Sunday, September 30, 2007

A few quick notes about Friday's sonnet activity

  1. I was quite impressed with the analytical depth of your readings of the sonnets, especially considering that you had less than half an hour to get to that depth. If you would like to retrieve your group's notes about your chosen sonnet I will have them with me during my extended office hours this week and, of course, before and after lecture. (I will make photocopies so that each group member can have the whole group's notes.)
    • Everybody received 1 point toward participation credit from their small group work. Members of groups that appeared to have been especially productive or insightful received 2 points. Participation during whole-group discussion at the beginning of class was scored as usual. The maximum number of points that could be earned in this lesson was raised to 3 -- it's usually 2.
  2. Note that the love object for sonnets 1-127 is male -- this is the fair youth that Kim and Heather talked about for the last three lectures. Although any individual sonnet, when taken out of its context, might apply equally successfully to a male or female love object, for the sake of narrative consistency and to demonstrate your mastery of the larger arc of these sonnets your pronouns should refer to a male beloved if you are writing on, say, sonnet #18 ("Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?").
  3. If you would like to download the sonnets we worked with on Friday, click here. If you would like to download the sonnet worksheet we used, click here.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Discussion question (week 4)

There is only one discussion question this week, but it comes in many parts:
  1. Print out sonnet 147 triple-spaced, identifying subtleties of meaning and connections between words and ideas therein
  2. Write out the surface meaning of the sonnet -- what is its plot?
  3. Identify and explain the wordplay in the sonnet: what purposes do these puns serve?
  4. How does the speaker change the metaphor from quatrain to quatrain?
  5. What does the volta change?
  6. Does the couplet provide closure?
  7. What expectations does this sonnet violate?
  8. How is the form of this sonnet related to its content?

Notes on mini-essay 1

You can pick up your first mini-essay from me either in the Open Book Cafe (see hours below) or after lecture this afternoon.

The mini-essays were, on the whole, very strong; the mean grade was 89/100 (2.2/2.5) with a standard deviation of 5.5 (0.14). However, don't let the strength of your work here shove you onto laurels: in the past several years, the first full-length essays of the semester have averaged significantly lower, in the range of 83 or 82.

In order to make sure that the first essays this semester are different, here are a few general notes about weaknesses I noticed in the mini-essays that I would love to see the full-length essays avoid:
  • Introductions should be as direct as possible. Broad statements about Shakespeare or his plays are only useful if (1) you are offering a completely new broad statement of your own devising, and (2) you are doing so at the beginning of a 500-page scholarly publication over the course of which you will prove your original and sweeping generalization.

    In a short essay (say, anything fewer than 10 pages long) it is best to begin with the striking, original observation that is specific to the text with which you are working. Ideally, this should be an observation that will be completely new to me. Examples:

    • The moon plays a central role in directing the lunatics in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream (Lydia, 315)
    • Vision, simply the faculty of seeing with the eyes, determines what we perceive. However, it is the mind that determines how and why we register events the way we do (Sam, 307)
    • Theseus's speech to begin the denouement of A Midsummer Night's Dream--the beginning of the end, if you will--sets up another pair of contrasting ideas through his use of the word "strange" (Raechel, 315)

    The idea here is to swiftly establish the terms of your argument.

  • Conclusions should bring all the components of your analysis together to make a new and thematically significant point. In other words, your conclusion should explain why all of your literary analysis was worth reading. Examples (these are key sentences from longer conclusions):

    • Like the rest of the play, the only purpose [Puck's] speech serves is to stir a sense of uneasiness and questioning into its audience (Nina, 307)
    • The "idle" theme of A Midsummer Night's Dream is not void of worth or usefulness in the sense that the theme is trivial and of no importance, but rather that an attempt to control the theme is a worthless and useless pursuit (Jordan, 307)
    • People want to love because it is so out of their control. People wan power so that they do not feel so controlled themselves. . . By pointing to their uselessness, their idleness, Shakespeare has shown us that love and power are actually very important (Shannon, 315)
    • Shakespeare believes, even at this point in time, that imagination is the portal into the human mind, and that by breaking down the barriers that surround the human mind one can discover truth in any idea, shape or image that connect directly with reality (Kenyatta, 317)

