English 316 Shakespeare: Lovers, Villains, and Kings Dr. Michael Bryson Sierra Tower 832 818-677-5695 michael.bryson@csun.edu   COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course will explore the sonnets and nine of Shakespeare's plays, drawn from early, middle, and late periods of his writing career. EVALUATION METHOD: Discussion (including reading aloud, and group "acting" of scenes), three essays/quizzes.  Participation (including the scenes ) will make up 25% of the grade.  The other 75% will be based on the grades of the three essays/quizzes. ASSIGNMENTS: Group assignment: You will each be asked to sign up for the play you are most interested in working with at length this quarter, and you will focus your group presentation on this play.  By the end of week 3, I will ask you to sign up into six groups of five to seven apiece. When your group's play is up that week, half the people in the group will make an eight to ten minute class presentation on a cultural or historical topic related to the play (come talk to me during office hours about possible topics—and feel free when making the presentation to use audio or visual material if that will help).  The other half of the people in the group will choose, rehearse, and perform a five to six minute scene from the play for the class and discuss that scene’s significance and their performance choices—bring any necessary props to class on the day of your group's scene (props and hamming it up a bit can make this more fun for everyone).  It will be up to the groups to decide who participates in which of the two presentations, but everyone must participate in one or the other. The Quizzes: in the range of 5-7 pages, these will be responses to essay questions (usually three), and will require you to present an analysis of characters from the blocks of plays we will have read (roughly weeks 1-4—Love; weeks 5-9—Politics and Power; weeks 10-14—Tragedy, Villainy, and Madness, which will be combined with with week 15, Endings). These essays will not require secondary sources, but will require you to read the plays closely, and cite evidence from the plays (using MLA citation) to back up your arguments. READING LIST: Complete Pelican Shakespeare Statement on Academic Dishonesty: Plagiarism is a serious offense that will be treated seriously. Please read the CSUN policy here. Weekly Preview I. The Nature of Love Week 1 (8/26, 8/28): Introductions. Selected Sonnets (1-20, 57, 93-94, 116, 121, 130, 138, 141) Week 2 (9/2, 9/4): Two Gentlemen of Verona Week 3 (9/9, 9/11): As You Like It Quiz 1 (due absolutely no later than 5 PM on 9/18) II. Politics and Power Week 4 (9/16, 9/18): Julius Caesar (with a foray into Machiavelli) Week 5 (9/23, 9/25): Richard II Week 6-7 (9/30, 10/2, 10/7): Henry IV part 1      No class 10/9--Instructor out of town. Week 8 (10/14, 10/16): Henry V Week 9 (10/21-10/23) Richard III Quiz 2 (due absolutely no later than 5 PM on 10/30) III. Tragedy, Villainy, and Madness Week 10 (10/28, 10/30): Othello Week 11-12 (11/4, 11/6, 11/13): Hamlet      No class 11/11--Veterans' Day Week 13-14 (11/18, 11/20, 11/25): King Lear      No class 11/27--Thanksgiving IV. Endings Week 15 (12/2, 12/4, 12/9): The Tempest Quiz 3 (due absolutely no later than 5 PM on 12/17)