Greek and Shakespearean Tragedy

Lahore University of Management Sciences

ENGL 3131 Greek and Shakespearean Tragedy Spring Semester (2014-2015)

Instructor Dr. Saeed Ghazi

Room No.

Room No. 129, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Academic Block

Office Hours

Friday 4:30 –7:30 pm

Email

[email protected]

Telephone

8045

Secretary/TA

2115

TA Office

Hours TBA

Course URL (if

any)

Course Basics

Credit Hours 4

Lecture(s) Nbr of Lec(s) Per

Week

2 Duration 1 Hour 50 Minutes

Recitation/Lab (per

week)

Nbr of Lec(s) Per

Week

-- Duration --

Tutorial (per week) Nbr of Lec(s) Per

Week

TBA Duration TBA

Course Distribution

Core

This is not a core course, but it will partially satisfy the four 300/400 course requirement for

English majors and the two 300/400 course requirement for English minors.

Elective Yes (English major/English minor/Humanities major); Free Elective

Open for Student

Category

Sophomore, Juniors, Seniors

mailto:[email protected]


Close for Student

Category

Freshmen

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Homo sum humani nihil a me alienum puto – Terence The drama’s laws the drama’s patrons give, For we that live to please must please to live. – Samuel Johnson …high and excellent Tragedy, that openeth the greatest wounds, and showeth forth the ulcers that are covered with tissue; that maketh kings fear to be tyrants and tyrants manifest their tyrannical humours; that with stirring the affects of admiration and commiseration, teacheth the uncertainty of the world, and upon how weak foundations gilded roofs are builded… Sir Philip Sidney, An Apology for Poetry (1595) In tragic life, God wot, No villain need be! Passions spin the plot: We are betray'd by what is false within. ... George Meredith Greek and Shakespearean Tragedy, is devoted to an in depth exploration of the genre of tragedy. We will look

closely at seven of the most critically acclaimed plays in the history of the genre. These tragedies were produced

2,000 years apart in two of the richest and most fertile periods in the history of theatre, Athens in the 5th century

BCE and Elizabethan and Jacobean England in the late 16th and early 17th century CE. These plays emerged during

a time of tumult and transition. The city state of Athens, was emerging as a rising power after the defeat of the

Persians in the Battle of Marathon (490 BCE), the naval Battle of Salamis (480 BCE), and

the Battle of Plataea (479 BCE). Elizabethan England was coming into its own after the defeat of the Spanish

Armada in 1588.

In the first part of the course, we will closely examine the work of three of the greatest tragedians of all time,

Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Their dramatic output is staggering and they are credited with over 295 plays

between them. However, only 32 of these are extant (7 each by Aeschylus and Sophocles, and 18 by Euripides). We

will study four exemplary works, Aeschylus’s Agamemnon, the first part of the only surviving trilogy in Greek

drama, Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex, and Antigone, and Euripides’s Medea. We will scrutinize definitions of tragedy,

and critically explore theories of the origin of tragedy in Athens, including the contentious issue of whether tragedy

originated in rituals devoted to Dionysus, the twice-born god of wine and fertility. We will study the distinctive

characteristics of Athenian theatre, and the Athenian audience, critically examine the role and function of the

chorus, and the emergence of the first “hypocrites” or answerers. The multifarious contexts in which these plays

emerged – political, cultural, and historical – will be closely examined. We will scrutinize such questions as the

relationship of character and destiny, the nature of evil, and examine the contrasting roles of the supernatural and

human weakness in effecting tragic reversals. The debate surrounding free will and determinism will be revisited.

Theories of tragedy, including Aristotelian, Decasibus (Medieval), Hegelian, Nietzschean, and Modern will provide

the framework within which these issues will be explored.

The following developments/subjects help define the context for Greek drama and will also receive significant

attention: the Homeric epics, Greek religion and mythology, Solon’s constitution and reforms, Peisistratus’s rule

and institution of the City Dionysia (534 BCE), the assassination of Hipparchus by Harmodius and Aristogeiton,

Hippias’s response and subsequent exile, Cleisthenes’s reforms and the emergence of Athenian democracy, the

rising tension and conflict between Greeks and Persia, the Delian confederacy, the role of the state and eponymous

archon (city magistrate) in the production of plays, the distinctive achievements of Periclean Athens, and the

Peloponnesian war.

