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Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Stage: SU16_ENGL-UA_9412_S_001

Summer 2016

4 Points – Michael Hattaway

This course is largely wrapped around the Shakespeare performances we are going to see at Shakespeare’s Globe on London’s South Bank. We shall also see the RSC’s production of Hamlet at Stratford, and we shall conclude with some consideration of roles for women and men in Hamlet, Measure for Measure, and Antony and Cleopatra.

Our work will be predicated on the assumption that, while seminar work might formulate searching or subtle questions that can be asked of Shakespearean texts, answers to these questions are best found in rehearsal rooms. Moreover, these answers will be in part shaped by what Hamlet called the ‘forms and pressures’ of the age, Shakespeare’s age and ours.

We shall start by investigating playhouse design and performance conventions in the English Renaissance, and, as the course unfolds, become aware of recent developments in literary and performance theory. Our class discussions will be supplemented by video material. We shall thus learn how to read not just texts but the ways in which they might be presented (what the French call mise en scène) – the overall aim of our work is, of course, to enhance our enjoyment of Shakespeare in the study and in the theatre.

Michael Hattaway took his BA and MA in New Zealand and was then awarded a PhD by Cambridge. Before coming to NYU in London, he taught at the Universities of Kent and Sheffield, in New Zealand, Canada, and the United States. He has lectured widely abroad, written or edited numerous books, and is a Fellow of the English Association. (hattaway1@mac.com; mobile: 0774 832 5853; Office GO2, 6 Bedford Square)

Classroom: tbc, 6 Bedford Square

Required Texts

It will be really helpful to invest in hard copies of these particular recent editions:

William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, ed. David Bevington, Updated edition (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005). 052161287X William Shakespeare, Macbeth, ed. A.R. Braunmuller, Updated edition Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2008). 0521680980 William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, ed. Brian Gibbons, Updated edition (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2006). 978-0521670784 William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, ed. Peter Holland, The Oxford Shakespeare, New edn (Oxford, OUP, 2008). 978-0199535866 William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, ed. Ann Thompson, Updated edition

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(Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003). 0521532493

Supplemental Texts

For reference – this is not a course on Shakespeare criticism). Most or all of these are available online through Bobst

Jonathan Bate, Russell Jackson, Stanley W. Wells, Shakespeare: An Illustrated Stage History, (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1996).

A. R. Braunmuller and Michael Hattaway, (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to English Renaissance Drama, 2nd ed., (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003)

Peter Brook, The Empty Space, (London, Penguin, 1968).

Alan C. Dessen, Elizabethan Stage Conventions and Modern Interpreters, (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1984). 0521259126

Andrew Dickson, The Rough Guide to Shakespeare, (London, Rough Guides Ltd, 2005).

Michael Dobson and Stanley Wells, (ed.), The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare, (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2001)

Peter Hall, Shakespeare's Advice to the Players, (London, Oberon, 2003).

Peter Holland, English Shakespeares: Shakespeare on the English Stage in the 1990s, (Cambridge, 1997).

Russell Jackson, (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Film, 2nd ed., Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2007)

Dennis Kennedy, Looking at Shakespeare: A Visual History of Twentieth-Century Performance, (Cambridge, CUP, 1993).

Alexander Leggatt, The Cambridge Companion to Shakespearean Comedy, (Cambridge, 2001).

Claire McEachern, The Cambridge Companion to Shakespearean Tragedy, (Cambridge, 2003).

Laurie E. Maguire, Studying Shakespeare: A Guide to the Plays, (Oxford, Blackwell, 2003).

Robert S. Miola, Shakespeare’s Rome, (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2004). Russ McDonald, (ed.), Shakespeare: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory, 1945-2000, (Oxford, Blackwell, 2004)

Jonathan Miller, Subsequent Performances, (London, Faber and Faber, 1986)

A.D. Nuttall, Shakespeare the Thinker, (Newhaven, Yale University Press, 2007)

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Lois Potter, The Life of William Shakespeare: A Critical Biography, (Oxford, Wiley Blackwell, 2012). Carol Chillington Rutter and Faith Evans, (ed.), Clamorous Voices: Shakespeare's Women Today, (London, Women’s Press, 1988)

Carol Chillington Rutter, Enter the Body: Women and Representation on Shakespeare's Stage, (London, Routledge, 2001)

Stanley Wells, (ed.), Shakespeare in the Theatre: An Anthology of Criticism, (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1997)

ASSESSMENT

The course will be assessed by means of a short paper (30%), class participation (including postings on NYUClasses 20%), and one final take-home paper (50%).

SYLLABUS

Week 1

Thursday 26 May 2-00 pm Elizabethan and Jacobean Texts and Playhouses;

Introduction to Shakespeare’s Comedies, focusing on The Taming of the Shrew

Week 2

Tuesday 31 May 2-00 pm Performance of The Taming of the Shrew at Shakespeare’s Globe

Thursday 2 June 2-00 pm Post-performance Shrew and A Midsummer Night’s Dream;

7-30 pm Performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Shakespeare’s Globe

Week 3

Tuesday7 June 2-00 pm Post-Performance Dream, Hamlet

Thursday 9 June Coach leaves fro Stratford-upon Avon about 1-15

7-15 pm Performance of Hamlet at RSC Main House, Stratford

Week 4

Tuesday 14 June 2-00 pm Post-performance Hamlet; Measure for Measure

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First Paper Due

Thursday 16 June 2-00 pm Antony and Cleopatra

Week 5

Tuesday 21 June 2-00 pm Macbeth

Thursday 23 June 2-00 pm Performance of Macbeth, Shakespeare’s Globe

Week 6

Tuesday 28 June 2-00 om Post-performance Macbeth; Women on the Shakespearean Screen

Thursday 30 June Noon Final Paper due (by email)

Thursday 30 June Farewell Lunch

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