Wilfrid Laurier University
Waterloo, Ontario
English 233:
Shakespeare’s Comedies and Romances: Gender and Genre
Andrew Bretz
Office: n/a
Phone: 519-884-0710, ext. 4461
E-mail: [email protected]
Office Hours: TBA
Skype ID: andrewbretz
Skype Office Hours: TBA
Sprummer 2013
Course Description:
This course will study the interconnectedness between gender and genre in a selection of plays from all
stages of Shakespeare’s development as a dramatist. Though it may be hard for us today to believe, Shakespeare
during the 1590s was primarily known as a playwright of comedies and not of tragedies. His eventual shift away
from the bawdy comedy of Two Gentlemen of Verona and Comedy of Errors and towards a more romantic,
sensitive, and heightened vision of the world in Cymbeline and The Tempest will be explored throughout this course. (EN 233 is a half course credit that is not a required course for the English degree. The exclusions are
EN232 and EN351.)
Course Objectives:
By the end of the course, you will be able to 1 Correctly deploy the terminology of dramatic analysis in reference to early modern drama (e.g. correctly
defining “revenge tragedy”); 2 Recognize and apply a number of analytical or critical positions that can be taken vis-à-vis the texts (e.g.
New Historicism, Performance Studies); 3 Demonstrate awareness of some of the major themes of early modern drama (e.g. sexuality, God’s
providence, royal authority) and create an argument based on that awareness. Required Texts:
Shakespeare, William. The Norton Shakespeare, Based on the Oxford Edition. Gen. ed.
Stephen Greenblatt. New York: WW Norton, 2008. Description of Assignments & Value, Due Dates:
Online Unit Quizzes Notebook Term Essay Final Exam Participation 15%
25%
35%
10%
15%
Online Unit Quizzes (Five Quizzes at 3% per Quiz) At the end of every unit, where a unit is to be understood as the period of study of a particular play, there will be a
short unit quiz. The quizzes will comprise 3 questions from a bank of questions. You will have a maximum of two
minutes to complete the quiz, so although they will be technically open book, you had best know the answers off the
top of your head. Blank answers will be marked as 0. Some of the questions will be multiple choice, some will be
short answer. The questions will be both knowledge based and require analysis or application of knowledge gained
from course content. Your final mark on the quiz will be based on your first attempt at the quiz. Should you fail a
quiz on the first attempt that mark will be recorded, but you will have to take the quiz again and get at least a 60% to
move forward into the next unit. You may retake the quizzes as many times as necessary to move forward into the
next unit. Notebook (25%) You will keep an electronic notebook throughout the course. In each lesson there will be a number of writing
prompts (They will be bolded and often of the form “Stop and Reflect”). Occasionally these writing prompts will
direct you to the discussion board, but that will only start happening about the middle of the course, so that you can
find your own voice before beginning to share with the class. Unless otherwise indicated, all Stop and Reflect
prompts are to be completed in your notebook. You will be expected to keep up with the writing prompts. For the
sake of ease of reading, please number your reflections in keeping with the section and number of the writing
prompts. These notebooks are not intended to be polished works, but your thoughts as they come to you. Please try
to keep the profanity to a minimum, but I won’t be marking for tone or grammar, just to make sure that you engage
with the text and the questions. What I will be looking for is evidence that you are genuinely engaging the text and
genuinely addressing yourself to the questions. At the end of each module/when we finish looking at a particular
play, I will ask you a summative Stop and Reflect question. The summative question will be in two parts. The first
part asks you to ask me a question. The second part asks you to write a summative assignment. Please see the end of
each module for further instructions. The summative assignments will be worth 15% of the total 25% of the
Notebook mark, while the rest of the Stop and Reflect prompts will be worth 10% of the total 25%. Notebooks will
be due once a week - every Sunday evening at 23:59. You are expected to keep their notebooks electronically (of
course) and to hand them in via the dropbox on the website. (Accepted formats: .doc, .docx, .pdf)
Term Essay (35%) This assignment will be scaffolded throughout the semester. The paper is not to be any more than 6-8 pages in
length and must be handed in through the dropbox online to be checked through TurnItIn. This assignment is, in
fact, several assignments in one: ○ Thesis Statement (2%) ■ The thesis statements will be due by the end of the fourth week of classes. These
statements will be vetted by the professor. I will be asking ”Is it provable? Does it make
sense? Have you shown a comprehension of the texts and the contextual material offered
in the lectures?” ■ These will be returned before the end of the 5th week ○ Sample Paragraph & Introductory Bibliography (5%) ■ The Sample Paragraph and Introductory Bibliography will be due at the end of the sixth
week of class. In this case, I will be marking you based on: ● Grammar ● Style ● Argumentation ● Grasp of Text ● Appropriateness of Sources/Research ○ Peer Edited Draft (3%) ■ Drafts of the completed paper will be due at the end of the ninth week, to allow for a twoweek turn around. You will be asked to grade each other’s work according to the rubric
for the final draft, as well as to offer helpful advice on how to make the paper better. For
instance, you may recommend a source to another student or suggest reorganization of
the paper. ■ All drafts must be submitted for peer review through GoogleDocs. Please see the course
website for further guidance on this project. (LINK) ○ Final Draft (25%) ■ This will be due the final day of class, to allow you ample time to rework their papers
based on the peer editing process. Online Final Exam (10%) The final exam will be structurally like the unit quizzes, yet will be 20 questions long, with questions at least in part
suggested from you through the online discussion boards and in part drawn from the same bank of questions as the
unit quizzes. You will also be expected to know material from the unit on The Tempest for this exam. This exam is
cumulative and the final mark will be taken the first (and only) attempt.
