Syllabus
1) Introductory discussion of Shakespeare´s language
2) Shakespeare´s Wordplay
3) Shakespeare´s Imagery
4) Language and Gender (wordplay and the politics of gender, The Taming of the Shrew, silence and gender, translating silence)
5) Language and Gender (the significance of androgyny (The Sonnets)
6) The Feast of Language: wordplay in Love´s Labour´s Lost and its significance, Shakespeare´s wordplay in translation)
7) Languages of Love (Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, Sonnets, et al.)
8) Languages of Jealousy (Othello, the Winter´ s Tale, Cymbeline)
9) Clowning and Fooling: languages of folly (clowns and fools, Touchstone, Feste, Lear´s Fool)
10) Sound and Meaning (the Shakesperean soundscape, culture and sound, the music of language, hearing and the ear in A Midsummer´s Night´s Dream )
11) Rhyme and Meaning (the Sonnets, the function of rhyme in the early comedies, rhyming in English, rhyming in Czech)
12) The Problem of Blankverse (blankverse and prose, blankverse and verse, blankverse in English, blankverse in Czech)
13) Metre and Rhythm (the problem of iambic verse in English and in Czech, the rhythm of meaning in Sonnets and plays)
Annotation
OBJECTIVE
To discuss Shakespeare´s language and its translation into Czech. The seminar will be conducted in English and in Czech and proficiency in both languages is required (the seminar is not accessible to foreign students who do not speak and read
Czech). The focus of the seminar is the analysis of the language from the perspective of interpretation. Each participant of the seminar will be required to present a brief oral presentation on one aspect of Shakespeare´s language and to contribute continuously to seminar discussions.
MATERIAL
Essays on Shakespeare´s language, selections from Shakespeare´s comedies, tragedies, history plays, romances and
Sonnets)
ASSESSMENT
Active participation in the seminar. One oral presentation, one essay.
Further details will be discussed at the first seminar