ENGL 25 - Introduction to Shakespeare

Transfer Status

CSU/UC

Unit(s)

3.00

• Lecture: 51.00 Contact hours/102.00 Out of class hours/153.00 Total hours/3.00 Unit(s)
• Total: 51.00 Contact hours/102.00 Out of class hours/153.00 Total hours/3.00 Unit(s)

Course Description: This course introduces students to Shakespeare, his works, and his world through lecture, reading, projects, and discussion. This course analyzes representative tragedies, comedies, histories, and sonnets. Graded only.

Upon successful completion of this course, the student should be able to:

1. Identify themes and analyze them in representative Shakespearean tragedies, comedies, histories, romances and sonnets.
2. Summarize the facts about Shakespeare and his contemporaries as individuals and as contributors to the canon of English literature.
3. Describe the development of Shakespeare’s works and identify Renaissance themes in the plays and sonnets.
4. Summarize and discuss how English history, politics, and culture interrelated to shape the “golden age” of English drama, including its lasting effects in the present.
5. Analyze and compare ideas across course texts.
6. Form and support an argument using evidence from multiple texts.
7. View literary works through (or interpret literary works through) different lenses that may include political, socioeconomic, geographical, ethnic, cultural, ecological, psychoanalytical, historical, gender, sexuality, or genre development.

Topic Titles / Suggested Time Topic

Lecture

1. Class Activities
2. Collaborative Group Work
3. Field Trips
4. Homework: Students are required to complete two hours of outside-of-class homework for each hour of lecture
5. Lecture
6. Reading Assignments

1. Research Projects
2. Oral Presentation
3. Written Assignments
4. Essays and research papers
5. Class Discussion
6. Students are expected to write a minimum of 5000 words for this course.

Reading Assignments

1. Read Bevington's introduction to The Tempest and complete the reading response, quoting from specific scenes throughout.  Share your favorite scene with the class.
2. Students will choose two speeches from Henry V of at least 100 words in each act to paraphrase into modern English, making sure to use the glossary at the bottom of the pages. Be prepared to share with the class.

Writing Assignments

1. Students will select a film based on a Shakespeare play and write a minimum 1000 word essay contrasting the two. The thesis should reflect on the director's choices and how it represents themes of Shakespeare. Share your findings with the class.
2. Students will choose one sonnet and paraphrase it, reading it aloud in class and addressing three of its elements in a 2-3 page paper.

Out-of-Class Assignments

1. Students will attend one live performance of a Shakespeare play or watch one video of a Shakespeare play, taking notes on actors' and director's interpretation of the play, then will fill out a worksheet while watching, explaining aspects of plot, character, and setting that the production incorporates. Share your findings with the class.
2. With a partner, students will memorize one medium-length two-person scene and work out stage movements and accompanying expressions and emotional beats, then present the scene during a designated class session, introducing the purpose and context of the scene and explaining the significance of each role beforehand.

Bevington, David. (2016). The Necessary Shakespeare. Pearson, 5th. 978-0134139883.

Greenblatt, Stephen, et al. (2015). The Norton Shakespeare. Norton, 3rd. 978-1-324-07179-2.

Steelman, Sheridan Lynn. (2022). Walking in Shakespeare's Shoes: Connecting His World and Ours Using Primary Sources. NCTE, First. 978-0814144527.

English (Masters Required)