William
Shakespeare: War Plays
Books required:
Bantam Edition paperbacks of Shakespeare Alive!, Richard III, Henry IV, Part One; Henry V, Troilus
and Cressida, Titus Andronicus, Julius
Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus
Outline of course and
subjects:
When Shakespeare began his career, England had become
involved in what would be a twenty-year political, religious, commercial,
and proto-imperialist war against the Spanish Empire. Shakespeare’s early career capitalized
significantly on the English public’s interest in war, and his later plays
deepened his (and their) interest in the origins and consequences of organized,
state-sanctioned violence. (The U.S. has also been involved in a series of wars
lasting more than twenty years that continues to this day–but without much public interest or involvement.) In studying the
plays in this course, we will come to see how, in Ben Jonson’s words Shakespeare “was not of an age, but for
all time,” even as we consider biographical, historical, religious,
literary, and cultural contexts of these
plays that make them very much products of their time. Close study of each play will be the focus of
this course, but in our study we will necessarily need to consider problems of
political authority; justice in war; nationalism, ethnicity, and race; masculinity,
patriarchy, and the “woman’s part” in war, issues that the plays variously
treat and encourage us to consider further.
I will introduce each play with one or two interpretive
lectures or commentaries, which will be followed by group and then general
class discussion as well as some showings of videos.
Course
requirements:
Attendance and class participation (15%)
Written essays: video report (10%)
scene
analysis (15%)
comparison
paper involving 2 plays and some research on a war-
related
subject (25%)
Exams: Mid-term exam on history
plays and Troilus & Cressida(15%)
Final
exam on Roman plays and course as a whole (20%)
Extra credit Up
to 5% for report(s) on a ninth, war-related play