Carleton University Winter 2012 Department of English. ENGL 4301 B: Studies in Renaissance Literature Tragedy!

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1 1 Carleton University Winter 2012 Department of English ENGL 4301 B: Studies in Renaissance Literature Tragedy! Classes: Fridays, 8:30-11:30 Location: Please confirm location on Carleton Central Professor Wallace Office: 1922 Dunton Tower Phone: ext Office Hours: Friday, 11:30-12:30 The course studies the processes by which tragedy is constructed as a literary and philosophical engagement with some of the human subject s most complex anxieties and desires. During the first half of the course we will read ancient Greek and Roman tragedies by Sophocles and Seneca, survey the origins of tragic drama in ancient Athens, track the genre s spread to Rome, and then oversee the disappearance and protracted, fitful recovery of a small number of foundational Greek and Roman texts and fragments during the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. The second half of the course studies three tragedies by Shakespeare: Titus Andronicus, Hamlet, and Othello. The course will propose that individual tragic texts do violence to easy generalizations about the genre s resources, and one of our projects will be to determine what is at stake in our attempts to come to terms with the impulses associated with tragedy. Texts by Sophocles, Seneca, and Shakespeare will be studied in conjunction with historical and / or philosophical-theoretical perspectives on tragedy and related concepts. Topics for discussion will include festival conditions and staging conventions in ancient Athens, katharsis and its disappointments, the loss and recovery of texts, and the roles played by error and misprision in the experience of writing and thinking about tragedy. Individual classes will combine lecture and guided discussion. Required Texts

2 2 1. Sophocles, The Theban Plays: Antigone, King Oidipous, Oidipous at Colonus (Newburyport, MA: Focus Publishing, 2004). [ ] 2. Seneca, Six Tragedies, trans. Emily Wilson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010). [ ] 3. Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, ed. Eugene M. Waith (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008). [ ] 4. Shakespeare, Hamlet, ed. G.R. Hibbard (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008). [ ] 5. Shakespeare, Othello, ed. Michael Neill (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008). [ ] *Course texts are available at Mother Tongue Books (1067 Bank Street: (613) ). Grading System 10% Quizzes (5 x 2%) 10% Insight sheets (5 x 2%) 15% Annotated Bibliography 25% Essay 40% Exam Faithful attendance and informed, consistent participation are mandatory. Members of the seminar are responsible for conscientious preparation and discussion in class. You must bring your readings to every class. Two missed meetings will result in a 5% reduction in your grade; three missed meetings will result a 10% reduction; four missed meetings will result in failure. [10%] 5 quizzes on reading and lecture material will be administered randomly through the term. Each quiz is worth 2% of the final grade; no make-ups are possible. Quizzes, which will be comprised of questions geared directly to matters of content, will be held during the first ten minutes of class. [10%] 5 insight sheets will be submitted at the beginning of class at 5 meetings of your choosing. These are to be regarded as formal assignments and they should follow all the usual protocols of critical prose. You should not, however, regard this as an essay. Instead, you should treat each insight sheet as a compilation of individual statements and analyses of moments in the text that have caught your eye or fired your interest and imagination. In short, I am looking for relatively brief moments of critical analysis and insight rather than elaborate arguments. [15%] An annotated bibliography assignment is due at the beginning of class, Week 8. (Details of this assignment can be found at the end of this package.) You are required to meet with me in person to discuss your chosen topic at some point during the first six weeks of the seminar. We will meet in person again to discuss the project at least once during the final four weeks of the course. [25%] Topics for the final essay (12-14 pages) must be discussed and approved. The research paper will be a full development of work initiated in the annotated bibliography assignment and

