Summer 2014 (May 15-June 18)
English 540: Material Shakespeare
Dr. Michelle Dowd
MTWTh 12:20-2:20
MHRA 3209
Office: MHRA 3123
Office Hours: By appointment
Office Phone: 334-5384
mmdowd@uncg.edu
Course Description and Objectives:
Our focus for this course will be “Material Shakespeare.” We will consider both how Shakespeare
engaged the physical aspects of his own world and how the material components of Shakespeare’s plays
and performances affect us as twenty-first-century readers. In addition, this course will introduce students
to some of the most important developments in recent Shakespearean scholarship, including the new
bibliography; animal studies and ecocriticism; postcolonial and global studies; and new economic
criticism. This course is open to graduate students as well as advanced undergraduates.
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
 Demonstrate familiarity with a range of Shakespeare’s plays from several genres
 Analyze the various social, historical, and literary contexts in which these texts were written
 Analyze the relationship between Shakespeare’s theater and the material conditions in which it
was produced
 Critically evaluate secondary sources on Shakespeare’s plays
 Develop and hone critical writing skills, research methods, and the skills of oral communication
Required Texts:
 Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Folger Shakespeare Library ed. (2004).
 Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. Folger Shakespeare Library ed. (2004).
 Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. Folger Shakespeare Library ed. (2004).
 Shakespeare, William. Richard III. Folger Shakespeare Library ed. (2004).
 Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Folger Shakespeare Library ed. (2003).
NOTE: Other modern editions of the plays (such as Norton, Riverside, Oxford, Arden, and
Penguin) may be acceptable, but you must get prior approval from me before using an alternate
edition. Graduate students are encouraged to invest in a good complete works of Shakespeare (I
especially recommend the Norton, the Riverside, or the Longman (ed. Bevington)).
 Additional primary and secondary readings on Blackboard (BB)—under “Course Documents”—
and online via Jackson Library (O)
Schedule of Readings and Assignments:
Week 1:
Thurs. May 15:
Week 2:
Mon. May 19:
Introduction Part I: Course Goals, Syllabus, Assignments
Introduction Part II: Shakespeare and His Theater
1) Robert Weimann, “Shakespeare’s Theater: Tradition and Experiment” (BB)
2) Steven Mullaney, “The Place of the Stage” (BB)
3) Roslyn L. Knutson, “Shakespeare’s Repertory” (BB)
4) Tiffany Stern, “Text, Playhouse and London” (BB)
ENG 540 Syllabus- 2
Tues. May 20:
Introduction Part III: Shakespeare and Materialist Criticism
1) Douglas Bruster, “The New Materialism in Renaissance Studies” (BB)
2) Jean Howard, “Material Shakespeare/Materialist Shakespeare” (BB)
3) David Hawkes, “Against Materialism in Literary Theory,” Early Modern
Culture 9 (2012): http://emc.eserver.org/1-9/hawkes.pdf
4) James Knapp, “Beyond Materiality in Shakespeare Studies,” Literature
Compass (draft, forthcoming 2014) (BB)
Wed. May 21:
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Close Reading Paper Due
Thurs. May 22:
A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Animal Studies and Ecocriticsm
1) Bruce Boehrer, “Shakespeare’s Beastly Buggers” in Shakespeare Among the
Animals (Palgrave, 2002), 41-70. (O-EBOOK)
2) Rebecca Ann Bach, “The Animal Continuum in A Midsummer Night’s
Dream,” Textual Practice 24.1 (2010): 123-147. (O)
3) Robert N. Watson, “The Ecology of Self in Midsummer Night’s Dream” (BB)
Week 3:
Mon. May 26:
Memorial Day Holiday. No class.
