Lahore University of Management Sciences
ENGL 3131 Greek and Shakespearean Tragedy
Spring Semester (2014-2015)
Instructor
Dr. Saeed Ghazi
Room No.
Room No. 129, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Academic Block
Office Hours
Friday 4:30 –7:30 pm
Email
[email protected]
Telephone
8045
Secretary/TA
2115
TA Office
Hours
TBA
Course URL (if
any)
Course Basics
Credit Hours
4
Lecture(s)
Nbr of Lec(s) Per
Week
Nbr of Lec(s) Per
Week
Nbr of Lec(s) Per
Week
Recitation/Lab (per
week)
Tutorial (per week)
2
Duration 1 Hour 50 Minutes
--
Duration --
TBA
Duration TBA
Course Distribution
Core
This is not a core course, but it will partially satisfy the four 300/400 course requirement for
English majors and the two 300/400 course requirement for English minors.
Elective
Yes (English major/English minor/Humanities major); Free Elective
Open for Student
Category
Sophomore, Juniors, Seniors
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Close for Student
Category
Freshmen
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Homo sum humani nihil a me alienum puto – Terence
The drama’s laws the drama’s patrons give,
For we that live to please must please to live. – Samuel Johnson
…high and excellent Tragedy, that openeth the greatest wounds, and showeth forth the ulcers that are covered
with tissue; that maketh kings fear to be tyrants and tyrants manifest their tyrannical humours; that with stirring
the affects of admiration and commiseration, teacheth the uncertainty of the world, and upon how weak
foundations gilded roofs are builded… Sir Philip Sidney, An Apology for Poetry (1595)
In tragic life, God wot, No villain need be!
Passions spin the plot: We are betray'd by what is false within. ... George Meredith
Greek and Shakespearean Tragedy, is devoted to an in depth exploration of the genre of tragedy. We will look
closely at seven of the most critically acclaimed plays in the history of the genre. These tragedies were produced
2,000 years apart in two of the richest and most fertile periods in the history of theatre, Athens in the 5th century
BCE and Elizabethan and Jacobean England in the late 16th and early 17th century CE. These plays emerged during
a time of tumult and transition. The city state of Athens, was emerging as a rising power after the defeat of the
Persians in the
Battle of Marathon (490 BCE), the naval Battle of Salamis (480 BCE), and
the Battle of Plataea (479 BCE). Elizabethan England was coming into its own after the defeat of the Spanish
Armada in 1588.
In the first part of the course, we will closely examine the work of three of the greatest tragedians of all time,
Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Their dramatic output is staggering and they are credited with over 295 plays
between them. However, only 32 of these are extant (7 each by Aeschylus and Sophocles, and 18 by Euripides). We
will study four exemplary works, Aeschylus’s Agamemnon, the first part of the only surviving trilogy in Greek
drama, Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex, and Antigone, and Euripides’s Medea. We will scrutinize definitions of tragedy,
and critically explore theories of the origin of tragedy in Athens, including the contentious issue of whether tragedy
originated in rituals devoted to Dionysus, the twice-born god of wine and fertility. We will study the distinctive
characteristics of Athenian theatre, and the Athenian audience, critically examine the role and function of the
chorus, and the emergence of the first “hypocrites” or answerers. The multifarious contexts in which these plays
emerged – political, cultural, and historical – will be closely examined. We will scrutinize such questions as the
relationship of character and destiny, the nature of evil, and examine the contrasting roles of the supernatural and
human weakness in effecting tragic reversals. The debate surrounding free will and determinism will be revisited.
Theories of tragedy, including Aristotelian, Decasibus (Medieval), Hegelian, Nietzschean, and Modern will provide
the framework within which these issues will be explored.
The following developments/subjects help define the context for Greek drama and will also receive significant
attention: the Homeric epics, Greek religion and mythology, Solon’s constitution and reforms, Peisistratus’s rule
and institution of the City Dionysia (534 BCE), the assassination of Hipparchus by Harmodius and Aristogeiton,
Hippias’s response and subsequent exile, Cleisthenes’s reforms and the emergence of Athenian democracy, the
rising tension and conflict between Greeks and Persia, the Delian confederacy, the role of the state and eponymous
archon (city magistrate) in the production of plays, the distinctive achievements of Periclean Athens, and the
Peloponnesian war.
