Iyengar, Sujata
TR 11:10 AM
Park Hall 0145
Much Ado about Much Ado
(NB: This is a cross-listed course, not a stand-alone graduate course.)
Discover the original rom-com, complete with sparring lovers, in Shakespeare's best-loved play, Much Ado About Nothing. We'll start with the basic story Shakespeare developed from the Italian writer Matteo Bandello (1554, 1573) via the prose romances of the French author François de Belleforest (1559-82) and Lodovico Ariosto's poetic mock-epic Orlando Furioso (trans. 1591). Then we will look at the text of the play and its early performances and restagings, such as the Restoration mash-up with Measure for Measure, The Law Against Lovers (1662), by William Davenant (who claimed to be Shakespeare's illegitimate son). We view recordings of some twentieth- and twenty-first-century performances, including Kenny Leon's all-Black production for Shakespeare in the Park (2019). Finally we consider film adaptations, from those that are "faithful" to text and plot, such as Kenneth Branagh's sunlit Italian romance (1993) and Joss Whedon's edgy black and white house party (2012), to the queer couples and interracial contexts of the Candle Wasters' webseries Nothing Much to Do (2014) and the box-office cinema hit Anyone But You (2024).
We will be working intimately with the text of the play and reading secondary literature (scholarship and criticism) about the play.
Undergraduate assignments will include one in-class essay on how Shakespeare adapted his sources, an in-class commentary and annotation assignment, an in-class essay responding to a clip from a performance or a film, and a final take-home paper of 5-8 pages (not including notes and bibliography) that uses secondary reading to make a literary argument about the play or one of its adaptations.
Graduate requirements: Graduate students signed up for the course will complete all undergraduate assignments but with the following changes/addenda:
--In lieu of either the "sources" essay or the "film clip" essay, graduate students will lead one class period covering this material for the class (e.g. teach a class period on Bandello or Davenant or Joss Whedon's film or whatever).
--in lieu of the "annotation and close reading" assignment, graduates may choose to teach another class period in which they model close reading to the class.
-- in lieu of the 5-10 page final paper, graduates will, in consultation with Dr. Iyengar, come up with a scaffolded, "authentic" final assignment that has professional value for them (a draft of a conference paper for a conference the student has identified; a syllabus with a completed teaching module and supporting materials; a paper that has publishable potential in a journal that the student has identified; a dissertation chapter).
--Graduates are held to the same high attendance standards as undergraduates; discuss conflicting professional commitments with me well in advance. Too many conflicts (if you must miss, say, five class periods) mean you will not be able to succeed in this class. Students who miss six or more class periods will not pass.
--Graduates who wish to take on a greater pedagogical role should also sign up for the one-credit-hour class ENGL 6920, Apprenticeship in College English Pedagogy. Students who have signed up for this role will have the opportunity to plan the undergraduate portion of the course with Dr. Iyengar and to receive mentorship in best commenting/grading practices for papers about pre-1800 literature.