English 12, Section 302 -- Writing about Film Shakespeare in Performance

Instructor: Erika Lin
Email: elin@english.upenn.edu
Office: 4th floor Bennett Hall, cubicle A5
Office Hours: by appointment
Mailbox: 4th floor Bennett Hall, near cubicle A1
Course listserv: lin12@english.upenn.edu
Course home page: http://www.english.upenn.edu/~elin/eng12.html

Last updated: 4/14/99

Course Description

We'll be focusing on two major genres of writing, the personal narrative and the critical essay, but we'll also "dabble" in other forms of writing to give you a taste of the different circumstances in which you may encounter writing in your future life and what those circumstances may ask of you. I'll be asking you to think of writing as a process, and we'll be exploring what the steps of that process are. However, most importantly, I hope that, by the end of this semester, you'll develop more of a sense of ownership over your own writing, a sense of confidence in your own abilities as a writer. I hope that you'll be able to develop a personal relationship to your writing, so that not only can you respond well to any writing situation you're placed in, but you'll also be able to feel writing as something powerful, empowering, and even spiritual.

Texts

Books

• Ed. Greenblatt, Stephen et. al. The Norton Shakespeare. New York: W. W. Norton, 1997.
• Gurr, Andrew. The Shakespearean Stage, 1574-1642. 3rd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992.

Stage Productions

• Two Gentlemen of Verona, directed by Cary Mazer at the University of Pennsylvania, Studio Theatre, at 8 PM on 2/18-2/20 and 2/25-2/27.
• As You Like It, at the People's Light and Theatre in Malvern, 3/10-4/1.

Films

• King Lear, starring Laurence Olivier, 1984.
• Richard III, starring Ian McKellan, 1996.
• Much Ado About Nothing, starring Kenneth Branagh, 1993.

Handouts

• Elbow, Peter. "Freewriting." The Writer's Home Companion: An Anthology of the World's Best Writing Advice, From Keats to Kunitz. Ed. Joan Bolker. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1997. 46-55. (re: freewriting)
• Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams. "Quick Tip: A Checklist for Understanding Your Readers." The Craft of Research. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995. 26-27. (re: audience)
• Lynch, Jack and Lin, Erika. "Selected Highlights from Jack Lynch's Grammar and Style Guide with a Few Additional Notes by Erika Lin." (re: grammar and mechanics)
• Barsanti, Michael. "How To Be Original." (re: thesis construction)
• Barsanti, Michael. "Writing A Thesis."
• Lin, Erika. "Things to Consider in a Stage Performance."

Resources

Peer Writing Advisors (http://www.english.upenn.edu/Writing/WATU/advisors.html) : peer advising online at writeme@english.upenn. edu or in-person at the Writers House, Hill House, and McClelland Hall.

Jack Lynch's Grammar and Style Guide (http://www.english.upenn.edu/~jlynch/Grammar): fast, online advice about style (grammar and mechanics) from former Penn English grad student Jack Lynch.

Writers House (http://www.english.upenn.edu/~wh): hosts many fun events for readers and writers. For more info, check out their website or call 573- WRIT.

Writing Program Home Page (http://www.english.upenn.edu/Writing): general guide to writing resources at Penn.

Tutoring and Learning Resources: Help with all kinds of study skills from time management to reading a lot very quickly. Call 57-EXCEL (573- 9235) for an appointment, email them at learning@dolphin.upen n.edu, or drop by during walk-in hours from 12-3 PM daily, Suite 110, High Rise East (3820 Locust Walk).

Counseling and Psychological Services: Confidential and free individual counseling, support, workshops (on such topics as stress management, eating issues, test anxiety, and relationship issues), and walk-in crisis counseling--all to help you develop greater understanding about yourself and others and to enhance your personal well-being and academic performance. Call 898 - 7021 or stop by their office 133 South 36th Street (near Sansom), 2nd Floor Mellon Building, between 9 AM and 5 PM, Monday - Friday.

Schedule

Assignments

Listserv (Th 1/14): Using specific examples, discuss what interests you about this part of Titus Andronicus. Does this play surprise you in any way?

Listserv (Tu 1/19): What preconceptions about Shakespeare did you have before coming to this class? Using specific examples, discuss how Titus Andronicus, Acts III-V, challenges those preconceptions.

Listserv (Th 1/21): Think about Titus as a play in performance. How might a Renaissance audience have reacted to it? Give specific examples from the play. (You might also want to read ahead and take a look at the assignmnet from Gurr.)

Listserv (Tu 1/26): What interests you about the Gurr reading? (Remember to be specific.)

Listserv (Tu 2/2): What interests you about the Gurr reading? (Remember to be specific.)

