English 6320.01
Shakespeare in Film and Popular Culture
CLAS 232
Thursday 9:30-12:00
Professor: Dr. Gregory Colón Semenza
Office: 132 CLAS
Office Hours: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday: 10:30-12:30 PM; Thursday: 1-3 PM
Phone: (Office) 486-4762; (Home) 456-1580
Email: semenza@uconn.edu
Course Description:
The course centers on how six of Shakespeare’s most revered plays—Romeo and Juliet, Henry IV, Henry V, Hamlet, Othello, and Macbeth—have been adapted, alluded to, appropriated, and otherwise reinvented in modern popular culture and film. Looking critically and theoretically at engagements of Shakespeare in advertising, children’s literature, corporate business practices, pop music, and especially television and film, we will ask such questions as “Why Shakespeare?” That is, how and why is the “cultural capital” of Shakespeare evoked? More specifically (and to echo the language of Deborah Cartmell), how is Shakespeare used in the modern world to appeal to the masses in terms of the presentation of issues such as sexuality, gender, race, violence, and nationalism? What happens when Shakespeare is transplanted into a non-British or non-western context (think Kurosawa’s absolutely stunning Shakespeare films)? What happens when Shakespeare’s name is evoked in lowbrow entertainment like South Park or “schlock” such as Troma Entertainment’s quasi-pornographic Tromeo and Juliet? Do industries like Hollywood teach Shakespeare more effectively than high school teachers and university professors, or do they simply “dumb down” on of our most complex and revered artists? Finally, what can the serious study of such reinventions teach us about Shakespeare and/or ourselves?
Texts and other Materials:
1. A solid edition of Shakespeare’s works: (rec. Norton, Riverside, Arden, or Bevington)
2. Lanier, Shakespeare in Modern Popular Culture
3. Cohen and Braudy, Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings
4. Soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet
5. Course Packet of Articles (provided by instructor)
Recommended: The Sex Pistols album, “Never Mind the Bollocks”
This is a somewhat unusual class so I want to mention a few things about materials:
Books: as mentioned in the original class announcement and several subsequent emails, I assume your comfortable familiarity with the six relevant Shakespeare plays—which means that I assume you will come to class knowing the plots inside-out, the major themes and character issues, and the major topics that have occupied scholars, especially in recent years. Two of the plays—Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet—may not require your re-reading this semester, depending on your knowledge of each; the other four should be read at the appropriate times, which are listed in the Class Schedule below.
Films: Eleven films are required viewing, though only ten of them will be publicly screened. You should watch Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet on your own prior to the Nov. 9th class. Details about the 10 film Screenings are listed below on page 6. You are required to attend at least 7 of them.
Exhibition: You also are required to visit the exhibition, “Searching for Shakespeare,” at the Yale Center for British Art sometime before it closes on September 17th.
Music: Please listen to the Luhrmann soundtrack several times prior to the Nov. 9th class. I also recommend that, prior to the Nov. 16th class, you listen to Never Mind the Bullocks, the legendary punk album by The Sex Pistols.
Assignments:
(For detailed descriptions of assignments, please see pages 6-7).
1)
Attendance, Preparation, and Spirited Participation
2)
750-W Article Review and In-Class Presentation
3)
750-W Proposal and Bibliography for Final Essay
4)
10-page Draft of Final Essay
5)
20-25-Page Critical Essay with Journal Submission Cover Letter and Response to Reader’s Report”
Class Schedule:
See Also Schedule of Film Screenings below:
Aug 31:
Discussion: Introduction to “Shakespeare in Film & Popular Culture”
Readings:
1. “Culture,” by Raymond Williams. From Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society. 87-93.
2. “On the Uses of a Liberal Education: as Lite
Entertainment for Bored College Students,” by Mark
Edmundson. From Harpers Magazine. 39-49.
3. Introduction, by Richard Burt. From Unspeakable
ShaXXXespeares. 1-28.
Sept 7:
Discussion: CEO Shakespeare
Readings:
1. “On Leadership,” by Norman Augustine and Kenneth
Adelman. From Shakespeare in Charge. 1-39. SKIM
2. “Theaters of War: Caesar and the Vandals,” by Alan
Sinfield. From Faultlines. 1-28.
3. “The Bard of Enron: From Shakespace to Noir
Humanism,” by Donald Hendrick. College Literature 31.4.
19-43.
4. “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses,” by L.
Althusser. From Lenin and Philosophy. 123-73.
Sept 14:
Discussion: Teenpic Shakespeare: Tim Blake Nelson’s O (2001)
Read “Othello” by this date
Readings:
1. “Afterword: Te[e]n Things I Hate About You,” by
Richard Burt. From Spectacular Shakespeares, ed.
Lehman & Starks. 205-231.
2. “Shakespeare After Columbine,” by G. Semenza.
College Literature 32.4. 99-124.
3. “Hollywood and the Demonization of Youth,” by Henry
Giroux. From Channel Surfing. 35-63.
