Simone de Martini’s “Annunciation” 1333 Botticelli’s “Primavera” 1482
..so we'll live,
And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues
Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too--
Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out--
And take upon's the mystery of things
As if we were God's spies....
(King Lear, V.iii, 11-17)
Robert Kibler, PhD.
229 Hartnett Hall West
701 858 3876/home: 838 3001
Office Hours: T/Th 1-2, Wednesdays 5:30-6:30, and by appointment
ROBERT.KIBLER@MINOTSTATEU.EDU
Website: http://yourspace.minotstateu.edu/robert.kibler/
*****FIND YOUR COPY OF SYLLABUS HERE AT THIS WEBSITE. PACKET MATERIALS ALSO HERE. ALL
CHANGES TO SYLLABUS WILL SHOW ON COURSE WEBSITE, AS WE MAKE THEM*****
Required Course Materials
Machiavelli’s “The Prince” [packet]
Stephen Greenblatt’s “Renaissance Self-Fashioning” [packet]
Gammer Gurton’s Needle (bookstore)
Thomas Kyd, “Spanish Tragedy” [bookstore]
Christopher Marlowe, “Tamburlaine” [bookstore]
Pelican Shakespeare, [bookstore]
John Lyly’s “Euphues” and Hakluyt’s “Adventures” [packet]
1

Overview
When you get the chance, sit down with one of those big fat art history books, and start looking at the paintings, the cathedrals, and the sculptures of Medieval Europe, starting with works from the 13th or 14th century CE. While there are many notable exceptions by this period in time (and we LOVE to study the exceptions more than the rules), high medieval art continues to express a primarily religious, other-wordly reality. Its human figures are severe, pale, elongated, and surrounded by golden and haloes. The natural world around such figures remains secondary, stiff, or absent altogether. This art was born of a time when life was often wretched, short, and fearful, and when people put much of their hope for happiness in the after life. But keep turning those pages. What happens in the 15th and 16th centuries? Shimmering living colors emerge amid swinging leafy fronds. People begin dancing, bathing, laughing, eating. They happily display their arms, legs, and breasts--and dare we note--begin mingling in amorous ways.
For a variety of historical reasons, the 16th century ushered in an era of optimism in Europe like never before, of cultural exuberance and expansion like never before, of learning, of adventure, and of sheer esprit like never before. New gold and silver poured into Europe from
America. Good ships and sound methods of navigation carried it there. The great plagues that killed so many in the Middle Ages diminished in their intensity, and the population grew in leaps and bounds. There had been a protestant revolution of faith, and a general revolution in knowledge. Both largely resulted from the radically expanding new technology of printing. And everywhere amid the prosperity, groups of people were beginning to see themselves as bound to one another as nations separate from and in competition with other nations and peoples. English fought against French, Protestant against Catholic, and in the larger sense, Christians against all of the relatively new non-European players on the commercial scene--Mohammedans, Indians,
Chinamen, and Jews.
Yet there was another rival faction of which individuals had become most uniquely aware by the 16th century, and of which they were become most painfully afraid: self consciousness, the inner self, dogging each of them, day after day. Furthermore, while a boldness of spirit driven by competition and success may have superficially defined the times, underneath all of that, like the fast and unseen currents beneath the waves, were those enduring medieval obsessions with mutability and death, still stalking individuals in their actions, their thoughts, and in their dreams.
Enter Shakespeare and his England by all the stage doors….
Course Specifics:
This term we will read and discuss a number of Shakespeare's plays against the backdrop of his age, and at the same time, try to determine what it is about his work that has been lost to us, what has changed, and what seems to have perfectly and vividly remained the same. Doing this in part requires that we recognize Shakespeare not so much as a unique and isolated genius but as an extraordinary product of his times, his literary and artistic roots grounded in the works of those who preceded him. Thus we begin to understand Shakespeare by reading a couple early
Tudor dramas, as well as a few plays by his early contemporaries.
Be prepared to read the plays carefully and make general assertions about them in class, supporting those assertions with textual proofs. Doing so will constitute the greatest part of the class participation portion of the term grade. In order to spur on class discussion, expect short and simple daily reading quizzes, the sum total of which contributes to the overall class participation grade. This is an upper division English Literature course, so keep in the mind the greater onus is on you to carry the discussion, make critical assertions and defend
2

