Shakespeare Class Endgame: POTLUCK!

In order to give you the utmost flexibility in your choice of final assignments for this course, I offer you 3 ways to complete your coursework. Please choose ONE of the following options, to be turned in via email on the day the final would have been scheduled, May 8. The final project is due in my inbox by 11:59 pm. 

1.  10+ pp. Research Paper.

For this option, please choose a specific question related to Shakespeare Studies to research in detail. Your paper, while of course taking part in a preexisting scholarly conversation, will have an original thesis argument that you support with textual evidence from the relevant play/plays and at least 6 other works of scholarship.

2. Two Smaller Papers, approx 5 pp. each.

For this option, choose two of the following assignment options from the blog:

Lear Textual Study

Production Analysis

Word Study Paper: in order to do this paper, you may need to modify your study to include a close reading of a specific word within the context of Shakespeare's work, making a cogent argument about what you see the word doing during the period and in Shakespeare.

Reception Study

Source Study

3. For Teachers: Shakespeare Unit Design.

see this post for the assignment.

  

Teachers: Shakespeare Unit Plan

For this final assignment option, please design a unit that you can use when you become a teacher. Craft a unit plan that outlines a set of Shakespeare-related assignments and lesson plans targeted at your chosen age group. Use the unit template that you are most comfortable with, but don't forget to include at least 8 lesson plans in sequence with learning objectives, classroom activities, assessment, and assignments or homework activities.

The work and time you expend on this assignment should be equivalent to that spent on a conventional final research paper. Use your best judgement.

I strongly encourage you to make use of the resources I make available on this blog as you plan your unit.

Lear Response Paper: Edition Comparison, due April 15

 A textual study: compare a passage in the First Quarto with the corresponding one in the First Folio, then glance at the conflated version. Do the differences change your understanding of the passage? Which seems to fit the play’s overall energy and message better, in your opinion? This exercise will require close reading and critical thought.  

Please feel free to refer to the ‘textual note’ on p 2332 to orient yourself to the controversy and editorial decisions resulting from the wide textual variation between different versions of this play. 

You may also wish to explore the online facsimilies of the actual editions of Q1 and F1 using the resources I list in this post. 

response: Close reading a joke, due tue Apr 10

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All of Shakespeare's plays--but especially his comedies--are packed with verbal humor. Beatrice and Benedick are compulsive jokesters, as are most of the other characters in the play, either on purpose or accident. For this exercise, please choose a passage in Much Ado that you either find funny, or whose joke you don't understand. Try to unpack the gag, running joke, or quibble's layers of meaning, and see what you can find. In the end, is the joke serious? Is it insulting? Is it cosmic? Can you connect it with other jokes/themes in this play or others? Does your analysis make the joke funnier or does it change your understanding of the character, for better or worse?

Above all, have fun!