The second half of the course of the course will be devoted to discerning the substance and structure of
Shakespearean tragedy through a close engagement with three of William Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies, Othello,
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Hamlet, and King Lear. We will look closely at the social, cultural, and historical contexts in which these plays
were produced. The relationship of the state and the stage and the place of the theatre in the cultural life of late
Elizabethan and Jacobean England will be among the issues that will engage our attention. The characteristics of
Elizabethan theatre, the Globe theatre where a significant number of Shakespeare’s plays were performed, and the
audience that attended these performances, will be closely scrutinized. Considerable attention will be devoted to
knitting the two halves of the course together and will involve wrestling with the following issues: What features, if
any, do Greek and Shakespearean tragedy have in common?, Does Shakespearean tragedy exist or are there only
Shakespearean tragedies?, Does Greek tragedy exist or do we have only Greek tragedies?, What was the impact of
Christianity on Greek conceptions of tragedy?, What effect did the idea of eternity, Christian hope and salvation,
(and damnation) have on Greek ideas about tragedy?, How did Christianity revolutionize understanding of the role
and significance of suffering?
COURSE PREREQUISITE(S)

ENGL 1000/LITR 100 Introduction to Literature in English
COURSE OBJECTIVES
A)
To provide students with an in-depth understanding and insight into the nature and characteristics of the genre
of tragedy in general and Greek and Shakespearean Tragedy in particular.
To equip students with the critical framework necessary to assess the dramatic achievements and the
distinguishing characteristics of the three Greek dramatists Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides and William
Shakespeare.
B)
C)
To endow students with an enhanced ability to identify, contrast, and critique the dominant and distinguishing
features of Greek and Shakespearean tragedy.
Learning Outcomes
Students who successfully complete ENGL 3131 should
A)
B)
Manifest a heightened understanding and appreciation of the genre of tragedy
Emerge with a deeper understanding of the distinctive and distinguishing characteristics of Greek
and Shakespearean Tragedy and the contexts in which they were produced.
Grading Breakup and Policy
There will be 28 sessions of class each 110 minutes in length.
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Students will write a brief response paper based on the assigned readings at the start of each class. They will take a
Mid-term and a Final exam and write a 2,500 -3,000 word (approximately 10 -12 pages) research paper. The topic
for the essay and the working thesis will have to be approved by the Instructor.
The first draft (rough draft) of the paper is due Friday of Week 12. The research paper is due on the Friday of the
final week of class and should adhere strictly to the MLA (Modern Language Association) format. A copy of the
7th edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers is on reserve at the library.
The break-up of the Instruments is as follows:
1. Mid Term Exam:
25%
2. Final Exam:
35%
3. Research Paper:
30%
4. Response Papers/Tests/
Presentations:
10%
Final Exam
The Final Exam will be comprehensive in scope.
In class Performance (This activity will not be graded)
Students will be required to perform a short scene in class.
Examination Detail
Midterm
Exam
Final Exam
Yes
Combine Separate: N/A
Duration: 110 Minutes
Preferred Date: First Session of the week (Monday/Tuesday)
Exam Specifications: Closed Book/Closed Notes
Yes
Combine Separate: N/A
Duration: 110 Minutes
Exam Specifications: Closed Book/Closed Notes
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The Theatre at Thorikos
Drawing of Theater at Epidaurus
The Theater of Dionysus became the prototype for all later Greek theaters, as can be seen in this recreation of the
theater of Epidaurus (late 4th cent. BC). This theater, much admired for its form in the ancient world, gives a clearer
representation of what an ancient Greek theater was like because of its excellent state of preservation.
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Theater of Epidaurus
The Theater of Epidaurus is the largest surviving theater in Greece; it held about 12,000 spectators. This theater was
connected, not with Dionysus, but with cult of Asclepius, the healing god.
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The Greek Theatre
Mechane and Ekkyklema
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The Globe Theatre, London
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COURSE OVERVIEW
Lecture
Author/ Topic
Primary Text /s
Introduction to the Course
Jonathan Culler, “What is
Literature and Does it
Matter?” from Literary
Theory: A Very Short
Introduction (2005): 18-41.
Introduction to Drama; The Origins of
Tragedy; Characteristics of Greek
Theater
M. H. Abrams “Orientation of
Critical Theories”, The Mirror
and the Lamp (1971): 3-29.
1.
2.
3.
Secondary Text /s
Theories of tragedy; Aristotle (384-322 Aristotle (384-322 BCE),
BCE), Poetics (c. 335 BCE); Hamartia, Poetics (c. 335 BCE)
Catharsis, Anagnorisis, and Peripeteia;
The Polis and the Oikos; Philos and
Ekhthros; Xenos
Agamemnon (458 BCE)
Sarah Pomeroy, Stanley
Burnstein, et.al. “The Growth
of Athens and the Persian
Wars” from A Brief History of
Ancient Greece (2004): 110137.
