Additional Information About ENL 260

The Author in Depth (Winter WEC 2007)
"Shakespeare on Page, Stage, and Screen"
Professor Doug Green

What college education is complete without a bit of the
Shakespeare? "The Author in Depth: Shakespeare on Page, Stage,
and Screen" is a great way to learn a lot about the Bard, about
literature and drama in general, and about pop culture now and
in the Renaissance. What follows may not sound like fun,
but—trust me—it is!

As a Liberal Arts Foundation course in English and a
prerequisite for upper-level offerings in the English
department, ENG 260 introduces students to the formal study of
literary texts, in this case through encounters with Shakespeare
in three different media--text, theatrical performance, and
film. Agreeing with Horace that the purpose of literature is to
teach and to delight, Augsburg’s English faculty believes that
those who study literature should rise to both its intellectual
and its aesthetic challenges. So in this course we cultivate and
practice the skills of reading, interpreting, and critically
writing about literature.

To this end, this section of ENG 260 focuses on literary
interpretation and performance to enrich students’ encounters
with Shakespeare. We read primary texts; study Shakespeare and
Renaissance productions on stage and screen; learn and apply
basic terminology for literary analysis and interpretation;
learn about historical modes of theatrical and film production;
and develop our skills at interpretive performance to better our
understanding of Shakespeare. In short, we explore for ourselves
how Shakespeare has been re-shaped by performance across time
and cultures and, ideally, discover why he has become central
both to the traditions of Western literature and of world drama.
And we have a good time doing it.