Upper-division Writing Requirement Review Form (2/11)
I. General Education Review – Upper-division Writing Requirement
Dept/Program
Course # (i.e. ANTH LIT 327
English/Literature
Subject
455) or sequence
Shakespeare
Course(s) Title
Shakespeare
Description of the requirement if it is not a single course.
II. Endorsement/Approvals
Complete the form and obtain signatures before submitting to Faculty Senate Office.
Please type / print name Signature
Instructor
s/
Casey Charles
Phone / Email
2762 casey.charles@
Program Chair
Bergman
Dean
Comer
III. Type of request
New
renewal One-time Only
Reason for new course, change or deletion
Change
Date
10/31/12
Remove
IV Overview of the Course Purpose/ Description
This course familiarizes students with a selection of Shakespeare’s plays and the current critical
discourse in relation to Shakespeare studies. The course appears in different emanations:
Shakespeare and Tragedy, Shakespeare and Critical Theory, Shakespeare and Performance,
Shakespeare and Genre. In each of these variations, students engage three discourses: 1) the
text itself and its sources, 2) English Renaissance contexts, and 3) critical discourses, which
range from broad introductions to the debate in Shakespeare studies between historicism and
what is called presentism, as well as more specific readings in theory and critical essays on
particular plays.
V Learning Outcomes: Explain how each of the following learning outcomes will be achieved.
Student learning outcomes :
Identify and pursue sophisticated questions for
academic inquiry
Find, evaluate, analyze, and synthesize
information effectively and ethically from
diverse sources (see
http://www.lib.umt.edu/informationliteracy/)
Manage multiple perspectives as appropriate
Recognize the purposes and needs of
discipline-specific audiences and adopt the
academic voice necessary for the chosen
discipline
Use multiple drafts, revision, and editing in
conducting inquiry and preparing written work
Follow the conventions of citation,
documentation, and formal presentation
appropriate to that discipline
Develop competence in information
technology and digital literacy (link)
Students learn to employ dramatic literary
terminology--in the case of Shakespeare,
rhetorical tropes, allusion, and dramatic
conventions such as the soliloquy, the aside,
dramatic irony, and the five-act structure of
the plays. Genre expectations in romance,
history, tragedy, and comedy are studied
and complicated by problem plays like
Measure for Measure. Students are required
to take a theoretical approach, as learned in
Applied Literary Criticism (LIT 300) or
covered in class through theoretical
readings.
Students are asked to employ and critique
information gleaned from supplementary
reading. Students learn to quote from
supplementary materials with correct
citations and are encouraged to engage
outside materials through a critical eye.
All essays require establishing a thesis in
relation to current critical conversations
which may or may not echo the student’s
position in the essay.
Students read critical essays to establish a
model for literary criticism.
Students must rewrite the first paper for an
entirely new grade. Both papers require
prospectuses and the second students attend
conferences based on their written work.
Students must follow MLA or Chicago Style
in their formal papers.
Students relate film versions of the plays to
the text.
VI. Writing Course Requirements
Enrollment is capped at 25 students.
If not, list maximum course enrollment.
Explain how outcomes will be adequately met
for this number of students. Justify the request
for variance.
Briefly explain how students are provided with
tools and strategies for effective writing and editing
in the major.
Enrollment capped at 25
Essays must have focused thesis statements
that allow close reading of passages in
relation to current critical conversations.
Students are graded on the ability to develop
topic sentences that develop their theses and
provide evidence for the main ideas of those
topic sentences through quotation and
analysis of the specifics of plot, poetic
expression, imagery, metaphor, and allusion.
In addition, this analysis must relate to the
central critical argument of the essay. The
goal of theses writing assignments is to teach
students to focus the topic of their essay, to
use that focus as a way of explicating the text
and its context in relation to a theoretical
perspective—whether it be the elements of
Aristotle’s Poetics in the tragedy class or
questions of interiority as outlined by
Greenblatt in his introduction to the Norton
Shakespeare.
