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English 301--- Criticism
Mon.-Wed. 3:30 to 5:00 (Bell 337) section FLE reg. #029810
Mon.-Wed.-- 6:30 to 8:00 (Baldy 117) section AE, MFC
reg.# 150216 and reg.# 283136
Instructor: Prof. Stefan Fleischer
Office hours: Wednesdays 2:00-3:00, Mondays 5:00 to 6:00
or by appointment
Room: Clemens
405
Tel: 645-2575 x1031
E-mail: engstef@acsu.buffalo.edu
Note: I encourage e-mail exchanges on anything and everything. I am hoping to have
a listserv up and running for more public information exchange. Stay tuned.
Here are some interesting places to look: http://cas.buffalo.edu/english/faculty/fleischer/, http://tech-two.mit.edu/Shakespeare/search.html, http://www.google.com/.
Supplementary Material
Poetry Links
David Willbern's Shakespeare Pages:
Use the Oxford English Dictionary On-line
Texts:
Available at Univ. Bookstore
Recommended: Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Henry IV, part I, Henry V (any inexpensive edition will do.)
There will be additional handouts: you must keep these in a folder and in good order. I will base some in-class practices and quizzes on what’s in the folders.
Aims of the course: An introduction to the serious study of literature; to equip the student with essential tools and concepts, as well as a basic, usable critical vocabulary; most important, to develop the student’s abilities as a close reader and as a solid, analytical writer.
Attendance policy: two unexcused absences are OK. Beyond that your grade will be reduced. Readings: You must have the readings prepared before the class date indicated. There will be fairly frequent short quizzes on the readings.
Classroom procedures and practices: I’m going to keep to a very
tight schedule: Be at your seats with books and notebooks at the ready
when the class starts. If you show up 5 minutes after I show up, it will
count as ½ an absence. If 10 minutes, you may as well stay home.
I will require you to take notes. Anything I stress in class, especially
if I then write it on the board or if I note it on the listserv or on a
syllabus update, may well turn up on a quiz or on the mid-term. I will
sometimes call on a student to answer a question. The student then has
a choice: 1) Attempt to answer. An honest try is never penalized. 2) The
student may also say, "pass" and that’s ok as long as you don’t overdo
it. The student may not say, as if just roused from sleep: "Would you repeat
the question?" That will get a penalty.
Writing requirements, papers, due dates, grading conventions: there will be occasional brief response writing in class.
First short paper- Due: Sept. 6; First longer paper- Due: Oct. 4; Take home Hamlet…"mystery" question- Due Oct. 16. Mid-term on Oct. 18.
Second short paper-Due: Nov. 20. Final paper-Due: Dec. 6.
Grading: work in class =15%, papers and mid-term 40%, Final paper = 45%
CALENDAR
(In a tentative form. We will make adjustments and refinements throughout the semester. Look for updates on the listserv. Keep a copy with you at all times)
Week 1 (Aug. 28-30)-- Topics will include a discussion of the requirements of a well-developed literacy; the study of literature as practiced in high schools and university English departments; reading poetry. "The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream."
Aug. 30 "Who’s there?" Read Hamlet( Act I. Scene i.) in detail. Read the entire play for first run-through, complete by Sept. 6.
Bring all four required texts to class for weeks 1 through 7. (No book = an absence.) Use the Bedford edition for the Hamlet text (it’s easier to read). Use the Norton text for Act and scene citations or use both conventions.
We will refer to the Abrams glossary in nearly every class.
Week 2 (Sept. 4- no class- Sept. 6)-- Hamlet: verbal and visual patterns. Come prepared with extensive jottings.
First short paper- Due: Sept. 6: This is an exercise in zeroing in on significant detail and precisely recognizing how to start the process of interpretation.
The paper should cite five or so quotes (each of a few lines) from different sections of the play, beginning, middle and end. The quotes must be carefully copied -- word processed, with act and scene and line numbers thus: (I. i. 1-5)
An example of a quote and the correct form of Act, Scene citation:
What is a man
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more.
(IV. iv. 33- 5)
These should be lines that puzzle you; that you find interesting; that you’re uncertain about; that you think may be particularly significant; that mystify you completely; or any and all of the above. Take a stab at the meaning of two or three of these. Length: no more than 5 pp. Wide margins, quotes indented as above. And leave space around. Quotes should be single space. Your text, as always, double-space, 1" margins all around. One side of the page only.
Week 3 (Sept. 11-13) Some topics and concepts: "Totus Mundus Agit Histrionem," the pennant raised above Shakespeare’s theater to signal the performance of a play. Screening: Start Shakespeare in Love. "...aught of woe or wonder..." (Hamlet, V. ii. 343.) An introduction to some film terms. Strongly recommended reading: Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet.
Week 4 (Sept. 18-20). Finish Shakespeare in Love. Develop concept of mise-en-scène (see Abrams 285). Hamlet in detail. Readings: Arnold Kettle essay in Norton (ed. Hoy). Pp. 237-246. Elaine Showalter on Ophelia in Bedford. One or two handouts, Jan Kott, for sure. Concepts: courtliness, conventions of courtly love, courtesy books, "sprezzatura," "Great chain of Being" Names to know: Machiavelli, Castiglione.
Week 5 (Sept. 25-27), Week 6 (Oct. 2-4):
Hamlet in detail. Screening: Branagh’s Hamlet, excerpts from Olivier and the BBC Hamlet.
Oct.4: First analytical paper on Hamlet due: Five pages or a little more. Assignment: Connect a key word or phrase, a small coherent group of lines or a stage property from acts III, IV or V or sound effect with similar (or strongly contrasting) usages in earlier portions of the play. How are such key items placed in the context of the scene and the action on stage? What are the functions of such devices of amplification? What do such devices reveal about dramatic conflict and possible resolution? What is the purpose and effect of verbal/linguistic irony? What is the effect of such irony on our understanding of character? Consult Abrams on irony and figurative language.
Some obvious examples for the first paper: "Conscience" as used by Laertes, Claudius, and as used by Hamlet.
"We defy augury"(V. ii.) and "O my prophetic soul"(I. v.)E
Part 2 of the syllabus to be worked out and refined by Oct. 2.
But, note these dates: Take home question, Hamlet…"mystery" question- Due Oct. 16.
Oct 18. In-class midterm.
Analysis of a passage (by a 20th century American writer) that you probably have not seen before. This will be timed: 45 minutes. Additionally, 12-15 identification (short answer) questions on Hamlet and context. For example, give an accurate translation of Totus Mundus Agit Histrionem.
The second part of the semester will consider films of revenge, retaliation and the curious intertwining of notions of masculinity and honor. We’ll be screening the following: Godfather I and some of Godfather II certainly, Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven, and John Ford’s My Darling Clementine probably. I’ll provide a short list of additional recommended films to view.
Sometime before Nov. 20: Hand in proposal for final paper.
Preliminary suggestions: on Hamlet alone, or Hamlet and another Shakespeare play (one of the Henriad, perhaps, or on a group of poems by one of the poets we’ve read in class, or a small group of films arranged by genre and/or theme. The proposal should include notice of two or three pieces of criticism. Please make use of my office hours to consult with me on shaping final paper.
Week 13 (Nov. 20- Nov. 22 no class) 2nd analytical paper: based on a close reading of a single scene or sequence in a film is due Nov. 20…
Nov.20—Workshop on final papers.
Week 14 (Nov.27- 29)--- Summary and review. How does one write a fine paper?
Dec. 6 Last class: Hand in final paper. Pizza and StrangeBrew as is the custom.
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Last Updated: Monday, August 27, 2001
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