3 3 insight sheets. You must submit a hard copy of the paper; I can t accept attachments. You will submit your essay directly to me on the morning of our final meeting, Friday 10 April. [40%] A three-hour April exam in which you are responsible for all of the term s plays and lecture material. Expect to write on every text on the reading list. The exam is to be administered during the exam period. Plagiarism and Instructional Offences Please see the section on Instructional Offences in the Undergraduate Calendar. The Undergraduate Calendar defines an act of plagiarism as an attempt to use and pass off as one's own idea or product the work of another without expressly giving credit to the original author. Any act of plagiarism will be prosecuted to the full extent of the guidelines set out in the Undergraduate Calendar. Penalties may include expulsion from Carleton University; they will certainly include expulsion from this course with a grade of F. The Undergraduate Calendar specifies that the act of submitting substantially the same piece of work to two or more courses without the prior written permission of the instructors from all courses involved constitutes an Instructional Offence punishable under the guidelines set out in the Undergraduate Calendar. Please note: Minor modifications and amendments, such as changes of phraseology in an essay or paper, do not constitute a significant and acceptable reworking of an assignment. No piece of work written for another course will be accepted for credit in this course. Accommodations You may need special arrangements to meet your academic obligations during the term because of disability, pregnancy or religious obligations. Please review the course outline promptly and write me with any requests for academic accommodation during the first two weeks of class, or as soon as possible after the need for accommodation is known to exist. Students with disabilities requiring academic accommodations in this course must register with the Paul Menton Centre for Students with Disabilities (PMC) for a formal evaluation of disability-related needs. Documented disabilities could include but are not limited to mobility/physical impairments, specific Learning Disabilities (LD), psychiatric/psychological disabilities, sensory disabilities, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and chronic medical conditions. Registered PMC students are required to contact the PMC ((613) ) every term to ensure that I receive your Letter of Accommodation. This letter must reach me no later than two weeks before the first assignment is due or the first in-class test / midterm requiring accommodations. If you only require accommodations for your formally scheduled exam in this course, please submit your request for accommodations to PMC by Nov. 11, 2011 for the Fall term and March 7, 2012 for the Winter term. You can visit the Equity Services website to view the policies and to obtain more detailed information on academic accommodation at

4 4 Reading Schedule *Please note: From January 4-8 I will be attending a conference in Seattle; I will therefore have to postpone our first seminar from January 6-January 13. A makeup class will be scheduled for our regular meeting time (8:30-11:30) on the morning of April 10. *Note also that readings have been divided into required and recommended readings. You are, of course, fully responsible only for required readings (these are limited to the plays that we will be studying together), but any time you can spend on the recommended readings will be of enormous use to you for your insight sheets, annotated bibliography, and final essay. January 6: Introductory class postponed to January 13 Please note that prior to this date you will receive a digital copy of this syllabus. Please make your book purchases and bring your copy of the first text (Ruby Blondell s translation of Antigone, King Oidipous, and Oidipous at Colonus) to our first meeting of the course on the morning of January 13. January 13: Introduction to the course Course business, description of assignments, overview of readings Introductory material on tragedy in Ancient Greece and Rome, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and in philosophy and literary theory from antiquity to the present City Dionysia; Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides UNIT 1: ATHENS January 20: Athens (1) Required reading: Sophocles, King Oidipous Martha C. Nussbaum, Interlude 1: Plato s anti-tragic theatre, The Fragility of Goodness: Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986) Aristotle, Poetics, The Complete Works of Aristotle, ed. Jonathan Barnes, rev. ed. 2 vols. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984) 2: Andrew Ford, Katharsis: The Ancient Problem, Performativity and Performance, eds. Andrew Parker and Eve Kokofsky Sedgwick (New York: Routledge, 1995) Topics and problems: Plato, Aristotle, and tragedy January 27: Athens (2) Sophocles, Oidipous at Colonus Martha C. Nussbaum, Interlude 1: Plato s anti-tragic theatre, The Fragility of Goodness: Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986) Aristotle, Poetics, The Complete Works of Aristotle, ed. Jonathan Barnes, rev. ed. 2 vols. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984) 2:

5 5 Hegel on Tragedy, ed. Anne and Henry Paolucci (Smyrna, DE: Griffon House Publications, 2001) Terry Eagleton, Sweet Violence: The Idea of the Tragic (Oxford: Blackwell, 2003) Introduction (ix-xvii), 1-39 Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy, trans. Douglas Smith (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000). Topics and problems: Tragic theory, tragic practice February 3: Athens (3) Sophocles, Antigone Martha C. Nussbaum, Interlude 1: Plato s anti-tragic theatre, The Fragility of Goodness: Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986) Aristotle, Poetics, The Complete Works of Aristotle, ed. Jonathan Barnes, rev. ed. 2 vols. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984) 2: Judith Butler, Antigone s Claim (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002). George Steiner, Antigones (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996). Robert Garland, Surviving Greek Tragedy (London: Duckworth, 2004). Rome (1) Topics: The fortunes of Antigone; the fortunes of the Greek tragic canon UNIT 2: ROME February 10: Rome (1) Seneca, Phaedra, Oedipus Martha C. Nussbaum, Seneca on Anger in Public Life, The Therapy of Desire: Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics (Princeton: Princeton Univeristy Press, 1994), Seneca, De ira, Moral Essays, trans. John W. Basore, 3 vols. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1928), A.J. Boyle, Roman Tragedy. London: Routledge, Topics: tragedy at Rome; the Roman tragic canon; Stoicism February 17: Rome (2) Required readings Seneca, Medea, Trojan Women Martha C. Nussbaum, Seneca on Anger in Public Life, The Therapy of Desire: Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics (Princeton: Princeton Univeristy Press, 1994), Seneca, De ira, Moral Essays, trans. John W. Basore, 3 vols. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1928),

