English 304: Shakespeare: Major Plays
Prof. Boyer
Spring 2003
Optional Literary-Critical Essay AssignmentsOptional Project on Teaching Shakespeare
Return to the English 304 list
General Instructions
Your assignment is to write an essay of 4-5 pages, typed, double spaced, on some aspect of one or more of the last three plays we have read: Othello, King Lear, and The Winter's Tale. You may refer to one or more of the earlier plays, but the focus of your paper should be on the most recent three plays.
There is no assigned topic (although some suggestions appear below), but in determining what you will write about, you should follow the guidelines in my "Instructions for Short Papers" handout. Topics for the first and second papers or one or more of your response papers may give you a good starting place for finding a topic. You might also find good ideas on the General Introduction to The Norton Shakespeare and in the introductions to each play.
Your essay should develop an interpretive argument about the topic and analyze, in as much detail as possible, the specific evidence within the literary text that supports or complicates your argument. The key to a good paper is to have specifics from the text that support your general conclusions. You should not use outside sources in preparing your paper (although of course any sources you do use must be properly cited to avoid charges of plagiarism). But feel free to use introductions from The Norton Shakespeare, any additional sources for factual or background material, and any other literary texts you may wish to cite.
Your paper must adhere to the course style sheet or to MLA format as presented in the MLA Handbook, including matters of margins, double spacing, handling of quotations, etc. Be sure to follow MLA format for quoting verse. Your paper must include a Works Cited page listing the edition of the play you use and any other sources you cite. (See my home page http://english.sxu.edu/boyer for a link to my "Literature Students' Guide to the MLA Handbook, 5th edition.") Be sure to edit and proofread.
Above all, this assignment asks you to consider one or more literary texts, to come up with an idea for analysis, and then to go about analyzing it. Use plenty of evidence from the play, of course, but what I'm most interested in is your idea and the way you develop it. Merely saying that there is something important about a particular scene or speech, or something important about a parallel or a difference between two characters isn't enough. Think closely about the importance, about the parallel or difference, including what it doesn't cover. Keep asking "So what?" That's what both your discussion and the evidence you cite is supposed to tell your readers.
Once you have an idea, I'd suggest doing some freewriting on the idea–get your thoughts written down without worrying about organization, grammar, word choice, or punctuation. Then read through what you have, organizing your ideas by clumping similar things together–this usually works to build the most important point. Then try freewriting on that new point. Ultimately, move to writing a draft.
I am happy to talk about your paper with you at any stage of its development, from topic selection on. Make an appointment to see me, or send me your questions by email.
English 304, Shakespeare: Major Plays
Prof. Boyer
Spring 2003Third Paper Suggested Topics
(with Thanks to Clark Hulse, Anita Delaria, and Paul Fortunato of the University of Illinois at Chicago)
(You may select your own topic)Write a 4-5 page essay on one of the following topics. Be sure to support your argument not only with frequent reference to the specific language of the play(s) in question, but with analysis of the subtleties of that language. And be sure to adhere to the course style sheet.
top
A.
Choose a single word in Othello, King Lear, or The Winter's Tale. ("honest," "white," "black," "kind," "mad," "ear," "beard," "nature," "winter" are just a few good words, and there are lots more–think of some before you settle on one of these.) Trace the word through the play in its multiple occurrences and forms, noting how it picks up meaning, becomes clustered with other words, concepts, and characters, and gradually becomes the center of a network of meaning that defines the play. To locate appearances of a word, try a Shakespeare concordance or the "Shakespeare Search Engine" (http://www.it.usyd.edu.au/~matty/Shakespeare/).
B.
In Othello and The Winter's Tale, a woman dies (in truth or pretence) when the man who has sworn to love her believes she has betrayed him sexually. Work out the parallel between the two plot situations, and examine what factors cause one to end tragically and one comically. What do the similarities and differences reveal about about tragedy, about comedy/romance, and about gender relationships?
C.
Iago in Othello (1.1.65) declares "I am not what I am," and Edgar in King Lear declares "Edgar I nothing am (2.3.21). Choose a moment or moments from each play where one character deliberately represents himself in order to control the interpretations or understandings of the other characters. Discuss what these instances tell you about the similarities and differences between a character's performance within the play and the actor's performance on the stage.
The Norton Shakespeare presents three versions of King Lear: a "conflated" text (which we are reading as a class), and, on facing pages, a Quarto text ("The History of King Lear") and a Folio text ("The Tragedy of King Lear").
For your project, choose one scene or extended passage in the plays, and write a 4 or 5 page paper exploring the significance of having two versions of King Lear. Analyze how the differences in the texts create differences of meaning within the individual scenes and differences in the way the scenes work within the play as a whole.
III. Project on Teaching Shakespeare:
Overview:
You are a teacher in training and will be student teaching next semester. This semester, however, you have been observing a high school English class, and you will have the opportunity to teach for a week. The class has been discussing the issue of racism in other literary works, and will now be reading Othello. Your task for the week is to introduce the play Othello within the context of race, in a way appropriate to your high school classroom and your teaching style.
Your Assignment:
Write a 4-5 page prospectus in essay format (which could later be elaborated into a day-to-day lesson plan, but the lesson plan is not part of this assignment). In your prospectus, you are to indicate your overall objectives, methods, expectations, and means of evaluation.
1. Objectives: For example, it is not enough to say that your goal is to discuss race. Instead, you might wish to focus on racially charged language. How is it used in this play? How may this be relevant to students' lives? In writing your objectives, be mindful of where you're coming from and where you want to go with the class. What will be the trajectory of your instruction? Do you wish to focus on a particular scene, character, interaction? What do you want the students to learn?
2. Methods: Will you use a variety of media in your instruction (auditory, visual, tactile, kinetic)? For example, if you use video, be specific about how you will direct the presentation. If your students will act out part of the play, be specific about what scenes they will perform, and why you've chosen those scenes. Consider what variations on teaching-through-performance you might employ: Will different groups do the same scene? Will the members of a group change roles for multiple tries at a scene? Will they do the scene as written, or write their own variations?
3. Expectations: What sorts of responses do you expect to encounter from your students to Othello itself and to the methods employed? Are there particularly useful responses that you might expect to build on? Are there any problematic responses that might be anticipated, and how do you plan to deal with them?
4. Evaluation: Consider what means of evaluation best suit your objectives and your methods. For instance, if the students have been role-playing, a multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank test may not be appropriate. If they have viewed three versions of one scene, perhaps a written review of which is best may be appropriate.
Coherence: There should be a clearly defined goal for the instruction, and this goal should be reflected and carried through in your methods and evaluation.