Agamemnon (458 BCE)
Richmond Lattimore,
“Introduction to the Oresteia”
From Aeschylus I, Ed. David
4.
Aeschylus (525-456 BCE)
Aeschylus (525-456 BCE)
5.
Greene and Richmond
Lattimore (1953): 1-31.
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Agamemnon (458 BCE)
6.
Aeschylus (525-456 BCE)
Sophocles (c. 496-406 BCE)
Oedipus Rex (c. 429 BCE)
J.T. Sheppard, “The Innocence
of Oedipus”, from Sophocles,
Oedipus Tyrannus (1970):
191-203.
Sophocles (c. 496-406 BCE)
Oedipus Rex (c. 429 BCE)
R.P. Winnington-Ingram,
“Fate in Sophocles” from
Sophocles: An Interpretation
(1980): 150-178.
Sophocles (c. 496-406 BCE)
Oedipus Rex (c. 429 BCE)
Bernard Knox, from The
Heroic Temper: Studies in
Sophoclean Tragedy (1964):
1-61.
Sophocles (c. 496-406 BCE)
Antigone (c. 443 BCE);
A.C. Bradley, “Hegel’s theory
of tragedy” Oxford Lectures
on Poetry (1909): 69-98.
Sophocles (c. 496-406 BCE)
Antigone (c. 443 BCE)
Simon Goldhill, “Relations
and Relationships” from
Reading Greek Tragedy
(2006): 79-106.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
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Sophocles (c. 496-406 BCE)
Antigone (c. 443 BCE)
Martha C. Nussbaum,
“Sophocles’ Antigone:
Conflict, Vision and
simplification” from The
Fragility of Goodness: Luck
and ethics in Greek tragedy
and Philosophy (1986): 51-84.
12.
Euripides (c. 485-406 BCE)
Medea (431 BCE)
M.S. Silk and J.P. Stern, “The
origin of tragedy” from
Nietzsche on Tragedy (1981):
142-150.
13.
Euripides (c. 485-406 BCE)
Medea (431 BCE)
Simon Goldhill, “Sexuality
and Difference”, from Reading
Greek Tragedy (2006): 107137.
No Class – Mid Term Exam
No Class – Mid Term Exam
No Class – Mid Term Exam
Introduction to Elizabethan England;
Life in Elizabethan England;
William Shakespeare (15641616), Othello (c.1603)
Jasper Ridley, from A Brief
History of the Tudor Age
(2002): 289-303.
14.
15.
16.
Introduction to the Elizabethan
Theatre;
Life and Career of William
Shakespeare (1564-1616)
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William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Othello (c.1603)
Joseph Papp and Elizabeth
Kirkland,”Getting their Acts
Together: Playwright and
Audience”: from Shakespeare
Alive (1988): 136-145.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616);
Othello (c.1603)
Maynard Mack, “Speak of Me
as I am: Othello” from
Everybody’s Shakespeare
(1993): 129-149.
Othello (c.1603)
Wayne C Booth, from The
Craft of Research (2003)
17.
18.
The Research Essay
William Shakespeare (1564-1616);
19.
The Research Essay
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Hamlet (c.1601)
20.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Hamlet (c.1601)
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Hamlet (c.1601)
21.
22.
A.C. Bradley, “The Substance
of Shakespearean Tragedy”
Shakespearean Tragedy
(1904): 1-30.
A.C. Bradley, “The
Construction in Shakespeare’s
Tragedies” Shakespearean
Tragedy (1904): 31-63.
Maynard Mack, “The
Readiness is All: Hamlet”
from Everybody’s
Shakespeare, (1993): 107-127.
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Tom McAlingdon, “What is a
Shakespearean Tragedy?”
from Ed. Claire McEachern,
Shakespearean Tragedy
(2002): 1-22.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Hamlet (c.1601)
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Hamlet (c.1601)
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
King Lear (c.1603)
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
King Lear (c.1603)
Alexander Leggatt, “King
Lear: We have no such
daughter” from Shakespeare’s
Tragedies: Violation and
Identity (2005): 145-176.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
King Lear (c.1603)
George Steiner, from The
Death of Tragedy (1980): 284350.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
King Lear (c.1603)
Albert Camus, “On the Future
of Tragedy”, from Lyrical and
Critical Essays (1970): 295310.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
Textbook(s)/Supplementary Readings