First-Year Writing Seminar (101-8-22)

Topic

An Introduction to Shakespeare

Instructors

Matthew Davis

Meeting Info

Harris Hall L04: Mon, Wed 9:30AM - 10:50AM

Overview of class

This course will provide an introduction to Shakespeare for students who have little or no previous experience reading his work. We will begin by reading Gary Blackwood's novella, The Shakespeare Stealer, which is set in Elizabethan England c. 1600 and provides a lively, painless, and surprisingly accurate introduction to the world of Shakespeare's theater. We will then go on to read (and write about) five of Shakespeare's best-known plays -- Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, King Lear, and The Tempest. In-class time will be divided among introductory mini-lectures, analysis of speeches and scenes, and class discussions. Students will learn to mark stressed and unstressed syllables in blank verse and read lines from "cue scripts." They will memorize a speech (12-15 lines) from one of the assigned plays and complete several short writing assignments.

Class Attributes

WCAS Writing Seminar

Enrollment Requirements

Enrollment Requirements: Weinberg First Year Seminars are only available to first-year students.