The second half of the course of the course will be devoted to discerning the substance and structure of

Shakespearean tragedy through a close engagement with three of William Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies, Othello,


Hamlet, and King Lear. We will look closely at the social, cultural, and historical contexts in which these plays

were produced. The relationship of the state and the stage and the place of the theatre in the cultural life of late

Elizabethan and Jacobean England will be among the issues that will engage our attention. The characteristics of

Elizabethan theatre, the Globe theatre where a significant number of Shakespeare’s plays were performed, and the

audience that attended these performances, will be closely scrutinized. Considerable attention will be devoted to

knitting the two halves of the course together and will involve wrestling with the following issues: What features, if

any, do Greek and Shakespearean tragedy have in common?, Does Shakespearean tragedy exist or are there only

Shakespearean tragedies?, Does Greek tragedy exist or do we have only Greek tragedies?, What was the impact of

Christianity on Greek conceptions of tragedy?, What effect did the idea of eternity, Christian hope and salvation,

(and damnation) have on Greek ideas about tragedy?, How did Christianity revolutionize understanding of the role

and significance of suffering?

COURSE PREREQUISITE(S)

ENGL 1000/LITR 100 Introduction to Literature in English

COURSE OBJECTIVES

A)

B)

C)

To provide students with an in-depth understanding and insight into the nature and characteristics of the genre

of tragedy in general and Greek and Shakespearean Tragedy in particular.

To equip students with the critical framework necessary to assess the dramatic achievements and the

distinguishing characteristics of the three Greek dramatists Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides and William

Shakespeare.

To endow students with an enhanced ability to identify, contrast, and critique the dominant and distinguishing

features of Greek and Shakespearean tragedy.

Learning Outcomes

A)

B)

Students who successfully complete ENGL 3131 should

Manifest a heightened understanding and appreciation of the genre of tragedy

Emerge with a deeper understanding of the distinctive and distinguishing characteristics of Greek

and Shakespearean Tragedy and the contexts in which they were produced.

Grading Breakup and Policy

There will be 28 sessions of class each 110 minutes in length.


Students will write a brief response paper based on the assigned readings at the start of each class. They will take a

Mid-term and a Final exam and write a 2,500 -3,000 word (approximately 10 -12 pages) research paper. The topic

for the essay and the working thesis will have to be approved by the Instructor.

The first draft (rough draft) of the paper is due Friday of Week 12. The research paper is due on the Friday of the

final week of class and should adhere strictly to the MLA (Modern Language Association) format. A copy of the

7th edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers is on reserve at the library.

The break-up of the Instruments is as follows:

1. Mid Term Exam: 25%

2. Final Exam: 35%

3. Research Paper: 30%

4. Response Papers/Tests/

Presentations: 10%

Final Exam

The Final Exam will be comprehensive in scope.

In class Performance (This activity will not be graded)

Students will be required to perform a short scene in class.

Examination Detail

Midterm

Exam

Yes

Combine Separate: N/A

Duration: 110 Minutes

Preferred Date: First Session of the week (Monday/Tuesday)

Exam Specifications: Closed Book/Closed Notes

Final Exam

Yes

Combine Separate: N/A

Duration: 110 Minutes

Exam Specifications: Closed Book/Closed Notes


The Theatre at Thorikos

Drawing of Theater at Epidaurus

The Theater of Dionysus became the prototype for all later Greek theaters, as can be seen in this recreation of the

theater of Epidaurus (late 4th cent. BC). This theater, much admired for its form in the ancient world, gives a clearer

representation of what an ancient Greek theater was like because of its excellent state of preservation.


Theater of Epidaurus

The Theater of Epidaurus is the largest surviving theater in Greece; it held about 12,000 spectators. This theater was

connected, not with Dionysus, but with cult of Asclepius, the healing god.


The Greek Theatre

Mechane and Ekkyklema



The Globe Theatre, London


COURSE OVERVIEW

Lecture Author/ Topic Primary Text /s Secondary Text /s

1.

Introduction to the Course

Jonathan Culler, “What is

Literature and Does it

Matter?” from Literary

Theory: A Very Short

Introduction (2005): 18-41.

2.

Introduction to Drama; The Origins of

Tragedy; Characteristics of Greek

Theater

M. H. Abrams “Orientation of

Critical Theories”, The Mirror

and the Lamp (1971): 3-29.

3.

