Fall 2020 - ENGL 829 G100
Studies in Shakespeare (4)
Class Number: 4900
Delivery Method: In Person
Overview
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Course Times + Location:
Sep 9 – Dec 8, 2020: Tue, 4:30–8:20 p.m.
Burnaby
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Instructor:
Paul Budra
budra@sfu.ca
Description
CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:
Examines selected works of Shakespeare, organized by critical issues or theoretical approaches.
COURSE DETAILS:
Authors are always accessed through a mediating technology—the interface—the design features of which structure every cognitive engagement. Shakespeare, perhaps more than any world author, has had his writing processed in a myriad of technologies, each of which channels his texts through complex interactions and affordances. While such media-specific operations may be largely invisible to the average reader or viewer, the interface properties of books, screens, and theatres structure Shakespeare in ways that are never neutral and have a bearing on reading, spectating, and, therefore, understanding. N. Katherine Hayles has called for a clearer recognition of “literature as the interplay between form and medium,” noting that “the materiality of those embodiments interacts dynamically with linguistic, rhetorical, and literary practices to create the effects we call literature.” An interface approach recognizes that interplay as central to our understanding of the literary experience.
Further, interface theory may help to explain the relationship between page design and the cognitive operations we associate with the experience of literature, an experience that is itself culturally determined. As Peter Stoicheff and Andrew Taylor have noted, page architectures “are related to the ideologies that otherwise structured the cultures that designed and read them.” And as Shakespeare and other literary texts move from the codex to the computer, from text to hypertext and beyond, the question of interface will become more pressing. As the humanities digitize, human-computer-interaction (HCI) specialists and user-experience (UX) analysts will have more influence on our literary experience, but, as Joanna Drucker points out, these specialists tend towards a simple mechanistic theory of interface, a door or window analogy, that is clearly insufficient.
In this course we will study the interface implications of the technologies that have embodied Shakespeare from the first quarto versions of his plays to virtual reality simulations and computer games.
Students will have access to original essays from the Routledge Handbook of Shakespeare and Interface (2021).
Grading
- Participation 10%
- Seminar presentation 25%
- Annotated bibliography 15%
- Research paper 50%
Materials
MATERIALS + SUPPLIES:
Much of the course readings will be provided online. Students will need a complete works of Shakespeare.
RECOMMENDED READING:
Some preliminary reading:
Best, Michael. 2007. "Shakespeare and the Electronic Age." Shakespeare and the Text. Edited by Andrew Murphy. Concise Companions to Literature and Culture. Blackwell. 145-61.
Drucker, Johanna. “Humanities Approaches to Interface Theory.” Culture Machine, vol. 12, 2011, pp. 1-20.
---. Graphesis: Visual Forms of Knowledge Production. Harvard University Press, 2014.
Galey, Alan. The Shakespearean Archive: Experiments in New Media from the Renaissance to Postmodernity. Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Galloway, Alexander R. The Interface Effect. Polity Press, 2012.
Hedstrom, Margaret. ‘Archives, Memory, and Interfaces with the Past,’ Archival Science 2 (2002): 21–43.
Hookway, Branden. Interface. The MIT Press, 2014.
Mak, Bonnie. How the Page Matters. Studies in Book and Print Culture Series. University of Toronto Press, 2011.
Stoicheff, R. Peter, and Andrew. Taylor. The Future of the Page. University of Toronto Press, 2004.
Graduate Studies Notes:
Important dates and deadlines for graduate students are found here: http://www.sfu.ca/dean-gradstudies/current/important_dates/guidelines.html. The deadline to drop a course with a 100% refund is the end of week 2. The deadline to drop with no notation on your transcript is the end of week 3.
Registrar Notes:
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS
SFU’s Academic Integrity web site http://www.sfu.ca/students/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating. Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.
Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the University community. Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the University. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the University. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html
TEACHING AT SFU IN FALL 2020
Teaching at SFU in fall 2020 will be conducted primarily through remote methods. There will be in-person course components in a few exceptional cases where this is fundamental to the educational goals of the course. Such course components will be clearly identified at registration, as will course components that will be “live” (synchronous) vs. at your own pace (asynchronous). Enrollment acknowledges that remote study may entail different modes of learning, interaction with your instructor, and ways of getting feedback on your work than may be the case for in-person classes. To ensure you can access all course materials, we recommend you have access to a computer with a microphone and camera, and the internet. In some cases your instructor may use Zoom or other means requiring a camera and microphone to invigilate exams. If proctoring software will be used, this will be confirmed in the first week of class.
Students with hidden or visible disabilities who believe they may need class or exam accommodations, including in the current context of remote learning, are encouraged to register with the SFU Centre for Accessible Learning (caladmin@sfu.ca or 778-782-3112).