Sept 21:
Discussion: Shakespeare on Film: John Madden’s Shakespeare in Love (1999)
Readings:
1. “Ideological Effects of the Basic Cinematic Apparatus,”
by Jean-Louis Baudry. In Film Reader: 355-65.
2. “Reification and Utopia in Mass Culture,” by Frederick
Jameson. From Signature of the Visible. 115-28.
3. “Shakespeare in Love and the End[s] of History,” by
Elizabeth Klett. From Retrovisions, ed. Cartmell. 25-40.
Sept 28:
Discussion: “Searching for Shakespeare”: Exhibition at Yale Center for British Art
Readings:
1. “Shakespeare Tourism and Festivals,” by Douglas
Lanier. In Lanier, Shakespeare and Modern Popular
Culture. 143-67.
2. “Stratford’s Empire of Shakespeare,” by Barbara Hodgdon. From The Shakespeare Trade. 191-240.
3. “The Authorship Controversy,” by Jonathan Bate. From The Genius of Shakespeare. 65-100.
Oct 5:
Discussion: Film in Dialogue: Olivier and Branagh: Henry V
Read “Henry V” by this date
Readings:
1. “Either/Or: Responding to Henry V,” by Norman
Rabkin. From Shakespeare and the Problem of Meaning.
33-62.
2. “Two Films of Henry V: Frames and Stories,” by Russell
Jackson. From The Show Within and other Dramatic
Inserts. 181-97.
3. “The Spectator in the Text,” by Nick Browne. In Film
Reader: 118-33.
Oct 12:
Discussion: The Auteur and Shakespeare: Orson Welles’ Falstaff (AKA Chimes at Midnight)
Read 1Henry IV and 2Henry IV 5.5 by this date
Also Recommended: Welles: Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil, Othello
Readings:
1. “The Evolution of the Language of Cinema,” by Andre
Bazin. In Film Reader: 41-51.
2. Film Reader Introduction to “The Film Artist”: 555-59.
3. “Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962,” by Andrew
Sarris. In Film Reader: 561-64.
4. “Orson Welles’s Chimes at Midnight,” by Anthony
Davies. From Filming Shakespeare’s Plays. 119-142.
Oct 19:
Discussion: Televised Shakespeare: The BBC Project
Recommended: The BBC Hamlet, and “In the Shadow of the Silent
Majorities,” by Jean Baudrillard. From In the Shadow of the Silent
Majorities. 1-61 (provided in course packet).
Readings:
1. Film Reader Introduction to “Film Language”: 1-6.
2. “The BBC and The Shakespeare Plays,” and
“Transatlantic Shakespeare,” by Susan Willis. From The
BBC Shakespeare Plays. 3-75.
3. “The Culture Industry,” by Max Horkheimer and
T. W. Adorno. From Dialectic of Enlightenment. 120-167.
Oct 26: NO CLASS. Work on Proposals.
Nov 2:
Discussion: International Shakespeare: Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood (1957)
Read Macbeth by this date
Recommended: “Adaptation,” by D. Andrew. In Film Reader: 461-69.
Readings:
1. “Hamlet on a Bicycle: Shakespeare in Japan,” by John
Collick. From Shakespeare, Cinema, and Society. 150-65.
2. “Kurosawa’s Kumonosu and Ran,” by John Collick.
From Shakespeare, Cinema, and Society. 166-87.
3. “Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood: Washizu and Miki Meet
the Forest Spirit,” by Jack Jorgens. From Literature/Film
Quarterly 11.3. 167-73.
*Assignment Due: Proposal with bibliography
Nov 9:
Discussion: Rock/Pop Shakespeare: Soundtrack to Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet
View Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo + Juliet” by this date
Readings:
1. “Film Music and Narrative Agency,” by Jerrold
Levinson. In Film Reader: 482-512.
2. “Reviving Juliet: Repackaging Romeo: Transformations
of Character in Pop and Post-Pop Music,” by Stephen M.
Buhler. From Shakespeare After Mass Media. 243-64.
3. “Trotsky and Wild Orchids,” by Richard Rorty. From
Philosophy and Social Hope. 3-20.
Nov 16:
Discussion: Punk Shakespeare (A study in Appropriation): The Filth and the Fury: A Sex Pistols Film (2000)
Recommended: Listen to “Never Mind the Bullocks” all week!
Readings:
1. “Subculture,” by Dick Hebdige. From Subculture. 355-
71.
2. “Notes on Deconstructing ‘The Popular,’” by Stuart
Hall. From People’s History and Socialist Theory. 64-71.
Nov 23: No Classes. Thanksgiving Week.
Nov 30:
Discussion: Spin-off Shakespeare: Billy Morrissette’s Scotland PA (2001)
Recommended: Lubitsch, To Be or Not to Be
Readings:
1. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical
Reproduction,” by Walter Benjamin. From Film Reader:
791-811.
2. “Genre: The Conventions of Connection,” by Leo
Braudy. From Film Reader: 663-79.
