Also, Read 1.1 (shorthand for Act 1, scene 1) of Shakespeare's Hamlet (Norton 2410-2414). Read the corresponding section of this scene-by-scene analysis BEFORE you read Shakespeare's text. Consult no other reading guides; this is as good as it gets.
Wednesday, January 7 (2) - Welcome back. Semester expectations. UPDATED LATENESS POLICY: Hard copies not submitted at the beginning of class will be considered late. You have a 1 day grace period during which submitted essays will receive a 10% deduction. After 24 hours you will receive a 0 on the assignment. "Who's there?"
Thursday, January 8 (3) - Reading and understanding Shakespeare. Come to class tomorrow ready to discuss your hypothesis.
Rory Kinnear plays Hamlet in this dynamic National Theatre production from 2010. Hamlet's first solidoquy.
Friday, January 9 (4) - Preliminary research; What is the role of the pilot essay? By Monday, read 1.2 (Remember there is a reading guide under "Hamlet Study Links" to the right). Read Hamlet's first soliloquy ("Oh, that this too, too solid flesh would melt...") carefully. Then watch Rory Kinnear perform it (to the immediate right). What is it that is really bothering him about what has happened since his father's death? How would you describe the tone of his feelings? Detached, impassioned, rational, ironic, or what? (Boyer, SXU). Also, please, please, please, refresh your memory on MLA rules. Use this document.
Monday, January 12 (5) - Set Extra Credit Assignment; Hamlet; As you continue to read Hamlet, I really suggest you watch the corresponding scenes of the David Tennant version. The link to the film is found to the right.
Tuesday, January 13 (6) - Set Presentation Assignment; Hamlet; Read 1.3 by tomorrow.
Wednesday, January 14 (1) - Hamlet -- LUNCHTIME RESEARCH TUTORIAL; 1.4 for tomorrow.
Thursday, January 15 (2) - Hamlet; Finish Act 1 for tomorrow.
Friday, January 16 (3) - Hamlet
Tuesday, January 20 - Monday, February 2 - Hamlet Presentations; What's in a word? Assignment
Tuesday, February 3 (2) - Pilot essay / Thesis approval
Wednesday, February 4 (3) - Pilot essay
Thursday, February 5 (4) - KUBUS ON KAIROS - Pilot essay
Friday, February 6 (5) - KUBUS ON KAIROS - Pilot essay
Monday, February 9 (6) - Hamlet Presentations
Tuesday, February 10 (1) - Hamlet Presentations
Wednesday, February 11 (2) - Hamlet Presentations
Thursday, February 12 (3) - Hamlet Presentations
Tuesday, February 17 (5) - Final Hamlet Presentation
Wednesday, February 18 (6) - Set Research Assignment, Part 2
Thursday, February 19 (1) - The Annotated Bibliography
Friday, February 20 (2) - Weeding out useless articles; Sample conversation (Iraq War); Over the weekend, read Hamlet, 5.1. What2watch4: (1) What dramatic function does the gravedigger scene perform? Comic relief and nothing else? (2) Hamlet jumps in the grave. Still a part of his antic disposition, or not? How do you know? ALSO, prep for MLA quiz on Monday (30 points).
Monday, February 23 (3) - Hamlet, Act 5; MLA QUIZ
Tuesday, February 24 (4) - Hamlet, Act 5; Begin reading 5.2 tonight. Read to Osric's exit (about 150 lines).
Wednesday, February 25 (5) - Hamlet, Act 5; I expect you to have read through the end of the play by tomorrow. Some 4,000 lines of Shakespeare is no small task. Good on those who've carefully read each and every one.
Thursday, February 26 (6) - Hamlet, Act 5
Friday, February 27 (1) - Hamlet, Act 5; On to The Queen of Spades!; Set EC Essay on Hamlet.
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Due Dates
Wednesday, January 7 – Come to class having read the entirety of the text
Tuesday, January 27 -- What's in a word? Assignment
Tuesday, February 3 – Approved topic and thesis
Monday, February 9 – Final Draft of Pilot Essay, hard copy in class and to turnitin.com by 8am
Monday, March 2 -- Annotated Bibliography #1
Friday, March 6 -- EC Hamlet Essay
Tuesday, March 10 -- Annotated Bibliography #2
Below are 5 of my annotated pages from various texts and 1 of David Foster Wallace's copy of DeLillo's Players. The pages of the texts that you will be working with most closely should look just like these.
“I have of late—but wherefore I know not—lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o’erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapors.”
Creating Elisnore.
Here is the official, departmental description of English 4:
Using The Norton Anthology of Western Literature, seniors build on their knowledge of the traditions of American and British literature by studying literature of the wider world, reading excerpts and full-length works from Western and Eastern cultures. Seniors continue their study of writing with The Little Brown Handbook, learning to improve their prose style and to write clearer and more cogent essays of literary analysis and personal reflection. In the spring, students learn the basics of academic research while producing an essay that combines their own insights with their synthesis of the ideas of scholars.
You are, however, to expect for things to vary. We have, for instance, added the Killgallon, Sentence Composing for College to the course syllabus. This will take up a good deal of time throughout the year. Below is a list of texts that we may or may not read. There are also, in fact, a few million texts not on the list that we may or may not read. Be flexible. I am. I like it that way.
First Quarter – The Ancient World
Stories of creation and ancient ideologies - Genesis, Hesiod, Plato, Lucretius
The Epic – Homer, Virgil, Ovid
Ancient drama – Sophocles, Aristophanes, Aeschylus
Second Quarter – The Middle Ages and the Renaissance
Narrative fiction before the novel – Boccaccio, Dante, Chaucer, The Arabian Nights, Cervantes
Renaissance thought – Montaigne, Castiglione, Machiavelli
Drama – Shakespeare, Marlowe
Third Quarter – The 17th, 18th, and 19th Centuries
The Mock-epic and satire – Swift, Pope, Voltaire
Russian literature – Gogol, Pushkin, Chekhov
Fourth Quarter – The 20th Century
The Novel and the Novella – Conrad, Achebe
The Short Story – Kafka, Joyce
Course Texts
Killgallon, Sentence Composing for College
The Little, Brown Handbook (11th Ed.)
The Norton Anthology of Western Literature (8th Ed.)
Shostak, Vocabulary Workshop, Level H
If you do not mind (even if you do mind) bring in the Killgallon text on each day 5.