  • Be as specific as possible throughout your essay. This is perhaps the most important point here. If you are explaining that one idea connects to another, explain how those ideas connect. If you are arguing that a certain interpretation is significant to our reading of the text, explain why it is significant. You can think of this like showing your work when you answer a math problem: I want to be able to see nearly all the steps of your thinking process, and I want you to hunt for nuances in the connections between ideas.
The notes above are the most significant things I have to say about your essays. Specific language, direct introductions and insightful conclusions will do more for your grade than all the proofreading in the world. Here, though, are a few minor things to proofread for:
  • Mark line breaks when you quote verse with slashes and retain original capitalization, e.g. "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? / Thou art more fair, and with a lower chance / Of precipitation in the late afternoon."
  • When a quotation ends with a period or a comma, that period or comma should go inside the quotation mark. (This is different in Britain--if you read a lot of British fiction you'll see authors doing this in the exact opposite way.) Hence: Theseus refers to "The lunatic, the lover, and the poet," three people he would rather not invite over for tea.
  • Don't spell out the act, scene, and line(s) to which you refer--using the standard shorthand (ACT.scene.line-line, e.g. V.i.3-7) is fine.
  • Likewise, don't worry about spelling out the full titles of the plays unless the title is only one word (e.g. Macbeth and The Tempest)--I'm fine with MSND, H5, and MoV. If you do spell out the title, don't forget to underline or italicize it.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

The first essay, now downloadable!

...in case you misplace your hard copy:

Essay 1 conference sign-up sheet

Hi, all! If you would like to meet with me during one of the times listed below, send me an email to reserve the spot.

To make scheduling a bit easier for me, I can't guarantee that I will be in any of these places if you haven't let me know beforehand that you would like to see me. (With the exception of my usual Tuesday office hours -- I will always be around then.)

There are two rules about having a conference:

  1. You must have spent at least an hour working on your essay before you come to see me -- in that hour you might have drafted a page of your essay, or you might merely have brainstormed out a couple of possible approaches to the assignment, but what matters is that you aren't coming to me cold.
  2. You need to come with one or two specific questions to ask me about your essay.


Tuesday, 9/25 at Fair Trade Coffee House

  • 3:30 pm - Ryan M.
  • 3:50 -
  • 4:10 -
  • 4:30 -
  • 4:50 -
  • 5:10 -

Thursday, 9/27 at the Open Book Cafe

  • 12:30 pm - Lydia
  • 12:50 -
  • 1:10 -
  • 1:30 - Shannon

Monday, 10/1 at Espresso Royale (the one near campus)
  • 1:30 pm - Carl
  • 1:50 - Sam
  • 2:10 - Heather
  • 2:30 - Kaitlin
  • 2:50 - Morgan

Tuesday, 10/2 (morning) at the Open Book Cafe

  • 10:30 - Erin
  • 10:50 -
  • 11:10 -
  • 11:30 -
Tuesday, 10/2 (afternoon) at Fair Trade Coffee House
  • 3:30 pm - Raechel
  • 3:50 - Christie
  • 4:10 - Rachel
  • 4:30 - Kathy
  • 4:50 - Leah
  • 5:10 - Kenyatta
  • 5:30 - Megan

Thursday, 10/4 at the Open Book Cafe
(If you meet with me at this time, I will expect you to have a full rough draft of your essay.)
  • 10:00 am - Lucas
  • 10:20 - Jenna
  • 10:40 -
  • 11:00 - Tim
  • 11:20 - Patrick
  • 11:40 - Lydia

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Discussion questions (week 3)

[Apologies if you saw a couple of questions up here earlier--for a few hours on Tuesday I had in mind a different approach to tomorrow's discussion.]

In discussion this week we will focus wholly on MSND since we will get to spend next two discussions talking exclusively about the sonnets.

  1. How do events in act V mirror events from the first four acts? Compare one event in act V with an event that it seems to mirror from earlier in MSND. As your "event," you might want to use the speech about which you are writing your mini-essay.

    List what these events have in common and list, also, the ways in which these events differ. Although this is fundamentally a question about structure, think also about word use and staging: how does Shakespeare change the meaning of a word or of an idea from an earlier act to act V? (This is just a new version of the third discussion question from last week.)

  2. On Tuesday, Heather suggested that the play within the play at the end of MSND served to fully reverse the tragic momentum of act I. List three more reasons the play within the play might be at the end of MSND. You might want to think in terms of politics, social class, and/or the purpose of art.

  3. We should spend the last twenty minutes of discussion addressing your own questions about MSND. Come in with a question about the text, or a problem that you can't resolve -- a scene, character, idea, or conclusion that doesn't make any sense.

Getting credit for attending performances

I've been forgetting an important element of the performance requirement. In order to get credit for watching any performance you will need to turn in not only a bit of evidence that you've seen it (your name on a sign-up sheet, a ticket stub, a rental receipt) but you will also need to email me a short paragraph.

If you see a movie or performance of one of the plays we are reading this semester, your short paragraph should answer either of these two questions: How did the director interpret the play? or How has this performance affected your interpretation of the play?

Your response to this question should be around 100 words --three or four sentences -- long. I will look at your response to see that you have spent some time thinking about the performance, but your response will not be given a grade.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Mini-essay 1 word sign-up

Here are the words you signed up to tackle in your mini-essays! Let me remind you to email me at any time if you have questions or if you want to run some ideas by me. If you would like to talk your essay over with me, I would love to see you during my office hours (Tue. 3:30 to 5:30, Fair Trade Coffee House) or before or after lecture next week.

