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Required Texts:
- Individual volumes of the Signet Shakespeare
Films on Reserve:
The following films have been put on reserve in the Kerr Hall Digital
Editing Lab, Room 2160A (open Mon. - Thurs. 10:00 am. - 10:00 pm.;
Fri. 10:00 am. - 8:00pm.; Sat. 12:00 pm. - 6:00 pm.) with extended
hours during midterms and finals). To verify the films are on reserve
and not out go to the Kerr
Hall Learning Lab Website and click on "Professor"
(then "Fumerton" and then the specific film on reserve)Thanks
to Professor Mark Rose for his suggestions, and for the caveat,
"None of them is Shakespeare's play, but they are all
interesting film adaptations and can help to suggest the possibilities
of the plays."
- Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, The
Taming of the Shrew (1967). Interesting, if strange, parallels
with their dramatic real-life marriage. Captures well the rough-and-tumble
exuberance of the Native Festive comedic tradition.
- BBC production of The Taming of the Shrew (1981), directed
by Jonathan Miller. John Cleese is a deadly serious Petruchio
and the play moves toward a taming that is about Puritanical self-control.
- William Woodman, Richard II (1992)
- BBC/Time-Life
Shakespeare, Richard II (1981). The best of a pretty mediocre
lot of films of the play. Still waiting for an imaginative director
to turn it into a hit.
- Actor Shakespeare Theater segments
of The Merchant of Venice (1986), featuring Patrick Stewart
(reading versions of speeches of Shylock) and Lisa Harrow (reading
versions of speeches by Portia). Excellent for gaining different
perspectives on the roles.
- Laurence Olivier, The Merchant of Venice
(1973). Filmed version of a stage production with setting in Edwardian
England.
- Royal National Theatre, with Trevor Nunn, The Merchant of Venice. Decidedly homosexual portrayal of Antonio
- Michael Radford, The Merchant of Venice
(2004). Star-filled cast (Al Pacino as Shylock, Jeremy Irons as
Antonio, Joseph Fiennes as Bassanio). Shylock as simultaneously persecuted and blood-thirsty.
- Michael Almereyda, Hamlet (2000). Takeover of a medieval
Danish throne is rendered as corporate takeover in modern New
York. Ethan Hawke plays a muted Hamlet. Interesting use of technology.
- Laurence Olivier, Hamlet (1948). Classic.
Expressionistic film style with Freudian interpretation.
- Kenneth Branagh, Hamlet (1996). Brilliant recent Hamlet
which plays entire Hamlet text uncut. Clearly the most important
film Hamlet since Olivier's.
- Franco Zeffirelli, Hamlet (191), with Mel Gibson as
hunky, pent-up Hamlet and Glenn Close as his mother, Gertrude.
Heavy on Freudian interpretation.
- Royal Shakespeare Company, The Winter's Tale (2005), starring Sir Anthony Sher, doing a wonderful job of convincing us of the irrationality of Leontes's jealousy and the magic of the play's ending.
Online Resources:
- Shakespeare
in Quarto. 93 facsimiles of the 21 plays by Shakespeare that
were printed in quarto; mounted online in the British Library's
Treasure's in Full site. The site allows you to compare pages
of different editions side by side.
- Furness
Shakespeare Library. Facsimiles of a growing number of texts
from the time of Shakespeare or relevant to the study of Shakespeare,
as well as facsimiles of critical texts. (U. Penn.)
- Folger
Shakepeare Library. Information on the collections, current
exhibits, theatre productions, and the institute and library itself.
You can now access Hamnet,
the Folger Library Catalog, online.
- Shakespeare
in Quarto. 93 copies of the 21 plays by Shakespeare prited
in quarto, British Library.
- Voice
of the Shuttle Shakespeare Resource Page. Full of helpful
links to pages on Shakespeare's plays, productions, criticism,
and the age-old "authorship question."
