Mode of Delivery
This is a print-based, correspondence course.
Course Outline
- Six assignments
- Final examination
Course Description and Prerequisites
English 348C offers a study of various aspects of Shakespeare’s art. Nine plays are studied in detail in the distance education version of the course. Prerequisites are six credits of first year English, or Arts One, or Foundations, and third-year standing.
Course Overview
The distance education version of English 348C explores various aspects of Shakespeare’s dramatic art through a close study of nine plays. You are also provided with brief descriptions and commentary on other plays you will not be reading. The latter are included to provide a context that will enhance the significance of the plays under study, and to give you a sense of his work as a whole.
The emphasis of the course is upon Shakespeare’s development as a dramatic poet; the plays are studied as works that were intended to be heard and seen, to be performed on a stage. Their artistic quality cannot be separated from their poetic quality but that poetic quality is shaped by the fact that they were written to be acted. They are not simply treatises or narratives in dialogue form. To this end, they are studied from the point of view of dramatic language, characterization, structure, and theatrical effect.
Course Goals
The principal goals of this course are to familiarize you with the works of Shakespeare, and to give you an appreciation of his rich characterization, his intellectual complexity, and his dramatic and poetic artistry. When you have completed the course you should also have acquired a grasp of the place of Shakespeare’s plays in the intellectual milieu of his time as well as their significance for ours.
Course Work
Six essay assignments and a final examination comprise the requirements of English 348C.
Of the six essays, three will ask you to concentrate primarily on individual plays, and three will require you to compare and contrast two plays to each other. The papers should be between 1,000 to 2,000 words, depending on the subject, and all are intended to be critical rather than scholarly.
Since English 348C is a six-credit course, you are allowed up to eleven months to complete this distance education version.
Evaluation
- Essay Assignments – 80%
- Final Exam – 20%
Textbooks
Bevington, David, ed. The Complete Works of Shakespeare. 5th ed. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2003 – or 6th edition (please refer to the Textbook Order Form)
ENGL 348C Learner Package (includes course manual and is required)
The Signet editions of the following Shakespeare plays: (optional)
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream
- Romeo and Julie
- Richard II
- Henry IV, Part 1
- Hamlet
- Othello
- Macbeth
- King Lear
- The Tempest