Here is a Microsoft Word version of the essay assignment.



Theseus, V.i.3-22
Word
307315
StrangeTimRaechel
Fables

Shaping

FantasiesMorganJenna
Apprehend
Matt
ComprehendKaitlinLucas
LunaticRachelLydia
LoverJasmineKat
PoetRyan
ImaginationZach
Forms
Danielle
NothingMeganJohn
JoyChristieBenton
Fairy
Jake
Puck, V.i.423ff
Word307315
ShadowsHeatherKathy
ThinkLeahRyan
MendedCarlElise
SlumberedErinTodd
VisionsSamJosh
IdleJordanShannon
ThemeNina
DreamAllieKaylin
Reprehend
Patrick

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Literary Analysis? No Problem!

Beginning this afternoon, the Writing Center will be offering short classes in writing literary analysis essays. These are free, low-commitment classes offered to undergraduates at the University. The description -- and a link to register -- are here: http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Classes/LitAnalysis.html.

In 162, we will just not have the time it takes to talk through the nuances of literary analytical writing -- we have 14 short weeks in which to learn everything about Shakespeare, and that is enough of a challenge -- so this short Writing Center course can really be an excellent introduction to writing college English papers. If you are the slightest bit unsure about how to approach essay writing in 162 I urge you to take this class.

Two movies next week!

Christopher is beginning to announce the movie schedule, which is posted on the class website. Tuesday and Thursday nights next week, from 6:00 to 8:30, we will be showing movie versions of MSND.

Just as a reminder, here the requirements:

  • You must attend 4 performances of Shakespeare plays this semester
  • At least one performances must be live; the rest of the performances may be movies
  • Unless for some reason you are unable to attend, this live performance should be APT's Merchant of Venice on Saturday, November 3rd
  • Any live performance of a Shakespeare play will count, whether or not we are studying that play this semester
  • All of the movies you see must be of texts we are reading this semester; adaptations of texts we are reading are fine -- Scotland, PA, for example, is a well-reputed adaptation of Macbeth
  • The TAs will show 10 movies over the course of the semester, two versions of each of the plays we are reading
  • If you go to one of the movies shown by the TAs, you will get credit for attending if you write your name on the attendance sheet
  • If you choose, instead, to rent a movie you will need to bring in a rental receipt
  • Likewise, if you go to a live performance other than or in addition to MoV you will need to bring in your ticket stub or some other bit of evidence
  • If you see performances beyond the required 4, you will earn extra credit -- 2 points per performance up to a maximum of 5 points

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Discussion questions (week 2)

N.b.: Beginning this week, I will call on students to begin our discussion of posted topics. Your answers need not be formal disquisitions, but I expect you to be prepared with a thoughtful and interesting response.

For this reason, I strongly recommend typing up notes -- not only your answers to these questions but also questions of your own or thoughts you have had à propos of Heather's lectures.
  1. Spend ten minutes thinking about the word green. Make three lists:
    1. What are its denotations? (You might want to consult the Oxford English Dictionary definition. Focus on meanings current in 1595.) 
    2. Just as importantly, what are its connotations? 
    3. What might green symbolize?

  2. How do the meanings you've developed open up new ways of reading MSND? For example, does the meaning of the word depend on where it is spoken? Is a green in the court the same thing as a green in the woods?

    This is a fairly broad question, which you should go about answering by concentrating on one or two specific instances of the word in the text. By my count, Shakespeare uses green nine times:

    • I.i.185 (Helena)
    • II.i.9 (fairy)
    • II.i.28 (Puck)
    • II.i.94 & 99 (Titania)
    • III.i.3 (Quince)
    • III.i.167 (Titania)
    • III.ii.393 (Oberon)
    • V.i.335 (Thisby)

  3. Pick two mirrored events in MSND -- that is, whole scenes or parts of scenes that seem to echo each other. (Example: Oberon applying the love potion to Titania's eyelids and Puck applying the love potion to Lysander's. You can't use this example, of course, but have to find your own.) Now think about these mirrored events structurally: how are they similar and how are they dissimilar? Why is Shakespeare intentionally paralleling these two events?

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Syllabi for discussion... (Corrected 9/10)

...are here:

The syllabus for Heather's lectures is here.

(Thank you, Chelsea.)

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Discussion questions (week 1)

Every week, before discussion on Friday, I will post one or two discussion questions right here. Usually I will post these questions after Heather's second lecture of the week.

Posted below are the two questions I want to focus on in our discussion on Friday. Please take half an hour to think them over -- you might even want to jot down some possible answers, so that you have ideas to begin with in Friday's discussion.