- Background
on the English Renaissance
- Index
of Other English Renaissance Sites
First Paper (3 pages.; due Thursday, October 27, at the end of lecture)
Instructions:
- Choose one of the passages listed below
from Taming or Richard II and make and interesting and original argument built upon close analysis of its language. (You may only
choose a different passage from one of the ones below with the consultation and approval of
your TA.)
- The argument might be about how the passage offers us a window onto an aspect of the the personality of the character(s), or about a theme, or a use of metaphor in the play.
- The argument should be original and interesting argument
(if it comes to your easily, on first reading, it's probably too obvious).
- Avoid just paraprhasing the passage (i.e., telling us what it says at a surface level)
- Back up your argument with attention to details of the language of the passage (pay attention to telling words, repetitions, meter, rhyme,
imagery, tone, punctuation, etc.)
- You may draw on points made in lecture and class discussion, but you should develop your own argument.
- You may cite from other passages in the play but only in support of your argument about the passage you have chosen for discussion (i.e., stay focused on the passage you have chosen; don't wander).
- Read the more detailed guidelines
below to ensure that you write a good paper:
Possible Passages:
Taming, 3.2.222-39: Petruchio to Kate on refusing to attend the wedding celebration, just before wisking her away with him to his house.
Taming, 4.3.1-35: The exchange between Kate and Grumio in which Kate begs food from him and ends up beating him.
Richard II, 1.3.154-73: Mowbray’s response to being banished from England.
Richard II, 3.3.142-74: Richard’s speech to Northumberland at Flint Castle, while awaiting to hear back from “King Bolingbroke.”
Second Paper (3 pages, double-spaced, 12 pt. font, Times Roman (MLA format); due Tuesday, December 6 in appointed TA/Reader mailboxes)
Instructions:
Choose one of the scenes listed below from a film adaptation we saw of one of the plays we have read and examine it as an interpretation of the scene and its place within the larger play. Rather than simply evaluating the film scene as “good” or “bad” in box office terms, consider instead what kinds of interpretive decisions the filmmaker and actors make. What can you learn from what a director adds or leaves out? What decisions has the director made about setting, time period, chronology? How does the director use lighting, camera angles, costumes, blocking (position of characters in a scene) to interpret the play's scene? How do the actors interpret their characters? For example, how does Derek Jacobi interpret Richard’s character? How does Elizabeth Taylor present Kate? Why would the actors make these decisions? Support your thesis statement with detailed examples from the scene (both as presented in the text and in the film). For example, a good film analysis might support its thesis through a close reading of a passage in the scene, or it might focus on a motif—color, lighting scheme, music, an object—that figures in the play as a whole and is used in a particularly illuminating way in the scene.
This assignment assumes a good knowledge of the play-text and film scene, and it requires that you have seen the film scene you’re examining at least twice. Films are available on reserve in Kerr Hall.
NOTE: you may not chose an alternative scene from one of those listed below without the permission of your TA.
Possibe scenes for discussion:
Taming:
1. The initial “wooing” exchange between Kate and Petruchio (2.1).
2. The “binding scene" (2.1)
3. The initial arrival of Petruchio and Kate at Petruchio’s country house (4.1)
Richard II:
1. Gaunt’s death-bed scene (2.1)
2. York’s palace scene, in which York and his wife discuss Bolingbroke’s and Richard’s procession into London and York subsequently discovers Aumerle’s involvement in a plot to assassinate Bolingbroke (5.2)
3. Richard’s prison scene (5.5)
Merchant:
1. The first or second casket scenes (2.7 or 2.9)
2. The trial (4.1)
3. The final scene in Belmont after the trial (5.1)
Hamlet:
1. The “nunnery scene” (3.1)
2. Ophelia mad (4.5)
3. The Fortinbras attack at the end of the play (in 5.2)
Winter’s Tale:
1. Leontes becoming jealous (1.2)
2. The sheep-shearing feast (4.4)
3. The “statue scene” (5.3) |
