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Shakespeare's Macbeth (EXAM)
”Something wicked this way comes”
Students carry out an in-depth study of Shakespeare’s play Macbeth (c. 1606) including the literary genre of the tragedy, historical context in the Elizabethan Age, the linguistic context of Early Modern English, as well as classic Shakespearean themes.
First, emphasizing genre, students gain knowledge of literary theorist Christopher Booker’s thesis The Seven Basic Plots and we study the genre of tragedy including Booker’s five stages, and the idea of the hero’s tragic flaw.
Students are introduced to brief excerpts from the Shakespearean tragedies Hamlet and Romeo & Juliet as a way to study Shakespeare’s unusual use of both “thou” and “you” as second person personal pronoun in Early Modern English. After seeing a brief overview of the history and development of the English language, we read about EME including Shakespeare’s role in this version of the English language. Additionally, as a perspective to understanding the character of Lady Macbeth, we study four tropes in Shakespeare’s women and see examples from a total of eight different plays including Cymbeline, King Lear, Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
The Elizabethan Age and the concept of the Chain of Being is a central part of our interpretation of the play which we base on the classic Shakespearean dichotomies such as chaos vs. order, fate vs. free will, and light vs. darkness.
Intertextual references in William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (dir. Alfonso Cuaron) and House of Cards () are drawn into perspective as a way to exemplify how the play has been adapted, re-worked and utilized in contemporary popular culture. We add to this adaptation theory by Peter Schepelern and study a variety of adaptations of act 1, scene 1 before ending the course on watching Kurzel’s 2015 adaptation of the play in full.
KERNESTOF
• Christopher Booker: “Tragedy (1): The Five Stages” from The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories. London: Continuum, 2004: 156-57, 333-34
Fra William Shakespeare. Macbeth. Cambridge School Edition, 2. udgave, 2005:
• Act 1, scenes 1-3, 5, 7
• Act 2, scenes 1-2
• Act 3, scene 4
• Act 4, scene 1
• Act 5, scenes 5, 7-8
SUPPLERENDE STOF
• Dialoguddrag fra Hamlet act 2, scene 5; act 3, scenes 2, 4.
• Dialoguddrag fra Romeo and Julie act 3, scene 5.
• Performances af act 1, scene 5 (Shakespeare at Play: https://www.shakespeareatplay.ca/macbeth-act-1-scene-5); act 3, scene 4 (RSC production: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCFjpr3Ehm4); Ian McKellen’s actor’s workshop on the “Tomorrow” soliloquy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LDdyafsR7g)
• Ole Juul Lund. “The Dramatic Tradition,” “Tragedy” og “Shakespeare and his time” fra Shakespeare: Lives and Works, Gyldendal, 2012: 46-55, 94-127, 182-83.
• Mya Gosling: “MACBETH: dramatis personae” via www.goodticklebrain.com (2015)
• Anne Mette Finderup og Agnete Fog. “Early Modern English” fra Worlds of English, Systime, 2010: 15-17.
• “Witches and Witchcraft” from Cambridge School Edition
• Literary terms. Scans from Hans Elgaard Mogensen & Karsten Kristensen Back: Along Literary Lines: A Key to Text Analysis. Gyldendal,2009: 55, 64-65, 79-80, 83-84, 132-33, 152, 153.
• Unknown author: “The Elizabethan World Picture.” Unknown publishing: 25-28.
• Kevin Brookhouser: “Understanding Iambic Pentameter”. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0aAWuUX5jU
• Uddrag af episoden ”Chapter 1” (S01E01) fra House of Cards, dir. David Fincher, Netflix (2013): 13:30-17:59
• ”Double Double” by John Williams from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban OST (2004)
• “Adaptation: from novel to film” and excerpt from Peter Schepelern’s Fra bog til film: typiske træk i danske filmatiseringer
• Adaptation af act 1, scene 1 fra BBC (2005), Wright (2006), Goold (2010) og Kurzel (2015)
• “Women in Shakespeare” by Saint Ignatius’ College; English Faculty uploaded on May 22nd 2014 via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1NtSnCul4
• “Macbeth: Themes Gender” by AQA English Literature GCSE via PMT Education https://pmt.physicsandmathstutor.com/download/EnglishLiterature/GCSE/Notes/AQA/Macbeth/Themes/Gender.pdf
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