Philadelphia University
Faculty of Arts - Department of English
1st Semester, 2015/2016
Course Syllabus
Course Title: Shakespeare and the
Renaissance
Level: M.A.
Course Code: 120741
Credit Hours: 3
Lecture Time: Sat: 12-3 p.m.
Lecturer's Name: Mohammad Asfour
Rank: Professor
Office Number: 410
Office Hours: Sun, Tue, Thu: 9:30-10; Wed: 11:30-12:40
Phone: 4799000
Course Coordinator: Mohammad Asfour
Course Description:
This course surveys the Renaissance literature, trying to bring out the circumstances
and factors that led up to Shakespeare and to the general blooming during the reign of
Queen Elizabeth I (reigned: 1558-1603), but focuses on Shakespeare's writings. Four
plays will be discussed, three by Shakespeare (King Lear, King Henry IV, Part I, and
The Winter's Tale,) and one by Marlowe (The Jew of Malta). Several sonnets by
Spenser, Sidney and Shakespeare will be discussed, in addition to some lyrics by
Marlowe and others. The course will also look at some of Bacon's essays and Sidney's
defense of poetry. If time serves, there will be a glimpse at several other products of
the age, such as Lyly's prose writings. All the literary flowering will be seen to be the
result of the European Renaissance and national achievements.
Course Aims:
The central aim of this course is to expose MA students to the analysis of literary
texts, investing their knowledge of linguistics, semantics, rhetoric, and pragmatics in the
process of negotiating a given text and unfolding its message and intention. In this regard ,
the analysis will aim at enhancing the student's ability to adopt a qualitative and interpretive
approach to appreciating the writer's / speaker's style and the way he has chosen to say what
he says in the way the text presents. In this view, the analysis is not to be undertaken for its
own sake - simply as an exercise in describing what use is made of language - but that study
of style aims to explain the relationship between language and linguistic function, the social
and cultural factors that paved the way for the text, and the text's impact on the literary scene
and society.
Teaching Methods:
The course will be delivered in the form of lectures and class discussions. Lectures will
provide a critical view of the theory of the novel and its development, in addition to the major
trends in the modern novels; the same issues will be selected for class discussion. Each week
students are expected to prepare for the lectures and discussions by reading the particular
extract of the theoretical material dealt with in the course. The extracts will form the basis of
close discussion and debate in the classroom. Each student has to effectively contribute by
giving presentations and later by papers on a chosen topic.
Modes of Assessment
Score
Mid-term Exam
Assignments, active class participation and paper
Final Exam
Total
30
30
40
100
Date
8th
week
During course
To be announced later
Course Outline
Week
(1 ) 12-16 Feb
(2) 19-23 Feb
(3) 26 Feb-1 Mar
(4) 4-8 Mar
(5) 11-15 Mar
(6) 18-22 Mar
(7) 25-29 Mar
(8) 1-5 Apr
(9) 8-12 Apr
Material to be covered
Discussion of the Renaissance. Marlowe's The Jew of Malta
Marlowe: The Jew of Malta
The Jew of Malta. Lyrics and sonnets
King Lear
King Lear
King Lear
King Lear
King Lear
MID-TERM EXAM
More poetry. King Henry IV, Part I
King Henry IV, Part I
(10) 15-19 Apr
King Henry IV, Part I
(11) 22-26 Apr
(12) 29 Apr-3 May King Henry IV, Part I
SUBMIT ESSAY ABOUT THIS TIME
As You Like It
(13) 6-10 May
As You Like It
(14) 13-17 May
Bacon and other prose
(15) 20-24 May
(16) From 27 FINAL EXAM: TO BE ANNOUNCED BY REGISTRATION
May
Course Components:
TEXTBOOKS
1. Christopher Marlowe
The Jew of Malta
2. William Shakespeare
King Lear
3. William Shakespeare
King Henry IV, Part I
4. William Shaespeare
As You Like It
5. The Norton Anthology of English Literature
Additional reading:
1- Stevie Simkin: Marlowe. Longman, 2000 (Available at University Library)
2- Cheney, Patrick. "Recent Studies in the English Renaissance," SEL: Studies
In English Literature (2007) 47(1): 199-275
3- Hadfield, Andrew. The English Renaissance, 1500-1620 (2001)
4- Hattaway, Michael, ed. A Companion to English Renaissance Literature and
Culture. (2000). 747 pp.
5- Lamb, Mary Ellen. "Recent Studies In The English Renaissance," SEL:
Studies in English Literature (Johns Hopkins); 2006 46(1): 195-252
6- Loewenstein, David. "Recent Studies in the English Renaissance," SEL:
Studies in English Literature Spring 2011, Vol. 51 Issue 2, pp 199-278
7- Rowse, A. L. The Elizabethan Renaissance: The Life of the Society (2000)
excerpt and text search
8- Robin, Diana; Larsen, Anne R.; and Levin, Carole, eds. Encyclopedia of
Women in the Renaissance: Italy, France, and England (2007) 459p.
9- Sheen, Erica, and Lorna Hutson, eds. Literature, Politics and Law in
Renaissance England (2005)
10- Smith, Emma and Garrett A. Sullivan Jr., eds. The Cambridge Companion
to English Renaissance Tragedy (2010)