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
  

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.

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	307	315
Strange	Tim	Raechel
Fables
Shaping
Fantasies	Morgan	Jenna
Apprehend		Matt
Comprehend	Kaitlin	Lucas
Lunatic	Rachel	Lydia
Lover	Jasmine	Kat
Poet	Ryan
Imagination	Zach
Forms		Danielle
Nothing	Megan	John
Joy	Christie	Benton
Fairy		Jake
Puck, V.i.423ff
Word	307	315
Shadows	Heather	Kathy
Think	Leah	Ryan
Mended	Carl	Elise
Slumbered	Erin	Todd
Visions	Sam	Josh
Idle	Jordan	Shannon
Theme	Nina
Dream	Allie	Kaylin
Reprehend		Patrick

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

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?