Listserv (Tu 2/9): What interests you about this section of Twelfth Night? Be sure to give specific examples from the text.

Listserv (Th 2/11): How do costumes in Twelfth Night (or in performing Twelfth Night) define identity? Give specific examples from the text.

Listserv (Tu 2/16): How did the in-class performance of the scene from Twelfth Night change or deepen your understanding of the play?

Listserv (Th 2/18): Think about the soliloquies and asides in Acts I and II of Two Gentlemen of Verona. How are they similar to the soliloquies and asides in Twelfth Night? How are they different? Give specific examples from the two plays in your response.

Listserv (Tu 2/23): Pick one item from the "Things to Consider in a Stage Performance" handout that you found interesting about tonight's production. Discuss what you think the production was trying to do with regard to that item, whether or not it succeeded, and why you found it interesting. Be sure to give specific examples from the performance. (When I say "examples," I mean details, details, details!) Do NOT choose an item that someone else has already talked about unless you have something very different to say about it.

Listserv (Th 3/18): What interests you about King Lear? Give specific examples from the text.

Listserv (Tu 3/23): What differences or similarities do you find in either the language or the presentational styles (i.e. how the actor/character relates to the audience) of at least two of the following: Edgar, Edmund, the Fool, or Lance in Two Gents? Be specific (i.e. quote from the text).

Listserv (Th 3/25): What differences or similarities do you find in either the language or the presentational styles (i.e. how the actor/character relates to the audience) of at least two of the following: Edgar, Edmund, the Fool, or Lance in Two Gents? Be specific (i.e. quote from the text).

Listserv (Tu 3/30): How does King Lear imagine the relationship between (1) material objects and/or the physical body, and (2) what it means to be human? Give at least 3 specific examples from the text. How does this relationship change when the play is performed on stage? on film?

Listserv (Th 4/8): In live performance the actor's body is literally present while in film the actor's body is imagined; i.e. we perceive the actor's body only via images of parts of his/her body and the superimposition of simultaneous voice or sound. Describe how 3 examples from the films we've watched present the body in an interesting way that is different from how it could be presented on stage since stage performance involves the presence of the actor's body.

Weekly Writing Assignment #1 (M 1/25): 1) Do a 20-minute freewriting in preparation for the following. 2) Write a 2-3 page personal narrative. You should write about something that matters deeply to you, something that you really care about, and you should be sure that your narrative has an ultimate point that you are trying to convey. Be sure to stay specific and concrete throughout. Turn in your freewriting and one copy of your personal narrative to me on Monday. Bring in 3 copies of your personal narrative for your peer review group.

Weekly Writing Assignment #2 (M 2/1): This is an assignment about AUDIENCE. Write a 1-page letter to your senator about the impeachment trial. (Register to vote if necessary.) Mail the letter to your senator. Rewrite the letter so that it contains the same essential content but is addressed to a friend. (You don't need to mail this one.) Turn in copies of both letters. Be sure the letters are in the appropriate layout and format.

Weekly Writing Assignment #3 (M 2/8): Write a 2-page parody of a scene from either Titus Andronicus or Twelfth Night.

Weekly Writing Assignment #4 (M 2/22): Pick a word in Titus Andronicus, Twelfth Night, or Two Gentlemen of Verona. Look it up in the Oxford English Dictionary (the OED) at http://oed.library.upenn.edu, and in 2 pages discuss how the various meanings of the word reflect or enable what it is that the text is trying to say. (No freewriting is due with this assignment, though you're welcome to do one anyway.) Use the "single term searching" option, not just the "definition only" option in the OED. Look at the various definitions, but also the examples of usage. Consider also the dates when various usages were common and the etymology of the word.

Weekly Writing Assignment #5 (M 3/22--turn in via email): Write a preliminary thesis for Essay #3.

Weekly Writing Assignment #6 (M 4/5--turn in via email): Following up on our thesis workshop, consult with your peer review group and, with their help, write down your old thesis from Essay #2 and a new, improved version of your thesis for your Essay #2 revision.

Weekly Writing Assignment #7 (M 4/12): In 2-3 pages write a screenplay adapting a scene or a part of a scene from King Lear to film. Be sure to describe the cinematography and not just the dialogue.

Essay #1 (M 2/15): Starting from scratch, take the best element in Weekly Assignment #1 and use that as your starting point to write a 2-3 page personal narrative. Turn in Assignment #1 with Essay #1. What I'm asking you to do is reconceptualize Assignment #1. This is a "revision" in the sense of revisionging: rethinking the fundamental assumptions, goals, organizational principles, etc. behind Assignment #1 to make large conceptual leaps rather than merely minor changes.

