Shakespeare's Comedies, Problem Plays, and Romances
The Taming of the Shrew: Study Plan
Your Main Objectives
- To examine your reaction to a play that has become controversial, partly because of modern changes in attitudes
- To learn about the approaches taken by feminist critics of Shakespeare
- To consider the differing conventions of farce and comedy
The Readings
- Neely, Carol Thomas. "Feminist Modes of Shakespeare Criticism: Compensatory, Justificatory, Transformational"
- Kahn, Coppélia. "Coming of Age: Marriage and Manhood in The Taming of the Shrew."
The Focus of the Commentary
- Modern reaction to the taming plot
- The three separate plots of the play
- Questions of genre: farce and comedy
- Questions about the Sly episodes
The Tutorials
There will be two tutorials to discuss this play. More detailed information about the questions for discussion at the tutorials will be circulated on the Bulletin Board.
- Introduction to the course; the use of critical approaches
- Women and men; farce and comedy
A Midsummer Night's Dream: Study Plan
Your Main Objectives
- To understand the play's separate plots
- To examine the interconnectedness of the plots
- To gain a sense of the play on the Elizabethan stage
The Focus of the Written Materials
- Introduction: putting a script on the stage of the mind.
- The interweaving of plots in the play
- Shakespeare as drama critic
The Readings
- An orderly world?
- Shakespeare's stage
The Tutorials
There will be two tutorials to discuss this play. More detailed information about the questions for discussion at the tutorials will be circulated on the Bulletin Board and at each tutorial.
- Order and subversion: Theseus and Puck
- Questions of staging then and now
The Assignment
- You should be starting work on your second assignment--an explication of a passage from Much Ado About Nothing--while you are working on this module.
Much Ado About Nothing: Study Plan
Your Main Objectives
- To compare the battling couple Beatrice and Benedick both with the other couple in the play, Claudio and Hero, and with the earlier couples in The Taming of the Shrew
- To consider the nature of comedy and the extent to which it can include darker forces and characters
- To become familiar with contemporary comments on Shakespeare
The Readings
- Katharine Rogers, selections from The Troublesome Helpmate: A History of Misogyny in Literature.
- Michael D. Friedman, "The Editorial Recuperation of Claudio."
The Focus of the Commentary
- The way Shakespeare establishes character in the opening scenes
- The revelation of love in Beatrice and Benedick
- The reversals of perception in the plot of Hero and Claudio
- Questions raised by the ending of the play
The Tutorial
- Questions of relevance in a feminist reading: the possible silencing of Beatrice in marriage, and Hero's acceptance of Claudio at the end
- Questions about the nature of the comedy in Much Ado About Nothing
- Questions comparing the central couples in the play with the central couples in The Taming of the Shrew
The Merchant of Venice: Study Plan
Your Main Objectives
- To become familiar with Renaissance critical assessments of Shakespeare
- To consider the relationship between literature and history, and to recognise differing historical approaches
- To consider the effect of Shylock as "villain" and as "Jew" in the play
The Focus of the Written Materials
- Critical approaches to Shakespeare that use historical materials as the basis for their readings of his plays
- The balance and conflict between opposites in The Merchant of Venice
- The play as comedy darkened by conflicting responses to Shylock
The Readings
- Shakespeare as seen by critics from the Renaissance to the Romantics
- Extracts from various critics of The Merchant of Venice (included in the commentary)
The Tutorial
There will be one tutorial to discuss this play. More detailed information about the questions for discussion at the tutorials will be circulated on the Bulletin Board.
- Problems of historical perspective
- The role of Portia: is she yet another shrew?
The Tempest: Study Plan
Your Main Objectives
- To review what you have learned so far in the course
- To place The Tempest within the tradition of the Court masque
- To explore relations between Prospero and other characters, especially in terms of power
The Focus of the Written Materials
- Questions of genre
- The possibility of allegorical readings of the play
- Prospero's control of the other characters
- Masque, music, and other counterpoints
The Background
- Music and the Court masque
- Wild men, exploration, and colonization
The Tutorial
- Questions about control and freedom
- Questions linking all plays studied
The Assignment
- Your final assignment is a short research essay, using the Internet site Shakespeare's Life and Times as a starting point.
Measure for Measure: Study Plan
Your Main Objectives
- To consider the importance of genre in the study of Shakespeare's plays
- To examine the concept of the "problem play"
- To decide what problems (if any) there are in Measure for Measure
The Readings
- Themes and Variations: critical approaches of the early twentieth century
- G. Wilson Knight: From "Measure for Measure and the Gospels"
- Umberto Eco: "The Open Work"
The Focus of the Commentary
- Shakespeare criticism of the early twentieth century
- Changes Shakespeare made in the plot
- Allegory v. character
- The ending: problems of closure
The Tutorial
There will be one tutorial to discuss this play. More detailed information about the questions for discussion at the tutorials will be circulated on the Bulletin Board.
- The problems and the "problems" in the play
- The sub-plot
The Winter's Tale: Study Plan
Your Main Objectives
- To consider the transitions in the play between different genres
- To analyze the jealous rage of Leontes in the first part of the play
- To enjoy the pastoral comedy/romance of the second part of the play
- To explore the role of Autolycus as the perennial Shakespearean mischief-maker
The Readings
- Howard Felperin: 'Tongue-tied, our Queen?': The Deconstruction of Presence in The Winter's Tale
- C. L. Barber: "Thou That Beget'st Him That Did Thee Beget": Transformation in Pericles and The Winter's Tale
The Focus of the Commentary
- Post-structuralist and psychoanalytic criticism: examples
- The motivation/lack of motivation in Leontes
- The play as a game of genre and surprise
- The importance of unrealism in the ending
- Autolycus and anarchic energy in Shakespeare
The Tutorials
There will be two tutorial to discuss this play. More detailed information about the questions for discussion at the tutorials will be circulated on the Bulletin Board and at each tutorial.
- Questions of closure and the end of the play
- Questions of naming and the possible Christian overtones of the play; questions about the final exam
This page last updated on 28 December 2002.
Send queries to Michael Best, English Department, University of Victoria, Victoria B.C. V8W 3W1, Canada.
mbest1@uvic.ca