Students read sections of critical essays
about the plays as well as articles about
current conversations in Renaissance
studies. These readings give student models
for the formal conventions of the critical
essay in literary studies. Students often look
over paragraphs from critical essays on a
particular play in order to study how an
academic professional offers proof for
assertions through quotation and plot
discussions.
Which written assignment(s) includes revision in
The first essay, 5-7 pages, must be
response to instructor’s feedback?
rewritten for a new grade and
student/teacher conferences accompany
that re-writing process.
VII. Writing Assignments: Please describe course assignments. Students should be required to
individually compose at least 20 pages of writing for assessment. At least 50% of the course grade
should be based on students’ performance on writing assignments. Quality of content and writing
are integral parts of the grade on any writing assignment.
Formal Graded Assignments
All assignments are graded: daily quizzes
(which include in-class short essays),
four response papers (1-2 p), and two
formal essays (the first 5-7 the second
10-12p.
Informal Ungraded Assignments
Prospectuses for essays are not graded;
in class group work is not graded
VIII. Syllabus: Paste syllabus below or attach and send digital copy with form.  For assistance
on syllabus preparation see: http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/syllabus.html
The syllabus must include the following:
1. Writing outcomes
2. Information literacy expectations
3. Detailed requirements for all writing assignments or append writing assignment instructions
Paste syllabus here.
LIT 327.02 TR 12:40-2 Shakespeare and Tragedy
Casey Charles
Office: 216 LA, office hours: WF 10-12 (or by appointment), phone: 243-2762
casey.charles@mso.umt.edu
Password for ERES: shakes
Description:
In this course students will have the opportunity to review some of the major
theories of the genre we call “tragedy” and apply them to Shakespeare’s early and late
revenge tragedies (Titus and Hamlet), his domestic tragedies (Romeo and Juliet and
Othello) and his political tragedies (Julius Caesar and King Lear). How does genre
function as a literary paradigm which Shakespeare foregrounds in both the dramatic and
psychological action of the plays themselves? What are the assumptions that a generic
reading of a play brings to interpretation? Reviewing the history of tragic theory from
Aristotle through Raymond Williams and Jonathan Dollimore, we will explore
Shakespeare’s tragedies as staging grounds for tragic narratives.
Our goal in the course is to produce theoretically informed close readings that
recognize Shakespeare as the “living art” that Rosalie Cole called it many years ago.
Why does Shakespeare continue to be relevant? What can you as student, writer,
performer contribute to this quilt and learn from it? If Shakespeare’s texts offer a “dream
of a common language” (Rich) through which different cultures can represent a sense of
themselves, then the re-enactment of these plays—through study and performance—can
function as both 1) a social ritual through which conflict and contradiction can be
“worked out” (Victor Turner) and 2) a forum for the investigation of the performative
nature of subjectivity itself (Judith Butler). In this sense theatricality and acting become
metaphors and methodologies for social and psychological engagement.
Required Texts:
The Norton Shakespeare: Essential Plays, The Sonnets
Titus Andronicus
Reserve Material (supplementary materials on theories of tragedy)
Work:
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Weekly quizzes are open-book but time-sensitive. Sometimes we will do threads
instead, sometimes write short in-class essays (20%)
Two response papers (2 pages each) and a performance element (20%).
One 5 to 7-page essay that must be rewritten (the grades will be averaged) (30%)
A final essay (10-12 pages) (30%).
Attendance and participation: students are expected to come to class ready to ask
and answer questions. More than three unexcused absences during the semester
may result in a failing grade.
Ground Rules:
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I do not accept late papers unless the student contacts me with a reasonable
excuse before the beginning of the class on the day the paper is due.
There are no make-up quizzes.
Students must attend at least one conference with the teacher during the
semester.
Students with disabilities will be accommodated.
Plagiarism (the stealing of another’s words or ideas) will result in a
recommendation of expulsion from the university. See the Student Conduct
Code.
http://connect.umt.edu/diversity/umallies/. This classroom is a safe space for
diverse populations and adheres to the principles of nondiscrimination based
on ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation as set forth by UM Allies.
