Seminar in Reading and Interpretation (300-0-21)
Topic
Romeo & Juliet, Before & After
Instructors
William N West
Meeting Info
University Hall 418: Tues, Thurs 11:00AM - 12:20PM
Overview of class
Maybe everyone has heard of the star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet, whether they know Shakespeare's play or not. But their story did not start or end with Shakespeare. Almost three hundred years earlier, Dante mentions them in passing in the Divine Comedy. More than three hundred years later, they turn up in West Side Story as teenagers from different backgrounds in gentrifying Manhattan, and they appear in dozens of other versions in between. They owe much to traditions of both courtly love and bawdy country stories, and they in turn have given us many of our ways of understanding love. Idealized or criticized, Romeo and Juliet seem to slip free of the work in which they appear to lead many other lives. In this class we will explore some of the ways Shakespeare's play and Romeo and Juliet's story have appeared and reappeared, changed and persisted. We will use this body of writing to explore different ways of reading and interpreting literature. We will also learn how we use this story to think about values, about love, about violence, and about stories themselves.
Teaching Method
Mostly discussion-based, with several hands-on projects.
Evaluation Method
Several short writing assignments; final paper.
Class Materials (Required)
Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, ed. Weis (Arden/ Bloomsbury) ISBN 978-1903436912.
Texts will be available at: Norris, or I will supply information for ordering books by mail.
Films include: Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet; Shulman/ Bernstein/ Sondheim/ Robbins, West Side Story (1961 film); Luhrmann, Romeo + Juliet (1996 film); Madden, Shakespeare in Love (1998 film); other precursors and adaptations. Films and other texts will be available online or from the Library.
Class Attributes
Attendance at 1st class mandatory