English 162W-3 Jessica BeckmanTTh 4:15-6:05pm beckman1@stanford.edu160 B-35 Office: 460-306

Office hours: T 1:00-2:00pm, W 2:30-3:30, & by appt.

The Sea and the Stage: Renaissance Pirates, Wenches, and Infidels

Short Description: “I am not what I am,” Iago tells us in the opening act of Shakespeare’s Othello (1.1.67). Taking the villain at his word, this course investigates how identity is constructed and transformed in English Renaissance drama. Using the Mediterranean Sea as our landscape, we will dive into texts whose protagonists and antiheroes attempt to reinvent themselves (and undo others) against cultural expectations about religion, ethnicity, and gender. This course will focus on a slow reading of Othello, alongside provocative and adventurous works by Shakespeare’s contemporaries Marlowe, Massinger, and Heywood. Students will explore how the historical conditions of navigation, cultural exchange, and piracy formed a backdrop onto which English dramatists projected their concerns about “turning” from one identity to another. Along the way we will be challenged to consider how these historicized issues of gender, class, and East-meets-West continue to be relevant to our own rapidly globalizing time.

Primary Texts1. Shakespeare, William. Othello: Texts and Contexts. Ed. Kim Hall. New York:

Bedford / St. Martin's Press, 2006.

2. Marlowe, Christopher. The Jew of Malta: with Related Texts. Ed. Stephen J. Lynch. Indianapolis: Hacket Publishing Co, 2006.

3. Philip Massinger, “The Renegado.” Three Turk Plays from Early Modern England. Ed. Daniel Vitkus. New York: Columbia UP, 2000.

4. Heywood, Thomas. The Fair Maid of the West Parts 1 and 2. Ed. Robert K. Turner. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P (Regents Renaissance Drama), 1968.

These texts are available at the Stanford bookstore. I require these editions for two reasons: 1) most of them have supplementary material that may aid your paper research; 2) these editions make the plays more accessible to modern readers by explaining references, pointing out textual variations, and defining words that are no longer in circulation.

All secondary scholarly texts will be available on Coursework.

Major Assignments Close reading papers : two short critical papers (2-3 pages) that examine a

meaningful detail, word, object, or passage in Shakespeare’s Othello (first paper)

and Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta (second paper). The purpose of this assignment is threefold: 1) to encourage close and slow reading of the text; 2) to develop close-reading skills that make meaning from textual patterns, contradictions, parallels, and repetitions; 3) to demonstrate—using textual evidence—how the play engages with a major question of cultural or personal identity we have been discussing in class.

Primary source paper : a short critical paper (3-5 pages) that uses a cultural artifact to illuminate or contextualize one of the primary literary texts. Students may investigate historical documents that are mentioned in the scholarship we have been reading, or explore digital and archival resources such as:

The Holinshed Project Early English Books Online An entry from Hakluyt’s Principle Navigations Stanford Special Collections William Shakespeare in Quarto (British Library website) Ryhiner Map Collection (University of Bern) Race in Early Modern England: A Documentary Companion by

Jonathan Burton and Ania Loomba

Final paper : a mid-size analytical essay (12-15 pages) that answers, with the help of scholarly and historical sources, a question raised by the student about one of the assigned literary texts. Students are encouraged to develop their final paper topic out of an observation recorded in the close-reading or primary source papers, and class time will be devoted to turning these initial observations into appropriately sized research questions.

Films:The course screens films that offer modernized views of our historical texts and questions. If a student is unable to attend class on the screening days, he or she is responsible for checking out the film from Green Library course reserves and viewing it in time for class discussion. The films are:

1. Othello (1952), directed by Orson Welles2. Captain Phillips (2013), directed by Paul Greengrass

Learning GoalsSkills: The assignments in this course will strengthen three major skills: 1) close textual analysis; 2) the exploration primary sources and cultural artifacts in literary criticism; 3) the careful incorporation of scholarly and historical material into an argument about a literary text. The course will focus on developing research questions out of smaller observations made earlier in the quarter, and making transparent the process that literary scholars undertake to move from texts to questions to critical arguments.

Content: Students should begin to understand the Renaissance Mediterranean in its historical context by engaging with cultural artifacts alongside literary texts. At the same time, major course questions will challenge students to understand the Renaissance as an

era not unlike our own, in which increased social and global mobility resulted in cultural confrontations and challenged expectations of class, gender, religion, and race.

Attendance and Participation: Because the class is small and participatory in nature, attendance is essential. Your ability to complete in-class writing assignments is integral to your participation grade. If you must miss a class for religious holidays, medical reasons, or valid University-related activities (such as varsity athletic competitions), you must let the instructor know as far in advance as possible to arrange the make-up of any missed work. In the event of a sudden illness or family emergency, contact the instructor as soon as possible to notify her of the situation. It is always the student’s responsibility to notify the instructor of absences and to inquire promptly about opportunities to make up missed work.