Tues. May 27:
A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Gender and Queer Theories
1) Douglas E. Green, “Preposterous Pleasures” (BB)
2) Ronda Arab, “What Kind of Man is Bottom?” (BB)
3) Melissa Sanchez, “‘Use me but as your spaniel’: Feminism, Queer Theory,
and Early Modern Sexualities” (BB)
Wed. May 28:
The Tempest
Thurs. May 29:
The Tempest: Postcolonial and Global Studies
1) Paul Brown, “‘This thing of darkness I acknowledge mine’: The Tempest and
the Discourse of Colonialism” (BB)
2) Barbara Fuchs, “Conquering Islands: Contextualizing The
Tempest,” Shakespeare Quarterly, 48.1 (1997): 45-62. (O)
3) Jerry Brotton, “‘This Tunis, sir, was Carthage’: Contesting Colonialism in The
Tempest” (BB)
OED One-Word Assignment Due
Fri. May 30:
The Tempest: Labor and Theater
1) Douglas Bruster, “Local Tempest: Shakespeare and the Work of the Early
Modern Playhouse” (BB)
2) Andrew Gurr, “Industrious Ariel and Idle Caliban” (BB)
3) Mark Netzloff, “Venting Trinculos” (BB)
Week 4:
Mon. June 2:
Tues. June 3:
Merchant of Venice
Merchant of Venice: Race and Religion
1) James Shapiro, “‘The Pound of Flesh’” (BB)
ENG 540 Syllabus- 3
2) Janet Adelman, “Her Father’s Blood: Race, Conversion, and Nation in The
Merchant of Venice,” Representations 81.1 (2003): 4-30. (O)
3) Lara Bovilsky, “‘A Gentle and No Jew’: Jessica, Portia, and Jewish Identity,”
Renaissance Drama 38 (2010): 47-76. (O)
Wed. June 4:
Merchant of Venice: New Economic Criticism
1) Walter Cohen, “The Merchant of Venice and the Possibilities of Historicist
Criticism,” ELH 49 (1982): 765-89. (O)
2) Natasha Korda, “Dame Usury: Gender, Credit and (Ac)counting in the
Sonnets and The Merchant of Venice,” Shakespeare Quarterly 60. 2 (2009):
129-53. (O)
3) Amanda Bailey, “Shylock and the Slaves: Owing and Owning in The
Merchant of Venice” Shakespeare Quarterly 62.1 (2011): 1-24. (O)
Article Analysis Due
Thurs. June 5:
Richard III
Week 5:
Mon. June 9:
Richard III: Disability Studies
1) Mark Thornton Burnett, “‘Monsters’ and ‘Molas’: Body Politics in Richard
III” (BB)
2) David Houston Wood, “New Directions: ‘Some Tardy Cripple’: Timing
Disability in Richard III” (BB)
3) Michael Torrey, “The plain devil and dissembling looks”: Ambivalent
Physiognomy and Shakespeare's Richard III,” English Literary Renaissance
30.2 (2000): 123–153. (O)
Tues. June 10:
Richard III: Material Performances
1) Lawrence Manley, “In Great Men’s Houses” (BB)
2) Barbara Hodgdon, “Replicating Richard: Body Doubles, Body Politics,”
Theatre Journal 50.2 (1998): 207-25. (O)
3) Kate Wilkinson, “Richard III on Stage” (BB)
Scene Analysis Due
Wed. June 11:
Workshop: Shakespeare and the Material Book
1) Margreta de Grazia and Peter Stallybrass, “The Materiality of the
Shakespearean Text,” Shakespeare Quarterly 44.3 (1993): 255-83. (O)
2) Laurie Maguire, “The Craft of Printing (1600)” (BB)
3) Zachary Lesser, “Speculation in the Book Trade” (BB)
Thurs. June 12:
Hamlet
Week 6:
Mon. June 16:
Hamlet: New Bibliography and Textual Criticism
1) Steven Urkowitz, “‘Well-Sayd Olde Mole’: Burying Three Hamlets in Modern
Editions” (BB)
2) Paul Werstine, “The Textual Mystery of Hamlet,” Shakespeare Quarterly 39.1
(1988): 1-26. (O)
3) Zachary Lesser and Peter Stallybrass, “The First Literary Hamlet and the
Commonplacing of Professional Plays,” Shakespeare Quarterly 59.4 (2008):
371-420. (O)
ENG 540 Syllabus- 4
Mini Editing Project Due
Tues. June 17:
Hamlet: Objects and Memory
1) Peter Stallybrass, Roger Chartier, J. Franklin Mowery, and Heather Wolfe,
“Hamlet’s Tables and the Technologies of Writing in Renaissance England,”
Shakespeare Quarterly 55.4 (2004): 379-419. (O)
2) Catherine Richardson, “Households, Rooms, and the Spaces Within” (BB)
3) Lina Perkins Wilder, “‘Baser matter’ and Mnemonic Pedagogy in Hamlet”
(BB)
Wed. June 18
Course Review and Conclusions: Material Pizza
Course Requirements and Grading:
MA and PhD Students:
Discussion Prompts:
Class Participation:
Close Reading Paper
OED Assignment:
Article Analysis:
Scene Analysis:
Mini Editing Project:
5%
20%
15%
15%
15%
15%
15%
BA Students:
Class Participation:
Close Reading Paper:
OED Assignment:
Article Analysis:
Scene Staging Plan/Scene Analysis:
Mini Editing Project:
25%
15%
15%
15%
15%
15%
Note: Completion of all assignments is required to pass the course.
