Along with the plays, we'll read a number of essays from an anthology of criticism that reinterprets Elizabethan and Jacobean drama under the rubric "staging the Renaissance." We'll explore some of the common (or divergent) qualities and assumptions of these reinterpretations, and the ways in which "staging" in this anthology is seen as integral to "the Renaissance." In doing so we'll become familiar with some of the historicist, feminist and poststructuralist impulses that have shaped the reinterpretation of the Renaissance stage and Renaissance culture over the past two decades. Additionally we'll work throughout the semester on the process of writing your final research paper.

Required Texts:
English Renaissance Drama, ed. David Bevington et al. All plays but Merry Wives are in this anthology
Staging the Renaissance, ed. D.S. Kastan and P. Stallybrass. Abbreviated "SR"
An edition of The Merry Wives of Windsor
On-line readings available on the web version of this syllabus at my home page: http://mason.gmu.edu/~rmatz (please print out)

Course requirements: Class participation, weekly reading responses, a presentation, a close reading (5-7 pp.), a prospectus (1-2 pp.) an annotated bibliography and a final paper (15-20 pp.)
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Note: Schedule subject to change (I will give warning, however).

Jonson, Bartholomew Fair; Leah S. Marcus, "Pastime and the Purging of Theater" (SR, 196-209)

Course Policies:

Readings:
The readings for each class are due on the date listed above. Approach each assignment actively by always reading with a pen or pencil in hand. Note words, phrases or sentences that interest you, that seem significant in the context of the work, or that you have questions about. Jot down in the margins any questions or ideas you have about a particular point or the work as a whole. This practice will help you come prepared to discuss the plays in class and get the most out of class discussion; it will also help you become a more skillful reader of literary texts in general.

Participation and Attendance:
I may occasionally lecture for a portion of a class, but we will also open up class time to discussion, to observations about the ideas presented in a text, about its style, its uses of language, its puzzling qualities--whatever grabs our attention. I am interested in your ideas. Contribution to class discussion will be part of your overall "participation" grade. If you aren't in class you can't participate in discussion, nor will active class participation wholly excuse excessive absences.

Reading Responses:
Reading responses should be about a page of interpretive commentary on the day's reading. You might, for example, consider some image or idea that a play repeats, the implications of a metaphor, the ambiguities of tone in the text, the values implied by a play's heroes or villains, or the relation of the text to the critical reading for the day. You could also write about a question you'd like to discuss in class--but please add how you'd answer the question so far and why it seems like it might be an important one. Try to write about one or two ideas, rather than making a list of many. I'd like your responses typed.You will receive credit for a reading response if you turn it in at the end of a class you have attended and its meets the criteria above. The grade for reading responses is based on the number of no credits: 0-1=A; 2=B; 3=C; 4=D; 5 or more=F. This grade will be a portion of your "participation" grade.

Presentations:
The Kastan and Stallybrass anthology has terrific essays, but it was published in 1991. It would be useful to know where critical work has gone since then. For your presentation I'd like you to find, read and summarize for the class a more recent critical essay on the day's play. You might pick an essay that develops or critiques an idea in the day's reading from Kastan and Stallybrass (a "cited reference" search will help you find such an essay), or you could pick an essay that addresses the play from a totally different perspective, but be ready to discuss why you picked that essay. What's important or current about this perspective? The quality of the job that you do will be another element of the overall "participation" grade. Each student will do 1 or 2 of these presentations.

Paper Deadlines:
Please hand in assignments in on time. Late assignments will be graded down a half grade for each day late. I'll grade the term paper based on the final version only, but I will mark it down a half grade if a complete first version is not ready for the paper exchange on Dec. 1.

Papers:
Papers should be typed with standard margins, spacing and type size. They should be carefully proofread and neatly presented. The assignments are intended to help you work step by step toward a final term paper.

• The first paper should be about five to seven pages and provide a close reading of some moment or a set of related moments in one of the plays. It is due on October 6.

• The 1-2 page prospectus should give a synopsis of the idea you want to explore in your final paper, as well as questions that remained to be answered, and/or speculation about further directions to develop the topic. The prospectus should be based on your close reading and the on-going work you are doing on the annotated bibliography. The 1-2 page prospectus is due October 20. The following week there will be no class. Instead, we will discuss your prospectus in scheduled conferences.

• The annotated bibliography will be a list of about 15 critical, historical, literary or theoretical sources relevant to the play that you are working on. They should also particularly focus on helping you develop ideas discussed in your close reading. Work on the prospectus and the annotated bibliography overlap and, ideally, will mutually inform one another. The annotated bibliography is due on November 3.

• A 15-page first version of your term paper will be due in class on December 1. This class will be devoted to sharing work with other students. You are also invited to see me at my office with your first version of the paper.

• Following the paper workshop, you will have time further to develop and revise your work, based on the suggestions you have received from your peer reviewer, on your own interests or discussion with me. Final papers are due in class on December 8.

Please note: I encourage you to write about any play on (or off: see me) the syllabus. I can give you synopses of the subjects of plays you haven't read yet, and you may wish to dive in and starting working on a play before we get to it in class.

Paper Helps:
Some feedback from me and other students will be built into the structure of the course. I encourage you, however, to see me at my office at any time. When we meet, it's best to have a draft of the paper you are working on. This will give us something more concrete to talk about. There is also available a Writing Center at Robinson A116 that can provide you with further individual attention to your writing. I encourage you to take advantage of this excellent facility.

I would also suggest that you give yourself plenty of time to work. Writing a paper at one sitting is, for most people, unpleasant, and the results are not likely to be satisfactory. Start early!

Plagiarism:
You must cite, using a standard citation format, all the articles, books or other sources that your own writing draws on, either directly or indirectly. Such sources include (but are not limited to) introductions to editions of the texts we're reading, any kind study aid and resources found on the internet.

Also note that uncited sources will constitute plagiarism even if they ended up in your work without your conscious knowledge (e.g. you forgot you read the material; you confused your own notes with notes on a source), since part of the scholarly responsibility that comes with using secondary sources is keeping track of which words or ideas were yours and which came from a source.

I will take all suspected cases of plagiarism to the Honor Committee.

Grading:
Grades will be derived as follows:

First paper:	15 %
Participation = attendance, reading notes, class discussion, presentation, and prospectus, all weighted about equally	25%
Annotated Bibliography:	20%
Final paper:	40%

Please come see me if you have any questions about grading, the syllabus or the class. I look forward to having the chance to meet you. Best wishes for a good semester!

B Specific thesis, thesis generally developed through the course of the paper, consistently good interpretation of text, competent prose, minor mechanical problems

C Has a thesis, but one that needs greater specificity or complexity, thesis developed with some digression or repetition, some good interpretation, some mechanical problems

D Very general thesis, thesis development digressive or repetitive, plot summary or thoughts/speculations not based on textual evidence, major mechanical problems

F No thesis or thesis development

ADDITIONAL CRITERIA FOR RESEARCH IN TERM PAPER

A Paper astutely frames and develops or critiques current critical discussion of its topic. Paper includes a range of top relevant critical, historical and/or theoretical analyses to support its points

B Paper includes current critical discussion of its topic. Paper contains a range of relevant critical, historical and/or theoretical analyses to support its points

C Paper includes critical discussion of its topic but its own argument does not clearly relate to that discussion. Secondary sources in the paper are of low quality and/or lead to digression from the paper's focus rather than supporting it.

D Few secondary sources; secondary sources not relevant to the argument of the paper

F No secondary sources