*Assignment Due: Draft of Final Paper
Dec 7:
Discussion: Kitsch Shakespeare (Schlockspeare): Lloyd Kaufman’s Tromeo and Juliet (1996)
Readings:
1. “Sleaze Mania, Euro-Trash, and High Art,” by Joan
Hawkins. From Film Quarterly 53.2: 264-77.
2. “Film Bodies: Gender, Genre, and Excess,” by Linda
Williams. In Film Reader: 727-41.
Dec 14:
Discussion: The “Renaissance” in Pop Culture: James McTeigue’s V for Vendetta (2005)
Recommended: V for Vendetta, by Alan Moore and David Lloyd
Readings:
1. “The Tutor Code of Classical Cinema,” by Daniel
Dayan. In Film Reader: 106-117.
2. “The Discourse of Pictures: Iconicity and Film Studies,”
by Stephen Prince. In Film Reader: 87-105.
*Assignment Due: Critical Essay with Cover Letter and Response
Required Film Schedule:
All 10 screened films will be shown at 7 PM in Theater 1 of Babbidge Library except for Luhrmann, which you should watch on your own. Madden, Olivier, Branagh all are “Optional,” which means you can attend the screening or watch them at home. You must attend a minimum of 7 screenings.
Film
Location
Date
1.
Tim Blake Nelson’s O
Theater 1
Sept. 11
2.
John Madden’s Shakespeare in Love
Optional
Sept. 18
3.
Laurence Olivier’s Henry V
Optional
Sept. 25
4.
Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V
Optional
Oct. 2
5.
Orson Welles’ Falstaff
Theater 1
Oct. 9
6.
Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood
Theater 1
Oct. 30
7.
Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet
At Home
Nov. 9
8.
Julian Temple’s The Filth and the Fury
Theater 1
Nov. 13
9.
Billy Morrissette’s Scotland PA
Theater 1
Nov. 27
10.
Lloyd Kaufman’s Tromeo and Juliet
Theater 1
Dec. 4
11.
James McTeigue’s V for Vendetta
Theater 1
Dec. 11
Description of Assignments:
Please note that while you will receive grades on all materials that you turn in, I would prefer for a variety of reasons not to “weigh” assignments in terms of a percentage value. Your final research paper is, needless to say, the most important piece of work you will turn in, but all assignments should be approached with the same level of seriousness. Assignments and their due dates are discussed below in greater detail and are listed in the Course Schedule. You are welcome, of course, to turn in most assignments early and, in some cases, it will be advisable to do so. My reflections on and expectations for students in a graduate seminar—from choosing classes to understanding grades—are explained in detail in Chapter 4 of my book, Graduate Study for the Twenty-First Century: How to Build an Academic Career in the Humanities. It goes without saying that perfect attendance, active participation, and thorough preparation are mandatory (so why did I just say it?).
1. Article Review with Cover Letter:
On the first day of class, you will select a particular secondary reading to review in a 750-word paper, which you will read to the entire class on the day it is due. Ideally, your review will serve to stimulate in-class discussion and debate on the particular topic under consideration. Please be prepared to guide discussion of the text you review.
Reviews should analyze the argument of the essay, its general persuasiveness, and its contribution to Shakespeare/popular culture studies or scholarship more generally. Please do not fall into the trap of assuming that a harsh critique of an author demonstrates intellectual rigor. Focus less on what you perceive to be flaws and more on what you perceive to be the strengths of the article and the ways in which we might use its findings. I tend to associate the process of book reviewing with the process of grading student papers; it’s much more useful (and difficult) to be constructive than it is simply to point out weaknesses. That said, it’s also problematic simply to praise every aspect of a scholar’s work. Strive for balance. (We’ll discuss this in more detail in class).
You should research appropriate journals’ book reviews and model your own review—stylistically and rhetorically—on the most successful ones. Please make copies for the entire class. Due on the day of the assigned essay.
2. Proposal with Cover Letter and Bibliography:
A concise “sell” of your proposed final paper topic. Make sure that your argument is clearly stated and situated in relation to previous critics who have written on the text/subject. Also make sure that the pay-off of your contribution is clear. 750 words equal about 2-3 double-spaced pages. A comprehensive, properly formatted bibliography should accompany the proposal. We will discuss this assignment in some detail in class. Proposals are due on November 2.
3. Draft of Final Paper:
A ten-page, professionally written and thorough draft of your final paper. This draft, which should include a clearly-stated version of the major thesis informing your final paper, should articulate well enough what you’re planning to do to allow me to provide useful feedback in the form of a “reader’s report.” Drafts are due on November 30.
4. Critical Essay with Cover Letter:
Your goal should be to produce a potentially publishable article. While I have specified as a general guideline that the article should be 20-25 pages long, reasonably longer essays can be justified. Along with the essay, please provide a professionally written cover letter on UConn letterhead. The cover letter should be addressed to an appropriate journal that you have researched and singled out for an initial submission. It lets me know what type of audience you have in mind for your work and also provides a space for you to respond to the comments and suggestions I offer you on your draft; please treat this response as if you were addressing a real reader’s report from a journal. This assignment will be harped on endlessly in class. The essay is due at our exam meeting on December 14.