them. Let’s see what you can do as writers and thinkers.
Additionally, expect to write two short 7-10 page essays—one where you investigate a topic of interest—wardrobing, costumes, weaponry, stage building in the 16 th —who knows? In the second essay you will take a more original analytic approach to some aspect of what we have read. There will also be a critical performance of a scene. The performance can be accomplished alone or in a group, with props, costumes, whatever you want, but it should be polished, and I will expect you and your group to explain the ways in which your performance serves as an interpretation of the scene. Each of these assignments constitutes 25% of the term grade. But rest assured, we will try to make the work fun, if challenging, and challenging in a way that will be of benefit to you. I will help you with your research and your performance, and extra credit will be available for those with a passion, a need, or both. Here then is an outline of the formal evaluative components of the term:
Class participation (incl. quizzes and discussion) 25%
First Informative Essay and Presentation 25%
Performance/presentation 25%
Second Analytic Essay 25%
Attendance:
We are a discussion group, so your presence is vital to our literary engagement. Please come to class. Let only death keep you away. I reserve the right to lower the term grade by one letter for every third absence. In other words, you can miss two classes without penalty. No more. If you have an emergency, or some unusual situation comes up, please let me know about it. We will probably be able to work something out to keep you and your grade on track for the term. Additionally, I will offer at least one movie for your extra credit viewing pleasure.
Probably two. Watching these movies and offering a brief two page analysis of them will boost your class participation grade. I will show them in the lounge of the Student Union. You can see them with me, and bring your friends, your pillows, and your colas--or you can see them on your own--but the short critical report is a must.
Tentative Course Schedule
Please note that what follows is only a rough map of our work for the term. We will vary greatly, depending on your interest, understanding, passion, and performance. Learning does not really occur in two hour or so long doses each week, despite the schedule, so please keep a copy of the syllabus with you so as to note adjustments when we make then . Also remember that the syllabus will be updated as needed on my web page, so make sure yours is current by checking that page and reprinting. But to start, here is the plan:
After Machiavelli, Greenblatt, Lyly, Gammer Gurton, Kyd, and Marlowe, then William
Shakespeare:
Sonnets (1599-1609)
Richard III (1597)
Much Ado About Nothing (1599)
Measure for Measure (1604)
King Lear (1605-6)
The Tempest (1611)
3

Syllabus
Week I August 25 and 27
Introductions.
Rebirth of what?
Overview of Plays
Overview of the Greco-Roman Gods
Powerpoint presentation: Medieval to the Renaissance Worlds
Week II September 1 and 3
*Lecture: The New Tudor Meritocracy, Education, Politics (Courtly Love and Machiavelli), and the Stage
*Background: Greco-Roman staging, English Mystery and Miracle Plays, Roman playwrights
Plautus, Terence, Seneca, and the “Fourteener.”
*Read Machiavelli’s “The Prince”
*Read Gammer Gurton’s Needle. Discuss.
*Introduction Euphues.
*Identify Topics for Paper #1 and passages for performance.
Week III September 8 and 10
*Read “Euphues”
*Euphues, Ink-Horn Debates, and the New Rhetorical Style
*Kyd’s Spanish Tragedy and Senecan dramaturgy
*Read Kyd’s “Spanish Tragedy”
Week IV September 15 and 17
*Spanish Tragedy
*Introduction Marlowe’s Mighty Line, Tamburlaine, and the Modern Stage
*Read “Tamburlaine”
Week V September 22 and 24
*Presentation:
Conrad Davidson from MSU Theatre on “Acting Shakespeare”
*Shakespearean Background Materials: Ovid, Seneca, Plutarch, Holinshed, Petrarch, Wyatt
*Read “Sonnets”
*Read as we can after this: Richard III (History), Much Ado About Nothing (Comedy), Measure for Measure (Comedy), Lear (Tragedy), Tempest (Romance).
I will introduce all of them historically, textually, and critically, then we bolt out the door…..roughly one and one half periods per play, plus introductions.
Week VI Sept 29 and October 1
*Discussion of Topics for Analysis (choose a topic or theme, to which you will fit a play or plays, character or characters, action or actions).
4

*Read Greenblatt, discuss
Week VII October 6 and 8
Richard III (movie too)
Week VIII October 13 and 15
Much Ado About Nothing (Movie too)
Week IX October 20 and 22
Measure for Measure
Week X October 27 and 29
King Lear
Week XI November 3 and 5
King Lear, the movie, in class
Week XII November 10 and 12
Paper #1 due and 5-10 minute presentations
Paper #2 Abstracts Due and discussed [identify your issue question/s, your proposed thesis, and a general sense of why issue important.]
Week XIII November 17 and 19
The Tempest
Week XIV November 24 only
Research day
Week XV December 1 and 3
Performances
Week XVI December 8 and 10
Performances, sum up.
Final Analysis Paper Due on day and time of Final Exam
5