English Department - Additional Information on 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.