English Literature - Elizabethan Drama

Code:

FLUP0610

Acronym:

LI-DI2

Instance: 2004/2005 - 2S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Department of Anglo-American Studies
Institution Responsible:	Faculty of Arts

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
EAA	0	Official Study Plan - LEAA	2	2,5	5	-
			3
EE	0	Official Study Plan - LEE	3	2,5	5	-
			4
		Plano oficial a partir de 2002	3	2,5	5	-
EEFA	0	Official Study Plan - LEEFA	3	2,5	5	-
EEFI	0	Official Study Plan - LEEFI	3	2,5	5	-
EEIA	0	Official Study Plan - LEEIA	3	2,5	5	-
EELRI	0	Official Study Plan - LEELRI	3	2,5	5	-
EFI	6	Official Study Plan - LEFI	2	2,5	5	-
			3
		Official Study Plan - LEFI	2	2,5	5	-
			3
			4
EIA	22	Official Study Plan - LEIA	2	2,5	5	-
			3
		Plano oficial - 1º ao 3º ano	2	2,5	5	-
			3
EPI	26	Official Study Plan - LEPI	2	2,5	5	-
			3
		Official Study Plan - LEPI	2	2,5	5	-
			3
			4
		Plano oficial - 4º ao 5º ano	2	2,5	5	-
			3
		Plano oficial - 1º ao 3º ano	2	2,5	5	-
			3
		Plano oficial a partir de 2002	2	2,5	5	-
			3

Objectives

The Course aims at connecting three complementary moments:
a.The study of the dramatic achievement of William Shakespeare through a short selection of plays according to the traditional division in comedies, tragedies and histories;
b.The apprehension by students of the aesthetic dimension and the creative flexibility of the English language at a crucial stage of its historical and literary fixation;
c.The growing familiarity with the Elizabethan dramatist’s work and the development of critical approaches and the stimulus to the reading of Shakespeare’s plays in their literary and spectacular expression.

Program

In the name of the Father: realms of instability and generation continuity in the drama of William Shakespeare.

Perplexities concerning integrity and reproduction of social and intellectual structures of patriarchal condition are substantiated, in the specific context of each play, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595?), Henry IV Part One (1596) and King Lear (1605). This program does not aim, of course, at defining any paradigm or at exhausting the subject of central thematic references, and it is, therefore, inconclusive and controversial: it only assumes, in its short progression, the discussion of meanings of comic celebration, dialectics established between freedom and duty, and tensions between the voice of authority and the language of feelings.
An introductory step will consist in a brief note on the productive connivance of popular and medieval legacy and innovative renaissance tendencies on the Elizabethan stage, along with a short account of codes and conventions of the plays of Shakespeare and his fellow dramatists.

Main Bibliography

The short reading list below, of very generic intention, will be expanded in classes. Reliable critical editions of Shakespeare’s plays can easily be found by students (v. g. The Arden Shakespeare or The New Penguin Shakespeare).
BARBER, C. L. , Shakespeare’s Festive Comedies – A Study of Dramatic Forms and its Relation to Social Custom, Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1959.
BLOOM, Harold, Shakespeare – The Invention of the Human, London, Fourth Estate, 1998.
DANBY, John F. , Shakespeare’s Doctrine of Nature – A Study of King Lear, London, faber and faber, 1948.
HUNTER, G. K. , English Drama 1586-1642, Oxford, Clarendon Press, The Oxford History of English Literature II, 1997.
LEGGATT, Alexander, Shakespeare’s Comedy of Love, London and New York, Methuen, 1974.
LEGGATT, Alexander, Shakespeare’s Political Drama – The History Plays and the Roman Plays, London and New York, Routledge, 1988.
SANDLER, Robert, ed. , Northrop Frye on Shakespeare, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1986.
SERÔDIO, Maria Helena, William Shakespeare – A Sedução dos Sentidos, Lisboa, Cosmos, 1996.
TILLYARD, E. M. W. , Shakespeare’s History Plays, London, Chatto & Windus, 1994.
WELLS, Stanley, ed. , The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare Studies, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, The Cambridge Companions to Literature, 1986.

Complementary Bibliography

To be provided in classes.

Teaching methods and learning activities

Students are expected to take part in classes, both by reading, analysing and interpreting literary texts and by presenting and discussing representative pieces of criticism. The writing of essays will be, whenever possible, a way of active involvement and personal learning. Priority will be given to continuous assessment; and if contexts do not allow it in its most definite observance, efforts will be made in order to preserve some of its basic features.

Software

Not applicable.

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation with final exam

Eligibility for exams

Not applicable.

Calculation formula of final grade

Mainly assessed through the final exam.

Examinations or Special Assignments

Not applicable.

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

Whenever possible.

Classification improvement

Not applicable.

Observations

Language of instruction: Portuguese.