Participation (15%) This will comprise two parts. ● Online discussion boards (5%) ○ Which can include suggestions for the final Exam Questions ● Peer Editing (10%) ○ Have you caught most of the grammatical errors? ○ Do you show an understanding of the concepts in the papers you are reading? ○ Are you being supportive and constructive? ■ Are you asking questions about the paper/concept in the paper/idea? ■ Do you offer suggestions on what to revise and how?
Weekly Reading Schedule:
Text to Read Genre and History Week One The Comedy of Errors Week Two The Comedy of Errors Feminism Week Three The Taming of the Shrew Week Four The Taming of the Shrew Performance Week Five Midsummer Night’s
Dream Week Six Midsummer Night’s
Dream New Historicism Week Seven Measure for Measure Modules of Course to
Assignments Due Complete 1.1 - Introduction
● Notebook 2.1 - The Beginnings of
Western Comedy 2.2 - Eros, Agape, Philia,
and Redemption
● Quiz 2.3 - Language and Humor ● Notebook 3.1 - The Terms of
Analysis
● Notebook 3.2 - Genre 3.3 - Gender
3.4 - Performance and
● Quiz Adaptation ● Notebook 4.1 - Performance as a
Form of Analysis
● Thesis
4.2 - Performance History Statements Due 4.3 - Language and the
Erotic
4.4 - Intergenerational
Friction 5.1 - New Historicism and
Shakespearean Comedy
5.2 – Prostitution and State
Violence ●
Notebook ●
Quiz ●
Notebook ●
Sample
Paragraph Due Week Eight Rhetoric and Romance Week Nine Week Ten Measure for Measure Cymbeline Cymbeline Post Colonialism Week Eleven The Tempest Week Twelve The Tempest 5.3 - Governance
5.4 - Measured Verse 6.1 - The Rhetoric of
Romance
6.2 – Allegory and
Cymbeline 6.3 – Rhetorical Analysis
6.4 - Myth, Universalism,
and Romance 7.1 - Post-Colonial
Analysis
7.2 – Magic, Books, and
Power 7.3 - Race
8.1 - Conclusion ●
Notebook ●
Quiz ●
Notebook ●
Paper due for
Peer Editing ●
Notebook ●
Quiz ●
Papers back
from Peer
Editing ●
Notebook ● Notebook ●
Notebook ●
Final Paper ●
Final Exam Lateness:
An assignment is considered “late” if the student and I have not agreed at least 24 hours beforehand to an alternate
deadline to the one noted on this course outline. Students handing in essays late will be docked 5% per calendar
day until the essay is handed in or until 10 calendar days have passed, at which time the assignment will receive 0%.
Extenuating medical circumstances will, obviously, be grounds for compassionate waiver of late penalties. Do not
hand in papers to administrative offices. If you hand in a paper under my door, or in my mailbox, then your paper
will be docked marks until such time as I retrieve it, which could be up to a week later.
Accessible Learning
Students with disabilities or special needs are advised to contact Laurier’s Accessible Learning Office for
information regarding its services and resources. Students are encouraged to review the Calendar for information
regarding all services available on campus.
Academic Misconduct
Wilfrid Laurier University uses software that can check for plagiarism. Students may be required to submit their
written work in electronic form and have it checked for plagiarism.
Special Needs
Students with disabilities or special needs are advised to contact Laurier’s Accessible Learning Centre (ALC)
(http://waterloo.mylaurier.ca/accessible/info/home.htm) for information regarding its services and resources.
Students are encouraged to review the Undergraduate Academic Calendar for information regarding all services
available on campus. (http://www.wlu.ca/page.php?grp_id=1365&p=5123).
University Examination and Deferrals
Please refer to the most recent version of the undergraduate calendar regarding the university’s policy on
examinations and exam deferrals. (Refer to the examination section of the calendar under - University
Undergraduate Regulations - Academic Regulations – Examinations found at
http://www.wlu.ca/page.php?grp_id=1365&p=5123). Note also the dates for the final exam period. Students are
required to reserve this time in their personal calendars for examinations. Students considering registering to write
MCAT, LSAT, or GMAT or a similar examination should select a time for those examinations that occurs outside
the University examination period.
FOOT Patrol
After evening classes call 886-FOOT for a walk or drive home - No Walk is Too Short or Too Long!!!@