123041 PS PS Literary Studies (2023W)

Shakespeare wrote The Tempest, a play about a power struggle, slavery, a successfully executed revenge and an old white man's fantasy of total control, towards the end of his career in 1610/1611. You are going to learn something about the way the early modern period's theatre and its conventions and practices, about the genre to which The Tempest belongs, and about its (gendered; racialized) politics - both from the point of view of Shakespeare's contemporaries and from 21st century scholars' perspectives. We will discuss a recent Globe-production of the play, and delve into The Tempest's rich history of adaptation, analysing two poems based upon it (one Victorian, one from the early and one from the middle of the 20th century), three filmic versions of it (two from the late 20th century, one from the early 21st), one Globe production and one prose adaptation from 2016.
Given that a high percentage of your grade is made up of writing exercises, we will dedicate a lot of time to you developing your writing skills. Every lesson will be kicked-off by some input on how to write an academic paper in literary studies, focusing on its preparation, organization, research techniques, genre requirements, methods, literary theories and concepts etc. You will also write three assignments during the term for which you will receive detailed individual feedback. With the information which this feedback imparts and the input from the academic writing sections of each lesson under your belt, you should be well-equipped to find a topic, determine an object of analysis, formulate a research question, pick an approach and write your term papers.
This proseminar has two goals: first, to acquaint you with one of William Shakespeare's romances, The Tempest, and some of its most famous adaptations into different genres; and, second, to teach you the steps involved in putting a term paper together.