Theories of tragedy; Aristotle (384-322

BCE), Poetics (c. 335 BCE); Hamartia,

Catharsis, Anagnorisis, and Peripeteia;

The Polis and the Oikos; Philos and

Ekhthros; Xenos

Aristotle (384-322 BCE),

Poetics (c. 335 BCE)

4.

Aeschylus (525-456 BCE)

Agamemnon (458 BCE)

Sarah Pomeroy, Stanley

Burnstein, et.al. “The Growth

of Athens and the Persian

Wars” from A Brief History of

Ancient Greece (2004): 110-

137.

5.


Agamemnon (458 BCE)

Richmond Lattimore,

“Introduction to the Oresteia”

From Aeschylus I, Ed. David

Greene and Richmond

Lattimore (1953): 1-31.


6.


Agamemnon (458 BCE)

7.

Sophocles (c. 496-406 BCE)

Oedipus Rex (c. 429 BCE)

J.T. Sheppard, “The Innocence

of Oedipus”, from Sophocles,

Oedipus Tyrannus (1970):

191-203.

8.



R.P. Winnington-Ingram,

“Fate in Sophocles” from

Sophocles: An Interpretation

(1980): 150-178.

9.



Bernard Knox, from The

Heroic Temper: Studies in

Sophoclean Tragedy (1964):

1-61.

10.


Antigone (c. 443 BCE);

A.C. Bradley, “Hegel’s theory

of tragedy” Oxford Lectures

on Poetry (1909): 69-98.

11.


Antigone (c. 443 BCE)

Simon Goldhill, “Relations

and Relationships” from

Reading Greek Tragedy

(2006): 79-106.


12.


Antigone (c. 443 BCE)

Martha C. Nussbaum,

“Sophocles’ Antigone:

Conflict, Vision and

simplification” from The

Fragility of Goodness: Luck

and ethics in Greek tragedy

and Philosophy (1986): 51-84.

13.

Euripides (c. 485-406 BCE)

Medea (431 BCE)

M.S. Silk and J.P. Stern, “The

origin of tragedy” from

Nietzsche on Tragedy (1981):

142-150.

14.

Euripides (c. 485-406 BCE)

Medea (431 BCE)

Simon Goldhill, “Sexuality

and Difference”, from Reading

Greek Tragedy (2006): 107-

137.

15.

No Class – Mid Term Exam



16.

Introduction to Elizabethan England;

Life in Elizabethan England;

Introduction to the Elizabethan

Theatre;

Life and Career of William

Shakespeare (1564-1616)

William Shakespeare (1564-

1616), Othello (c.1603)

Jasper Ridley, from A Brief

History of the Tudor Age

(2002): 289-303.


17.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Othello (c.1603)

Joseph Papp and Elizabeth

Kirkland,”Getting their Acts

Together: Playwright and

Audience”: from Shakespeare

Alive (1988): 136-145.

18.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616);

The Research Essay

Othello (c.1603)

Maynard Mack, “Speak of Me

as I am: Othello” from

Everybody’s Shakespeare

(1993): 129-149.

19.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616);

The Research Essay

Othello (c.1603)

Wayne C Booth, from The

Craft of Research (2003)

20.


Hamlet (c.1601)

A.C. Bradley, “The Substance

of Shakespearean Tragedy”

Shakespearean Tragedy

(1904): 1-30.

21.


Hamlet (c.1601)

A.C. Bradley, “The

Construction in Shakespeare’s

Tragedies” Shakespearean

Tragedy (1904): 31-63.

22.


Hamlet (c.1601)

Maynard Mack, “The

Readiness is All: Hamlet”

from Everybody’s

Shakespeare, (1993): 107-127.


23.


Hamlet (c.1601)

Tom McAlingdon, “What is a

Shakespearean Tragedy?”

from Ed. Claire McEachern,

Shakespearean Tragedy

(2002): 1-22.

24.


Hamlet (c.1601)

25.


King Lear (c.1603)

26.


King Lear (c.1603)

Alexander Leggatt, “King

Lear: We have no such

daughter” from Shakespeare’s

Tragedies: Violation and

Identity (2005): 145-176.

27.


King Lear (c.1603)

George Steiner, from The

Death of Tragedy (1980): 284-

350.

28.


King Lear (c.1603)

Albert Camus, “On the Future

of Tragedy”, from Lyrical and

Critical Essays (1970): 295-

310.

Textbook(s)/Supplementary Readings

Documents

Greek and Shakespearean Tragedy