Some Rise
by Sin, and Some by Virtue Fall: Shakespeare, Measure for Measure
A journey to Poland, an utterly
horrible man governing Vienna, a nun refusing to become someone’s mistress, a
duke disguised as a monk … and of course love, a bed trick, cunning plans,
confusion and mistaken identities (in one case involving the chopped-off head
of a dead pirate): Measure for Measure has it all. This course
will give you an opportunity to immerse yourselves in a close reading of this
play, combined with a great deal of hands-on acting. We shall consider
historical and cultural contexts as well as questions relating to the staging
of the play, both in Shakespeare’s time and today. We shall also look at
cinematic and other adaptations and works of art inspired by this play.
Please buy this edition and none
other: William Shakespeare (ed.: A. R. Braunmuller, Robert N. Watson et al.), Measure
for Measure. The Arden Shakespeare, Third Series (Bloomsbury), ISBN
978-1904271437. You will need the text from the first week of the seminar, so
buy your book as soon as possible and start reading. Do not waste your money on
other editions without substantial annotations as these would be useless for
the purposes of this course. Useful background knowledge on key cultural and
literary contexts of Shakespeare’s time can be found here: Christoph Heyl, Kleine
Englische Literaturgeschichte. J.B. Metzler. ISBN-13: 978-3476045096.
Requirements: Good preparation for
each session, active participation, including quite a bit of sighing and
shouting plus doing any amount of wild, exciting and outrageous things. You
will get a chance to turn into the duke of Vienna, his evil and corrupt deputy,
or perhaps a brothel madam or a nun. Also written work according to your
particular Studienordnung. There will be a Moodle room; you will receive
your Moodle password via e-mail.
Just in case your application is
rejected by the LSF system: If you want to do this course because you are
genuinely interested, you will be most welcome, no matter what LSF says. Please
get in touch with claudia.hausmann@uni-due.de who will enrol you manually. The
worst that might happen to you is that you cannot do a Leistungsnachweis if
you lack the formal requirements.
