My Expectations of You:
I expect you to arrive on time to class, ready to discuss the assigned text or film (as needed, I will help you wake up since we are meeting at 8:30); if we are discussing a text, I expect you to have a copy of it with you in class and be willing to partiicapte in class discussion. I also expect you to turn in all work in time and to create your own paper topics in consultation with me. I expect you to be willing to read and reread sometimes extremely difficult, sometimes philosophical texts and to work productively with your own resistance to the challenges of doing so. Similalry, I expect you to be willing to read "everything" closely, including book covers, copyright pages, facsimiles, graphic design, website pages, and, of course, Hamlet editions and films. I will ask you to write three short papers (2000 words each) and two discsusion questions on each reading and each film (due the day before each class they are assigned). Oh, and, OMG, I expect you to sit through the entire class with your cell phones turned off (not muted) and not to leave the room during class.Required books, all available in paperback:
Walter Benjamin, The Origins of German Tragic Drama
Jacques Derrida, Spectres of Marx (1994)
Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus (be sure to get the Norton edition as it has both versions [A and B texts]).
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Wilhelm Meister (Princeton UP edition; Goethe Collected Works, vol. 9)
Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy (Revels Student Editions) David Bevington (Editor)
Carl Schmitt, Political Theology
Carl Schmitt, Hamlet or Hecuba
William Shakespeare, Hamlet (Arden Two Series), ed. Harold Jenkins (1992)
William Shakespeare, Hamlet: The Texts of 1603 and 1623: (The Arden Three Series, Two Volumes), ed. Anne Thompson (2006) and Hamlet (Arden Shakespeare: Third Series) ed. Anne Thompson (2006). YOU WILL NEED TO ORDER THESE TWO BOOKS ONLINE. WILD IRIS BOOKS WAS UNABLE TO ORDER THEM. Arden Three is two separate books. Be sure to order both so you have all three versions of Hamlet, the good and bad quartos and the Folio.
Thomas Middleton, The Revenger's Tragedy
All books are available at
Wild Iris Books
802 West University Avenue
Gainesville, FL 32601
(352) 375-7477
You may also order them online through a vendor such as amazon.com, half.com, ebay.com,etc.
The following readings are required but are available for free online through UF's course reserves or linked on the schedule webpage as pdfs:
Walter Benjamin, "The Task of the Translator"
Paul de Man, “Walter Benjamin’s 'Task of the Translator'”
Michael Sprinker, ed. Ghostlier Demarcations: A Symposium on Jacques Derrida's Specters of Marx
Sigmund Freud, "The Uncanny"
Avital Ronell, The Telephone Book
Samuel Weber, Theatricality as Medium (2004)
All film screenings are held on T periods E1-E3 in TUR 2334. They are free. All films will be discussed on Thursdays. Two students will lead discussion of the films.
Either the films will be put on reserve or screenings in Turlington will be arranged for them.
Two students will co-lead class each Thursday on the film screened the preceding Tuesday.
Required DVDs: Please make sure you have access (by borrowing, renting, or purchasing) DVDs of the films on which you will do your three papers and lead class discussion. In first and third of of the three papers you'll write, you'll need to discuss a film we have not seen in class in addition to a film we have seen in class. The possible films are listed here. You may order these DVDs online or buy them at a local store. Online is usually cheaper. I recommend using http://dvdpricesearch.com/. Enter the DVD title, left click your mouse on "go," and all retail outlets selling it will appear, with the lowest price at the top. URGENT: Please make sure you have access to the DVDs asap. You will need to have the DVD on which you lead class at least a week in advance . LATE WORK IS NOT ACCEPTED.
NB: When you lead class on a given film, you will need to see that film at least twice. When watching it the second time, you can take notes, pausing the DVD to do so as you will. I usually end up with about forty pages of handwritten notes on a two hour film when I take notes.
Required Readings: I have also put a number of required readings on UF's electronic course reserve or linked them on the scedule webpage of thoiis course to the UF library electronic databases. I have done so rather than put them in a course packet because they are far less exepnsive when put on course reserve. Print out copies of all assigned online readings and bring them to class. If you don't have copies of these readings with you in class, I will mark you as absent. Ditto for assigned books. Please download all online readings now at the UF e-course reserve webpage. Create a folder on your computer and put them in it. If you are unable to access the readings, I don't consider that a valid excuse for not reading them, turning in discussion questions on them, printing them out, and and bringing them to class.
Required Writing: Three short papers (2000 words each) and reponses to each reading and each film (due before each class).