Essay #2 (M 3/1): Write a 3-4 page critical essay on Titus Andronicus, Twelfth Night, or Two Gentlemen of Verona. By "critical essay," I mean do a literary "close reading" of the text. (Your "research" here is your close analysis of the text.) Turn in a 20-minute freewriting and 1 copy of your essay to me. You'll also need to bring in 3 copies for your peer review group on Tues., 3/2.

Essay #3 (M 3/29): Write a 4-5 page critical essay on one of the four plays we've read for this class (but not the one you wrote about last time). Turn in a 20-minute freewriting and 1 copy of your essay to me. You'll also need to bring in 3 copies for your peer review group.

Essay #4 (Th 4/22): You have two choices for this essay assignment. Neither asks you to do a literary close reading. Instead, they ask you to practice thinking about other kinds of materials besides playtexts. This essay is optional. If you choose to write it, your grade on this essay will be averaged in with the final grades of your other three essays (the final grades of your other three essays are the averages of the grades on the first and final versions of each essay). Choose one of the following two options:

• OPTION A: Performance Choices in Film/Video
  • Choose one short scene (or part of a longer scene from a Shakespeare play, and compile a videotape of at least three clips of this scene from different film or video performances. Turn in the videotape along with your essay.
  • Write 4-5 pages describing (1) the differences and similarities in at least three different aspects (camera angle, costume, line readings, music, etc.) of these scenes, and (2) the significance of these differences for how we understand the play (i.e. talk about the different meanings that these different versions generate).
• OPTION B: Short Title Catalogue (STC)
  • Chronological Search: Choose a year from 1590-1610.
    • Look at all the records in the STC Room chronological catalogue for your year.
    • Write down twenty interesting titles and their authors.
    • Write one page on what your selections tell us about what was on readers'/printers' minds in your year.
  • Author Search: Choose an author/text pairing from the following list: Marlowe (Doctor Faustus), Jonson (Bartholomew Fair), Shakespeare (Titus Andronicus), Spenser (The Faerie Queene), and Webster (The Duchess of Malfi).
    • Look in the author/title/subject catalogue for this text, and write down all information about title, date, and place of publication for each edition.
    • Write one page giving your observations about the centrality/marginality of this work to the author's other publications.
  • Subject Search: Choose a subject from the following list: London, gardening, Elizabeth I, courtesy, medicine, husbandry, education, anatomy, marriage, America, emblems, death (or choose your own, with instructor's permission).
    • Look up your subject in the author/title/subject catalogue and pick five interesting works on your subject: write down the full information.
    • Write one page commenting on what you can tell about your subject just from the titles, authors, and dates of the works.

Requirements

• 4 essays (letter-graded) with optional revisions
• 7 weekly Writing Assignments (graded on a done/not done basis; comments given only on selected assignments)
• 2 in-class performances:
  • a scene from either Twelfth Night or King Lear
  • a scene from another Shakespeare play of your choice (Titus Andronicus, Two Gentlemen of Verona, or any other Shakespeare play except for either Twelfth Night and King Lear)
• 2 stage productions of Two Gentlemen of Verona and As You Like It
• 3 film screenings for two versions of King Lear and Richard III
• 3 peer reviews plus workshops
• 4 individual conferences
• 8 email listserv postings
• active class participation
• reading preparation

Reading Preparation

• Read the assigned texts (or view the assigned film or production) at least once and be prepared to discuss them in class
• Read all of the listserv postings and be prepared to respond to them in class

Class Participation

Email Listserv Postings

Weekly Writing Assignments

Peer Review and Other Workshops

Essays

Portfolio

Individual Conferences

In-class Performances

Film Screenings and Stage Productions

Policies

Grading

• Letter-graded essays with optional revisions 50%
• Weekly writing assignments, peer review and workshop assignments, and in-class performances (graded on a done/not done basis) 25%
• Class participation, reading preparation, and listserv postings 25%

To determine the portion of your grade devoted to letter-graded written work, I'll be averaging the first and last versions of each of your essays to get a "final" grade for each of the essays. Then I'll be averaging all of these "final" grades together to arrive at your overall grade for this portion of your grade for the course. In determining this portion of your final course grade, I'll also be taking into account your improvement over the course of the semester. (So, for example, if your initial grades on Essays #1, 2 and 3 are C+, B, and A-, respectively, and the grades on the last versions of each of those essays are B, B+, and A, respectively, then the "final" averaged grade would be B- for Essay #1, B/B+ for Essay #2, and A-/A for Essay #3. These "final" grades for each essay and your grade for Essay #4 would then be averaged together. If you got a B/B+ on Essay #4, then B-, B/B+, A-/A, and B/B+ would average out to somewhere between a B/B+ and a B+. Taking improvement into account, I'd bump it up to a B+.)

Attendance

Late Papers

Collaborative Writing/Plagiarism