Renaissance Literature

Description

Please complete ONE of the following (word limit 750 words unless otherwise stated)     1          Texts from weeks 7 and 8: ‘Women in Power’ and ‘Elizabethan Miscellany’ EITHER Take any two texts, and use them to discuss, by detailed reference to the texts, a feature of Renaissance context or culture which you think they illustrate well. OR Write about one poem that caught your attention. What about the poem made it stand out for you? Meter/rhyme scheme? Imagery/language? Contrast with other texts you have read? Was it surprising/what you expected? Difficulty/simplicity?   Your piece will be assessed on: – effective use of evidence from the text(s), including frequent relevant quotation – demonstration of understanding of the text(s) – use of secondary sources/research where appropriate – clarity and accessibility of your writing     2          In Patrick Stewart’s Twitter thread of readings of Shakespeare’s sonnets, he deliberately misses out number 59, explaining in his introduction to number 60 that he just didn’t know how to perform it: https://twitter.com/SirPatStew/status/1262558619586965511 The Norton anthology also chooses to cut this sonnet (along with many others). Your job is to write a letter to Sir Patrick suggesting how he might read it. You should say why you think he was unable to find a way of performing the sonnet, and why you think your suggestion will help him find a way to do this. You should draw on one or more annotated editions of the sonnets to explain the difficulties of 59 – for example, shakespeares-sonnets.com, John Kerrigan’s Penguin edition, Katherine Duncan-Jones’ Arden. This is a letter to a distinguished actor, not an academic essay, but the issues you’ll need to deal with are complex – so your choice of language will be key. Can you find a way to explain difficult concepts clearly, and make Sir Patrick want to perform the poem?   Your piece will be assessed on: – discussion of the sonnet’s difficulties that demonstrates thoughtful engagement with the poem – construction of an argument likely to persuade – clarity and accessibility of your writing     3          Translation: make a translation of any one of Shakespeare’s sonnets into modern English (or any other modern language). Your translation should not simply be of the language – but of the cultural expectations as well. In other words, you should update the themes and ideas in the sonnet, and translate the situation into something that makes sense in terms of present-day relationships. You are free to retain Shakespeare’s formal structures (rhyme, iambic pentameter, the internal structures expected of sonnets), or change them – but if you change them you should say why and how you have done so. In addition to your translation, you should write a narrative account of what decisions you made (both high-level decisions about the translation as a whole, and moment by moment ones about translating individual words and lines), and why, and how successful you think you have been. What worked, and what doesn’t? (No more than 500 words.)   You will be assessed on: thoughtfulness and engagement – your translation and your discussion of it should demonstrate how carefully you’ve thought about Shakespeare’s Sonnets, how much you’ve engaged with them as poetry, and the process of transforming their language and ideas self-awareness – your discussion should show how carefully you have thought about your own process, both in making decisions about how to translate, and in making judgements about how well or otherwise those decisions worked your translation – does it work as a text on its own? is the style appropriate to the effect you say you wanted to achieve? does it make the reader want to read more?     4          Write an essay tracking one of the following through the text of Othello. You should discuss the role the word, theme, or idea has in the play; whether this changes; the range of possible interpretations; why this is interesting (or not!) in trying to read the play:   honesty naming and the withholding of names time female independence references to animals race telling stories   You’ll be assessed on: knowledge of the text and choice of example – your discussion should demonstrate a good knowledge of the text, in terms of knowing where the examples of your word, theme, or idea occur, and the ability to select representative or telling instances from all of the examples to produce a focused and/or surprising discussion close-reading – your discussion should be rooted in specific examples that you read in their contexts, with lots of relevant quotation constructing an argument – you should use your selected examples to build an argument about the text. This might be an argument for a particular global interpretation, or for complexity and uncertainty (your chosen word, theme, or idea shifts or is unstable across the text).     5          Ian Smith: what colour is the handkerchief? Read the following scholarly article: Ian Smith, 2013, ‘Othello’s Black Handkerchief’, Shakespeare Quarterly, 64.1, pp. 1-25 First give a summary of Smith’s argument: what is his argument?. Then give an assessment: which parts do you find helpful/convincing, which parts unclear/unpersuasive? Has this changed how you see the play? If so, how? If not, why not? Alternatively you may substitute another scholarly article – but you must agree this with me first.   You will be assessed on: your ability to summarise Smith’s argument: does your account show understanding and the ability to identify and communicate the most important points? If parts are unclear to you, can you identify them and continue to work with the parts you find useful? your response to his argument: can you communicate how his ideas have affected or persuaded you – or the ways in which they have not?     6          A creative response to one or more of the texts, with a separate piece of self-analysis. You can respond creatively to one or both of the texts in any medium (writing, music, visual art, video, dance…). Note that your grade will be entirely on the piece of self-analysis, not the quality of your creative response (though better creative work is likely to allow better self-analysis).   Your self-analysis should: – identify the features of the original text(s) you are responding to – identify the techniques you used in your piece and why you thought they were appropriate – assess the degree to which you think you were successful, and why, and the degree to which you think you were unsuccessful, and why   word limit for self-analysis: 750 words (the creative piece does not count towards the word limit) General requirements: all work should be submitted in a readable file format and should be presented according to standard academic norms (double space, 12pt font size, properly referenced) unless a different genre is specified in the assignment. Proof-read your work before submitting