6 6 Martha C. Nussbaum, Serpents in the Soul: A Reading of Seneca s Medea, The Therapy of Desire: Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1994), Gregory Staley, Seneca and the Idea of Tragedy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010). Topics:Tragedy and philosophy; Seneca s Emperors (Tiberius, Gaius, Claudius, Nero) February 20-24: Winter Break, classes suspended March 2: Rome (3) Seneca, Hercules Furens, Thyestes Martha C. Nussbaum, Seneca on Anger in Public Life, The Therapy of Desire: Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics (Princeton: Princeton Univeristy Press, 1994), Seneca, De ira, Moral Essays, trans. John W. Basore, 3 vols. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1928), Henry Ansgar Kelly, Ideas and Forms of Tragedy from Aristotle to the Middle Ages, Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature, 18 (1995; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005). Topics: The Medieval and Renaissance fortunes of tragedy and Senecae tragoediae UNIT 3: London March 9: London (1) Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus Gordon Braden, Anger s Privilege: Renaissance Tragedy and the Senecan Tradition (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985). Michael Warren, Shakespearean Tragedy Printed and Performed, The Cambridge Companion to Shakespearean Tragedy, ed. Claire McEachern (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002) Topics: Seneca in Renaissance England; judicial torture; antitheatricalism; imitation Annotated Bibliography due at the beginning of class March 16: London (2) Shakespeare, Hamlet Gordon Braden, Anger s Privilege: Renaissance Tragedy and the Senecan Tradition (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985). Rene Girard, Hamlet s Dull Revenge, Literary Theory / Renaissance Texts, ed. Patricia. Parker and David Quint (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1986)

7 7 Michael Warren, Shakespearean Tragedy Printed and Performed, The Cambridge Companion to Shakespearean Tragedy, ed. Claire McEachern (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002) Lorraine Helms, Seneca by Candlelight and Other Stories of Renaissance Drama (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997). Topics: The Hamlet story; revenge March 23: London (3) Shakespeare, Hamlet Shakespeaere, Othello Walter Kaufmann, Tragedy and Philosophy (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1992). Heinz Politzer, Freud and Tragedy, trans. Wilhelm Hemecker (Riverside, CA: California, 2007). Topics: Tragedy and philosophy; tragedy and psychoanalysis; the care of the self March 30: London (4) Shakespeare, Othello Stanley Cavell, Othello and the Stake of the Other, Disowning Knowledge in Six Plays of Shakespeare (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1987), Topics: Self and other; tragedy and pleasure April 10: Make-up class (due to cancellation of January 6 meeting) Final essay due Conclusion and review for final examination

8 8 Annotated Bibliography and Research Essay 1 / Compile an annotated bibliography in one of the following areas of scholarship: Pain Politics Theory / Philosophy Gender Your bibliography should include five entries. It should be preceded by three pages describing the range of opinions and arguments set out in the books and / or articles listed in your bibliography (do this very briefly in no more than a paragraph), and describing the line of argument you have settled on for your final paper (two and a half pages). Make a concerted effort to situate your interests (however vague and early their shape) in relation to the scholarship you have described in your annotated bibliography. Aim for two entries per page, with a maximum of eight total pages for the assignment, all double-spaced. The assignment is due at the beginning of class, March 9. Annotated bibliographies will be returned to you during the first class after they are submitted. [15%] 2 / The annotated bibliography should be viewed as the foundation of the core requirement for the course: an essay of approximately pages that attempts to stake out a complex argument about a text, issue, or problem, and shows that you understand where your argument stands in relation to existing scholarship on your chosen topic and text. The materials collected in your annotated bibliography assignment should of course form the foundation for your list of Works Consulted (please note that I require a list of Works Consulted rather than Works Cited ), but that list should have grown since the annotated bibliography assignment was returned to you. Late papers will be penalized at the rate of two marks per day. The final paper should be submitted directly to me during our final meeting on April 10, [25%]

Carleton University Winter 2012 Department of English

Carleton University Winter 2012 Department of English Course and Section No: ENGL 4550A Course Title: Studies in Victorian Lit I: Freud and the Victorians Thursdays, 14:35 17:25 210 TB (Please confirm