Seminar on the renaissance in english literature. Works by Shakespeare and his predecessors

SEMINAR ON THE RENAISSANCE

IN ENGLISH LITERATURE

(works by Shakespeare and his predecessors)

1.  Speak on the peculiar features of the Renaissance period in English literature (the general historical and cultural development at this time).

2.  Give a general outline of the main genres of the period (the poetry, the drama and the prose). Enumerate the main representatives in English literature of the period.

3.  Speak on the biography and literary work of William Shakespeare as a major figure of the Renaissance: the periods, the genres and peculiar features of his works.

4.  Speak on the development of prose at this time, give an outline of literary work of the prose writers belonging to the period.

5.  Speak on the development of poetry at this time, give an outline of literary work of the poets belonging to the period:

1)  describe the genre of the sonnet: its poetic metre, rhyming scheme, the scheme of expressing ideas in a sonnet;

2)  speak on the literary work of the first English sonneteers (Sir Thomas Wyatt and the Earl of Surrey) and the ones who followed them;

3)  explain in what way John Donne and John Milton expanded the sonnet’s range;

4)  give the main themes of Shakespeare’s sonnets;

5)  give the description of aspects of two different loves experienced by the poet;

6)  speak on the conventions and innovatioins of Shakespeare’s sonnets, his following the tradition though in an unconventional manner.

6.  Speak on the development of drama at this time, give an outline of literary work of the playwrights belonging to the period:

1)  speak on the literary work and the peculiar features of the group of dramatists known as “University Wits”, explain the name which was given to the playwrights – “University Wits”;

2)  speak on Shakespeare’s comedies: their themes and peculiarities; speak on the comedy “Twelfth Night” as one of Shakespeare’s best comedies, explain its title;

3)  speak on the Shakespeare’s tragedies: what are the important themes of Shakespeare’s tragedies? What is his conception of the tragic? What are the peculiar features of his tragedies?

4)  speak on the tragedy “Hamlet”. Why does Shakespeare choose Denmark as the setting for the play?

5)  what is the mood at the opening of “Hamlet” like?

6)  speak on the problem of human predicament in the tragedy “Hamlet”. Would you agree that “we are all Hamlets in our romantic illusions. We are unable to harmonize the claims of our outer and inner life and in our failure lies our tragedy”?

7)  comment on the unexpected breaking – off of Hamlet’s praise to man – “What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties… The beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!.. Man delights not me.”

8)  A.C. Bradley says: in a Shakespearean tragedy “there is an outward conflict of persons and groups, there is also a conflict of forces in the hero’s soul… As a rule the hero, though he pursues his fated way, is at least in some parts in the action, and sometimes in many, torn by an inward struggle…” How accurately does this concept of the hero’s inward struggle apply to “Hamlet”?

9)  is “Hamlet” a tragedy of moral idealism or a tragedy of reflection?

10) Hamlet and his environment. Comment on the following quotations:

“Even the lovely Ophelia might breed evil in contact with the corruption of life” (Morozov);

“Polonius, and Rozencranz and Gildenstern are mirrors surrounding and reflecting Hamlet” (Granville – Barker);

11) does Hamlet really hate his mother?

12) who is Yorick and why does the writer introduce this personage into the play?

13) in what way is Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” different from an older play of Kyd and the ancient Scandinavian tale of Amleth?

14) what makes “Hamlet” the play for all times?

15) could you compare Hamlet with Don Quixote?

16) speak on the sources of Shakespeare’s tragedy “Romeo and Juliet” – an early tragedy and a forerunner of his later tragedies;

17) speak on the tragedy as a play of lyric poetry;

18) give an outline of the contents of the play;

19) explain the reason for the compression of the elapsed time of the story; what is the sense of swiftly passing time in the tragedy?

20) speak on the telling juxtapositions in the play;

21) how would you explain the statement that “Romeo and Juliet” is “a play about extremes and oppositions”?

22) speak on the theatrical history of the play;