Fall 2021 - ENGL 831 G100

Studies in Early Modern Literature (4)

Class Number: 3676

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Sep 8 – Dec 7, 2021: Mon, 4:30–8:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Instructor:

    JD Fleming
    jfleming@sfu.ca
    1 778 782-4713
    Office: AQ 6149
    Office Hours: TBA

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Examines selected works of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries organized by critical issues or theoretical approaches. May include some writing from outside Britain.

COURSE DETAILS:

We will approach some major works by Shakespeare, and by his rival Ben Jonson, under a heading of information technology. Not ours; theirs. Our way into this topic will be via shorthand note-taking—a revolutionary and transformative invention of the late 1580s. Oral utterance, for the first time, could be recorded verbatim. Today, we have so many methods of data-capture that it is difficult for us to imagine the thrill of having just one. Shorthand was used, almost immediately, to monetize sermons and other oral texts through print publication. And in London, ca. 1600, no kind of text was more quintessentially oral—or more potentially lucrative—than a play.

Scholars have debated whether any plays, which were not typically destined for the press prior to the seventeenth century, made it there via shorthand transcriptions of performances. Our inquiry will be different. We’ll be following up on some indications, in the plays we’ll be reading, that they are actually about the dialectic of expression and control that is embodied, for the period, in shorthand technology. Hamlet, having just parted from the Ghost, frantically apostrophizes his writing-tables; Jonson, in Every Man out of His Humour, denounces “decipherers” who sit scribbling in the playhouse. And so on. The interesting possibility that emerges, from moments of this kind, is that the early- modern London stage may be able to contribute significantly to a critical phenomenology of information as such. So, not a digital humanities; but a humanities of the digital.

Grading

  • Two in-class presentations 50%
  • One Term Paper 50%

NOTES:

For updated information on readings, etc., see the course Canvas page.

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 2021

Teaching at SFU in fall 2021 will involve primarily in-person instruction, with approximately 70 to 80 per cent of classes in person/on campus, with safety plans in place.  Whether your course will be in-person or through remote methods will be clearly identified in the schedule of classes.  You will also know at enrollment whether remote course components will be “live” (synchronous) or at your own pace (asynchronous).

Enrolling in a course acknowledges that you are able to attend in whatever format is required.  You should not enroll in a course that is in-person if you are not able to return to campus, and should be aware 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.

Students with hidden or visible disabilities who may need class or exam accommodations, including in the context of remote learning, are advised to register with the SFU Centre for Accessible Learning (caladmin@sfu.ca or 778-782-3112) as early as possible in order to prepare for the fall 2021 term.