Full credit for participation will not be granted solely on the grounds of good attendance, but must include active and regular participation in the discussions, writing exercises, and workshops taking place in the classroom.

Deadlines and Late Papers: Legitimate requests for extensions will be considered on a case-by-case basis, and should be submitted at least 48 hours before the assignment’s deadline. Late papers will be penalized 1/3 of a letter grade per day. For example, a strong paper that is submitted on time may receive the grade of an A-. The same paper, submitted a day late in draft and one day late in final form would receive a B.

Grades: In determining your course grade, assignments will be weighted as follows:

First Close Reading Paper/Participation 15%Second Close Reading Paper 15% Primary Source Paper 20%Annotated Bibliography 10% Final Paper 40%

We’ll discuss evaluation criteria and your personal writing goals throughout the quarter. Below, however, are general grading guidelines that apply across assignments:

A range: The submitted work is outstanding in form and content. It is original, or it expands in a new way on ideas presented in the course. The evidence presented in support of the claims is carefully chosen and fully considered. The analysis or interpretation is not only unified and coherent, but also complex and nuanced.

B range: The submitted work meets the requirements for the assignment, is clear and coherent and presents evidence in support of its points. It shows comprehension of the material and manifests critical thinking about the issues raised in the course. It does not demonstrate the complexity, the insight, or the integrated structure of A-range work.

C range: The submitted work has some, but not all of the basic components required; for example, it may offer an argument but it presents no evidence to support the argument; or it may repeat concepts presented in seminars without demonstrating understanding or expanding on them.

D range or below: The submitted work lacks more than one of the basic required components.

Students with Disabilities: Students with Documented Disabilities: Students who may need an academic accommodation based on the impact of a disability must initiate the request with the Office of Accessible Education (OAE). Professional staff will evaluate the request with required documentation, recommend reasonable accommodations, and prepare an Accommodation Letter for faculty dated in the current quarter in which the request is made. Students should contact the OAE as soon as possible since timely notice is needed to coordinate accommodations. The OAE is located at 563 Salvatierra Walk (phone: 723-1066, URL: http://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/oae).

Academic Integrity and Plagiarism: Students are responsible for familiarizing themselves with and following the University’s Honor Code (http://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/communitystandards/policy/honor-code). Violations of the Honor Code, even when unintentional, constitute serious offenses that are subject to action by the Stanford Office of Community Standards. Violations of the Honor Code include but are not limited to receiving or giving unpermitted aid in class work, unpermitted collaboration, representing someone else’s work as your own, and plagiarism. The Office of Community Standards defines plagiarism as “the use, without giving reasonable and appropriate credit to or acknowledging the author or source, of another person's original work, whether such work is made up of code, formulas, ideas, language, research, strategies, writing or other form(s).” If you are not sure about whether something constitutes plagiarism, consult your instructor. See also for detailed examples: Lunsford, Andrea. Easy Writer. 3rd ed. Bedford: St. Martins Press, 2006. 187, 190-192.

Weekly Syllabus

Week 1January 6 (T): IntroductionJanuary 8 (Th): Othello

Week 2January 13 (T): Othello: Ania Loomba, “Othello and the Racial Question”

(Coursework) January 15 (Th): Othello: Edward Said, selections from Orientalism (Coursework)

Week 3January 20 (T): Film: Othello, directed by and starring Orson Welles (1952)

~ Close Reading Paper Due ~January 22 (Th): Responding to Shakespeare, Welles, Said, and Loomba

Week 4January 27 (T): The Jew of MaltaJanuary 29 (Th): The Jew of Malta: read Stephen Greenblatt, “Introduction” and

“Marlowe and the Will to Absolute Play”, from Renaissance Self-Fashioning (Coursework)

Week 5February 3 (T): The Jew of Malta: Machiavelli, selections from The Prince.

~ Close Reading Paper Due ~February 5 (Th): Responding to Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Greenblatt

Week 6February 10 (T): The RenegadoFebruary 12 (Th): The Renegado: Richard Hakluyt, brief selections from Principle

Navigations (Coursework)

Week 7February 17 (T): Film: “Captain Phillips” directed by Paul Greengrass (2014) February 19 (Th): Responding to Shakespeare, Massinger, and Greengrass

~ Primary Source Paper Due ~

Week 8February 24 (T): The Fair Maid of the WestFebruary 26 (Th): The Fair Maid of the West

~ Annotated Bibliography Due ~

Week 9March 3 (T): Final Paper DiscussionsMarch 5 (Th): Final Paper workshops: Barbara Fuchs, “Faithless Empires:

Pirates, Renegadoes, and the English Nation” (Coursework)

Week 10March 10 (T): Final Paper workshopsMarch 12 (Th): Final Paper workshops

FINAL PAPER DUE: March 18, 2015 by 5:00pm (via email beckman1@stanford.edu)