.
OFFICE HOURS:
Wednesdays, 2:30-3:30 p.m., Thursdays, 9:30-11:00 a.m., and by appointment
E-mail: Paula.Berggren@baruch.cuny.edu
Room 7-271, Vertical Campus
646-312-3931
