CURSO : SHAKESPEARE
TRADUCCION : SHAKESPEARE
SIGLA : LET1345
CRÉDITOS : 10
MÓDULOS : 02
REQUISITOS : LET1343
CARÁCTER : MINIMUM
DISCIPLINA : LITERATURE
I. DESCRIPTION
This course offers a general view of English Renaissance literature with a special emphasis on four or five
works by William Shakespeare that are studied in depth. The course also includes a review of literary theory
as applied to Shakespearean plays, and allows for an analysis of how these texts are adapted into other media
and how they are appropriated in contemporary productions.
II. OBJECTIVES
Generals:
1. To develop an informed and critical approach to Renaissance literature and Shakespeare plays in
particular.
2. To be able to do a close reading of the text and offer their critical views on the language and themes
developed.
3. To review different theoretical frameworks from which texts can be analysed.
4. To only not gain an understanding of how these texts worked within the Renaissance, but will also
explore different media adaptations and post-modernist appropriations of the plays, to analyse how
Shakespeare remains relevant and vital in culture today.
Specifics:
1. To identify the most relevant historical, sociological and literary traits of the Elizabethan and Jacobean
Age, with a special emphasis on the works of William Shakespeare.
2. To analyze a selection from the drama, poetry and essays created in England during the Renaissance
period, to understand the cultural context of the time and their connection with other European works.
3. To examine lyrical, prose and dramatic texts from the period, taking into account their literary and
aesthetic value.
4. To evaluate the presence and influence of Renaissance literature and of the work of William
Shakespeare in contemporary literary texts, considering the values that they present, question or
endorse.
III. CONTENTS
1. The Elizabethan view of reality and the revaluation of some of its tenets generated by the Reformation
and Counter-Reformation.
2. The integration of Classical, Medieval and Renaissance elements in Elizabethan Drama: Christopher
Marlowe's Doctor Faustus.
3. Selection from the dramas and poems of William Shakespeare.
4. Selections from other Elizabethan and Renaissance playwrights, poets and prose writers.
5. Critical approaches to the literature of the Renaissance.
6. Adaptations of Shakespearean plays in contemporary stage and film productions.
PONTIFICIA UNIVERSIDAD CATOLICA DE CHILE
FACULTAD DE LETRAS / Enero 2013
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IV. METHODOLOGY
- Lectures.
- Close readings of the texts.
- Dramatic readings.
- Class discussion.
- Individual or group exercises in class.
- Film viewings of adaptations of the plays.
- Attendance of a live performance of a play (if possible).
V. EVALUATION
- Oral presentations, reading quizzes, short written exercises, reviews.
- Test 1 (essay type or oral).
- Test 2 (essay type).
- Final Examination (Cumulative).
VI. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Compulsory:
Barber, C. L. Shakespeare's Festive Comedy. Princeton, Princeton UP, 1972.
Barton, Anne Shakespearean Comedy. Bradbury, Malcolm & David Palmer.
Stratford-Upon-Avon Studies 14. London, Edward Arnold, 1972.
Bassnett, Susan. Shakespeare: The Elizabethan Plays. London, Macmillan, 1993.
Bloom, Harold. Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human. New York, Riverhead
Book, 1998.
Bradley, A. C. Shakespearean Tragedy. London, The Macmillan Press, 1978.
Donne, John. Meditation XVII.
___ Holy Sonnets (Selections).
Dryden, John. A Song for Saint Cecilia's Day.
Elyot, Thomas. The Governor (Selections).
Hooker, Richard. Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (Selections).
Knight, George Wilson The Wheel of Fire: Interpretations of Shakespearean Tragedy.
London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1974.
Marlowe, Christopher. The Passionate Shepherd to his Love.
Raleigh, Walter. The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd.
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth.
___ Othello.
___ Romeo and Juliet.
PONTIFICIA UNIVERSIDAD CATOLICA DE CHILE
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___ The Tempest.
___ Twelfth Night.
Wells, Stanley & Lena Cowen Orlin (eds.)
Shakespeare: An Oxford Guide. Oxford, Oxford UP, 2003.
Complementary:
Bennett, Joan Five Metaphysical Poets. Cambridge, Cambridge UP, 1978.
Bradbrook, M. C. Themes and Conventions in Elizabethan Tragedy. Cambridge UP,
1973.
Burke, Peter The Renaissance Sense of a Past. London, Edward Arnold, 1970.
Dollimore, Jonathan Radical Tragedy: Religion, Ideology and Power in the Drama of
Shakespeare and His Contemporaries. Durham, Duke UP, 2003.
Dollimore, Jonathan & Allan Sinfield (eds.)
Political Shakespeare: New Essays in Cultural Materialism.
Manchester, Manchester UP, 1985.
Drakakis, John (ed.) Alternative Shakespeares. London, Methuen, 1985.
Eliot, T. S. Shakespeare and the Stoicism of Seneca. London, Faber and Faber,
1963 [1927].
Frye, Northrop Northrop Frye on Shakespeare. New Haven, Yale UP, 1986.
Kott, Ian Shakespeare Our Contemporary. London, Methuen, 1965.
Mahood, M. M. Shakespeare's Wordplay. London, Methuen, 1979.
McDonald, Russ Shakespeare: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory: 1945-2000.
Malden, MA, Wiley-Blackwell, 2004.
Merchant, Moelwhyn Comedy. London, Methuen, 1972.
Styan, J. L. The Elements of Drama. Cambridge, Cambridge UP, 1972.
Tillyard, E. M. W. The Elizabethan World Picture. Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1972.
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