Outcomes:
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Acquisition of skills in analyzing Shakespearean drama through close reading
informed by the critical tradition, and the tradition of tragedy stuidies
Familiarity with the historical and cultural context in which Shakespeare’s plays
arose
Production of writing that demonstrates the ability to create coherent arguments
about Shakespeare’s through the application of critical theory to the text.
Prerequisite: ENLT 301 or consent of the instructor
Key Dates:
http://events.umt.edu/?calendar_id=27&upcoming=upcoming&
Schedule (subject to change):
Week One:
1/25
1/27
Introduction
Titus Act One
Week Two:
2/1
2/3
Titus 2
General Introduction to the Norton
Week Three:
2/8
2/10
Titus 3
Titus 4 and 5
Response Paper
Week Four:
2/15
2/17
Hamlet 1
Hamlet 2
Week Five:
2/22
2/24
Ham 3
Ham 4 and 5
Week Six:
3/1
3/3
RJ 1
RJ 2
Week Seven:
3/8
3/10
RJ 3
RJ 4 and 5
Response Paper
Week Eight:
3/15
3/17
Oth 1
Oth 2
Week Nine:
3/22
3/24
Oth 3
Oth 4
Week Ten:
3/29
3/31
Oth 5
JC 1
First Essay
Spring Break: 4/1-4/9
Week Eleven:
4/12
4/14
JC 2
JC 3
Week Twelve
4/19
4/21
JC 4 and 5
KL 1
Revision of First Essay
Week Thirteen
4/26
4/28
KL 2
KL 3
Week Fourteen
5/3
5/5
KL 4
KL 5
Finals Week
5/9-5/13
5/4 NOON:
Final Essay Due
SHAKESPEARE LIT 327 ESSAY2
Procedural Guidelines:
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Length: ___ pages double-spaced, paginated
Style: MLA or Chicago (Consult Bedford or other Handbook)
Citations: Cite the Shakespeare play within the text, e.g. “Now the winter of our
discontent” (R3 1.1.1). Subsequent citations may omit the play name.
Choose any of the three plays we have covered: Titus, TS, or R3. Pick a part of
the play or a particular aspect of it. Stay focused in your thesis.
External research is not required but if you do consult an article or source or
historical source, cite in a footnote or endnote.
This paper will be rewritten and the two grades will be averaged.
I do not accept late papers unless the student contacts me before the beginning of
class with a reasonable excuse (see the syllabus).
I am available Tues and Wed (1-3) and by appointment to talk about the paper.
Substantive Guidelines: The Theoretically Informed Close Reading
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The paper may or may not include film analysis, but students minoring in film or
taking the film option in English are strongly encouraged to include film in their
essay.
Close Reading: the essay needs to include analysis of part of the Shakespeare
text, paying attention to components like context, irony, prosody (meter,
alliteration, etc.), paradox and imagery—to name a few possibilities
Theoretical Approach: the essay should as part of its thesis incorporate a
perspective—for example, gender studies (including issues surrounding the
transvestite stage), historicism, feminism, Marxism, metadrama, reader response,
and/or source study.
Adaptation: if working on film, the idea is to show how the film interprets a
specific part of the Shakespeare text. What is the director’s approach? Do a close
reading of the film in relation to the play, using film terms.
Some Caveats:
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Proofread a hard copy of your work.
Pay attention to correct citation and use of quotations. Avoid block quotes unless
you plan to analyze most of the block. Feel free to quote parts of the text, e.g.
“Irreligious piety” is an oxymoronic phrase that points to Titus’s meditation on
the use of the pacifist religion to perpetuate brutality, a practice still prominent in
throughout the world (TS 1.1.130).
Avoid plagiarism by attributing all borrowed language and ideas to the original
author in footnotes or endnotes.
Pay attention to apostrophes (and it’s/its), comma splices, spelling, and
deadwood.