  1. Think about the economics of English 162 for a minute. The University of Wisconsin - Madison is paying Heather's salary -- which I hope is quite a lot -- and mine, and that of the other five TAs for the class; it is paying to keep Humanities 3650 clean, cool, and in working order; and it is making some three hundred students -- many of whom just want to get degrees in kinesthesiology and get out of here -- take this class to fulfill a gen. ed. requirement, thereby slowing down students' academic careers and delaying the date at which they can begin donating lots and lots of money to their alma mater. Then multiply this class by the 26 University of Wisconsin campuses.

    Don't get me wrong: I love that the University is paying so much money to make sure that no student gets a Wisconsin degree without spending three months working through the interpretive knots of English literature, but I have to wonder: Why does the University find studying Shakespeare so enormously valuable? Why is it worth the expenditure it receives?

  2. Think about the Toolbox question Heather gave us this afternoon: How does the context in which a text is encountered inform our understanding its meaning? Apply this question to the way we are encountering Shakespeare's plays: How does the fact that we are encountering MSND as written words rather than as a theatrical performance shape our understanding of the meaning of the play? You can be even more detailed about this: how is the way we read MSND different when we encounter it in a 5.6-pound book with Shakespeare's 36 other plays sitting around it, with copious scholarly annotation at the bottom of every page? What would it be like to, instead, encounter the play in the 0.15-pound Dover edition, which is completely without annotation?

  3. In lecture this week, Heather has given several examples of how the staging of a scene can substantially alter its meaning or, at least, its mood. Pick a few lines from Act I or Act II of MSND (not ones that Heather has discussed, though). If you were directing the play, how could you stage those lines two completely different ways: once comically and once tragically; or, in Heather's words, once dreamily and once nightmarishly?

Monday, September 3, 2007

More optional reading

Surely, the first question you all want to ask is "Mike, I am eager to do extra, optional reading -- what books might I pick up?" Well, my friend, here are a couple ideas: I just picked up Stephen Greenblatt's Will in the World, his recent biographical consideration of Shakespeare -- it's a delightful read by a fairly well-reputed American scholar of Shakespeare. Along similar lines is James Shapiro's (no relation) A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare, or so I have been told.

Sunday, September 2, 2007

Office hours

Every Tuesday from 3:30 to 5:30 pm, I will be in the Fair Trade Coffee House at 418 State Street. If your schedule allows, you might think about visiting me there sometime in the first few weeks of the semester -- you don't have to, but it will give us a chance to get to know each other, and to chat about Shakes.

Shakespearean supplements

There are rather a lot of supplemental materials out there purporting to explain Shakespeare to beginning readers -- doubtlessly, Cliff, Spark and Monarch make a tidy profit every fall as students wade through another semester's densely-packed syllabus. These guides have their place as memory aids, but Heather's own study guides (linked on the right) do this work just as well, and for free. The real danger of Cliff and Spark is that their readings are flat and finite.

Good supplemental texts help you see how the uncertainties of Shakespeare explode off the page, and they give you the tools you need not to "understand" a text -- as though understanding that could be achieved for you via a $6, 96-page pamphlet -- but to read it, and read it well.

When I took my first introductory collegiate Shakespeare course, I found a few supplemental resources especially useful:
  • The Meaning of Shakespeare (1951), by Harold C. Goddard. (In two volumes.) Goddard writes lengthy, reflective considerations of Shakespeare's plays and only rarely offers a conclusive interpretation; he generally prefers to roll the plays around his mind until he has found just enough new ways of thinking about them, and then he moves along.
  • Northrop Frye on Shakespeare (1986), by Northrop Frye. (Of our texts this semester his book covers only MSND and The Tempest.) Frye was a gifted critic, and these short essays on Shakespeare are excellent introductions to the analytical tools critics bring to Shakespeare's plays.
  • Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human (1998), by Harold Bloom. Bloom is generally considered a popular critic rather than an academic one. This is good in that he writes specifically for readers who are coming to Shakespeare as nonexperts; this is bad in that he occasionally oversimplifies Shakespeare. Read any supplemental guide to Shakespeare skeptically, but read Bloom's guide with an extra dose of skepticism.

Class calendar

If you would find it useful to have an updated online version of the English 162 calendar for the semester, please feel free to use this one:

(If you have your own Google calendar, you can add this one as a layer in yours.)

An exceedingly short note about email

You should email me, without hesitation, whenever you have a question you think I might be able to help you answer.

My preferred email address is mashapiro@gmail.com. Please note the second letter: in the past, students have left it out, sending email off into the unanswering void. Think of it thus: MA is a TA.

(That "A" stands for "Alan," the name of my hypochondriac great-grandfather. According to family legend, he always used a handkerchief to open doors, and he chewed every bite of food thirty-two times.)