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English 617—Studies
in Shakespeare: Female Rage from Medea to Lady Macbeth
Dr. Michael Bryson
Sierra Tower 832
818-677-5695
michael.bryson@csun.edu
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course will emphasize the influence of
classical tragedy on Shakespearean tragedy. It will especially focus
on the way Euripides, Aeschylus, and Seneca focus on female grief and
loss and the desire for revenge, and the ways in which that emphasis
manifests in Shakespeare's portrayals of multiple female characters
and one male character experiencing grief and loss and the desire for
revenge. This course is going to try to replicate the conditions of
scholarly work: reading a great deal of material in what seems like
too-short a time, and then doing research into secondary and
supporting materials before writing (and sometimes while writing)
an academic essay that makes a focused and original argument. Jump
into the reading as soon as possible, and try not to fall behind.
This version of the course is conducted wholly online, in a hybrid
mode (synchronous
for the first 8 weeks, then
asynchronous for the final 8 weeks). All “office hours” will be
held virtually, via email (unless we have made arrangements for a
one-on-one Zoom meeting). In other words, there is no set time to come
in and ask me questions, but questions are encouraged, and I will get
back to you with the best answers I have within 24 hours (and usually
sooner). If you are having difficulty with the material, or the
research process, tell me. I’ll do the best I can to help you work
through the material, or answer any research questions you have.
EVALUATION METHOD
Active and engaged participation; summary
and analysis of three scholarly essays; final essay.
TEXTS
Provided with each course module, but
print copies can be ordered through the
campus bookstore,
or elsewhere online using
the ISBN numbers to locate the editions referred to (for all but the
Ovid and Virgil texts, which I am sourcing from Anthony Kline's site
Poetry in Translation).
For the Greek and Latin works listed below—Aeschylus, Euripides,
Seneca, Virgil, and Ovid—the exact edition listed is necessary; for
Shakespeare, other editions will suffice (I have the RSC listed below,
but the campus bookstore will order the Pelican edition, which I use
most often; the Oxford and Norton editions are excellent as well, as
is the Riverside and the Bevington):
- The Complete Aeschylus: Volume
I: The Oresteia
ISBN-13: 978-0199753635
- Euripides I
ISBN-13: 978-0226308807
- Euripides II
ISBN-13: 978-0226308784
- Euripides V
ISBN-13: 978-0226308982
- Seneca: The Complete Tragedies,
Volume 1: Medea, The Phoenician Women, Phaedra, The Trojan Women,
Octavia
ISBN-13: 978-0226748238
- Ovid,
Heroides
No ISBN—Open Access Online Translation
- Seneca: Anger, Mercy, and
Revenge
ISBN-13: 978-0226748429
- The RSC Shakespeare: The
Complete Works
ISBN-13: 978-0230200951
or
- The Complete Pelican
Shakespeare
ISBN-13: 978-0141000589
or any other standard edition of
the collected works (online
texts are available as well)
- Virgil,
Aeneid
(Book 4)
No ISBN—Open Access Online Translation
ASSIGNMENTS
Summary and Analysis of Three
Scholarly Essays: In the
range of 5 pages, (1500 words): all three essays must have a clear
relation to the subject matter of this course—treat these as an
opportunity to get a head start on research for the final paper.
#1 will be due week 3, #2
week 5, and #3 week 7. These will, in total, account for 30% of the
course grade.
Abstract of Argument for Final
Paper + Outline: A
one-paragraph description of the argument your final paper will
pursue, plus a detailed outline of each section and the
points/subpoints that will be made therein. For papers of this length,
it is helpful to think of them as mini-books, with various sections of
the argument separated by subheadings in the style of mini-chapters.
Your outline will present a summation of your research question and
thesis, a point-by-point preview of the various stops your argument is
going to make, and a working bibliography that represents the
beginning, not the end of your research.
See here for an example.
This will account for 20% of
the course grade, and will be due by week 12.
Final:
In the range of 25 pages (7500 words), this will be an essay on 1 of 2
topics:
1) How Shakespeare
uses/abuses/transforms/challenges/reproduces the classical portrayals
of female grief, anger, revenge, and desire for power and/or
self-determination.
2) How a later
author/work engages with both the Shakespearean and Classical
portrayals of female grief, anger, revenge, and desire for power
and/or self-determination.
This essay will be a deeply-researched
argument paper that makes use of primary and secondary sources. Print
is an excellent thing, and books are still the coin of the realm in
the highest reaches of humanities scholarship (though during these
times it will be helpful to familiarize yourself with the uses of
Google Books,
Archive.org,
the
HathiTrust Digital Library,
and the
Memory of the World Library),
but journal articles can sometimes be more immediate in terms of what
is going on at the moment. Have a look at the CSUN library's page
outlining
electronic resources for English
(and be aware of the existence of
SCI-HUB).
Quotations from the works you deal with—and quotations from secondary
sources—should follow
MLA
or (preferably)
Chicago
format. Pro tip: despite the obsession of many English professors with
MLA format, most humanities-oriented publishers in the USA use
Chicago, and very few publishers of any kind outside the USA use MLA.
Just so you know...
Also, a similar pro tip regarding the
use of older (beyond about the last 10-20 years) scholarly resources.
Despite the advice one sometimes encounters
not
to make use of such resources (and curiously, this is often from
people who do not publish much, if at all), they are often of enormous
value, especially
for understanding what the history of a discourse has been, which
issues keep appearing, which arguments keep getting made. A
familiarity with such sources is like the foundation to a house—see
the familiar parable about
building a house on sand,
as well as the
Jimi Hendrix song
based loosely thereon. In doing the research for your final
paper, I strongly encourage you to look at a variety of sources, both
in terms of genre/format (books, articles, etc.) and time period.
The final will account for 50% of the
course grade, and will be due by the end of finals week.
WEEKLY PREVIEW
Part One (Meetings via Zoom on
Tuesdays at 4 PM PST)
Week 1 (8/25) Introductions: discussion
of Shakespeare's education and relation to Greek and Roman poetry and
drama—read selections from T.W. Baldwin, Colin Burrow, and Tanya
Pollard.
Week 2 (9/1) Euripides, Medea, Hecuba,
and Iphigenia at Aulis
Week 3 (9/8) Aeschylus,
The Oresteia
Week 4 (9/15) William Shakespeare,
King John, Hamlet
Week 5 (9/22) William Shakespeare,
Henry VI,
parts 1 and 2
Week 6 (9/29) William Shakespeare,
Henry VI
part 3, and Richard III
Week 7 (10/6)
William Shakespeare, Much Ado
About Nothing, Macbeth
Week 8 (10/13) Seneca,
Anger, Mercy, and Revenge
(specifically the essay "On Anger"), and
Medea;
Virgil, Aeneid,
Book 4; Ovid, Heroides
#7 (Dido to Aeneas) and #12 (Medea to Jason)
Part Two (Research and Writing)
Weeks 9-16 (10/20-12/8) Independent Research
and Writing (consultations with me when needed/desired)
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