Attendance: In this seminar for graduate and advanced undergraduate students, excellent attendance is
expected and is essential to your success in this course. I expect you to attend every class meeting, to
arrive on time, and to participate actively in our discussions. Please inform me if you will be unable to
attend class because you are participating in a conference or if you have a serious illness or emergency. A
student who misses three or more classes may not receive a passing grade. In cases of adverse weather,
classes will meet unless the Chancellor closes the University.
Participation: Active and thoughtful class participation is one of your most important assignments in this
course, and it represents a significant part of your grade. In order to participate fully, you will need to
come to class prepared – that is, having read the material, having thought about it critically, and having
brought it with you. You will also need to come to class ready to share your ideas with your classmates
and engage in rigorous, intellectual discussion. I expect you to be prepared with specific questions and
observations about our readings as well as particular passages that you want to discuss.
Discussion Prompts: Each MA and PhD student in the course will be expected to take a more active role
in guiding our discussion of the plays on our syllabus. I ask that you help get our discussion started by
preparing brief leads (5 min. or so) into the material. You will need to prepare two or three discussion
questions in addition to selecting a particular passage in the reading that you’d like to discuss. These
ENG 540 Syllabus- 5
leads are informal, but important. You will sign up for these discussion leads at the beginning of the
course. You should plan to be in contact with the other student assigned on the same day as you in order
to coordinate your questions and passages and avoid overlap. On the day that you are presenting your
discussion prompts, please turn in a copy of your questions and the citation of your passage for my
reference.
Academic Integrity: Violations of academic integrity are serious academic offenses that will not be
tolerated in this class. I expect every student to review the guidelines and list of violations at
http://academicintegrity.uncg.edu and to abide by the UNCG Academic Integrity Policy. When you
use sources such as books, web pages, articles, or primary documents in your writing, you must identify
them to your reader. If you quote a source directly, you must put the borrowed material in quotation
marks and include a proper citation. If you take an idea from another source but put it in your own words
(i.e. paraphrase it), you must still give proper credit to the source. Please use MLA or Chicago style
documentation to document any sources used in written work. All suspected violations of the academic
integrity policy will be reported to the Dean of Students, and proven violations will result in serious
repercussions. Because this is an advanced seminar, a single violation of academic integrity will
result in failure of the entire course. Repeated offenses can cause you to be expelled from the
University. If you are unsure about how to give credit to your sources or have any questions about what
constitutes an act of plagiarism, please ask me!
Technology:
E-mail: Email is the fastest way to contact me, and I will occasionally use e-mail to contact you. All
messages will be sent to UNCG email accounts, so you need to check your UNCG account regularly.
You are required to hand in paper copies of all written work; I will not accept assignments handed in via
email.
Blackboard: I have set up a Blackboard website for the course where you can find copies of the
syllabus, readings, assignments, announcements, and useful links. Please note that you are responsible
for printing out copies of all texts, handouts, and assignment sheets and bringing them to class as needed.
If you are absent, please check Blackboard for any updates or assignments you may have missed.
Laptops and Cellphones: This is an interactive discussion class, and I expect your engaged attention
and participation. You may not use laptops in this class, except in documented cases of medical need.
Cellphones and other electronic equipment must be turned off at all times.