Seminar 6:
"Remember Me": Hamlet, Richard II and Sonnets

Laura Campillo (University of Murcia, Spain)

TOPIC DESCRIPTION
This seminar will be devoted to explore memory, remembrance and oblivion in a series of Shakespearean texts. The study of these concepts will be carried out from several perspectives -cognitive, theatrical, historical- thus providing a framework to explore representations of self and crises of identity in the characters of Hamlet, Richard II and the speaker of the Sonnets. Close attention will be paid to experiments in the conceptualization of the self and dramatizations of self-forgetting as pertaining to a European drama tradition rooted in the exploration of subjectivity. The conflicts arising from the tension between the self and his impulses to remember or forget will be explored in relation to movies such as Gregory Doran's Hamlet (2009) and Rupert Goold's The Hollow Crown: Richard II (2012).

READING LIST

Holland, Peter, ed. "Introduction" and "On the Gravy Train: Shakespeare, Memory and Forgetting". In Shakespeare, Memory and Performance. Cambridge University Press, 2006, 1-19 and 207-304.

Sullivan, Garrett A. "Introduction: Planting Oblivion". In Memory and Forgetting in English Renaissance Drama. Shakespeare, Marlowe, Webster. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005, 1-25, (pdf)

Watson, Amanda "“Full character'd”: Competing Forms of Memory in Shakespeare's Sonnets". In Schoenfeldt, Michael (ed). A Companion to Shakespeare's Sonnets. Blackwell Publishing, 2007. (pdf)

Sullivan, Garrett A. "Voicing the Young Man: Memory, Forgetting, and Subjectivity in the Procreation Sonnets". In Schoenfeldt, Michael (ed). A Companion to Shakespeare's Sonnets. Blackwell Publishing, 2007. (pdf)

Wilder, Lina Perkins, ""Baser Matter" and mnemonic pedagogy in Hamlet" (107-140). In Shakespeare's Memory Theatre. Recollection, Properties and Character. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2010, 107-140. (pdf)

Tribble, Evelyn B. "The Chain of Memory: Distributed Cognition in Early Modern England."
Scan: Journal of Media Arts Culture 2 (2005);

SCHEDULE
Session 1: Memory, Duty and Revenge
In the first session, key concepts about memory studies will be introduced, and several definitions established to create a comprehensive framework to study the Shakesperean plays. The session will be focused on Hamlet and the identity crises that arise from the conflictive interaction of memory, duty and oblivion in the play.
Reading: William Shakespeare, Hamlet;
Film: Clips from Gregory Doran's Hamlet (2009) (to be seen during the session).

Session 2: Metaphors of Memory: Past, Present, Future
The second session will pay close attention to the language of memory and the several metaphors of forgetfulness and 'forward recollection' in Richard II. Memory will be studied as a 'lyrical locus' from which the self is both able to create and annihilate itself.
Reading: William Shakespeare, Richard II;
Film: The Hollow Crown Part 1, Richard II (see resources).

Session 3: Memory and immortality
The third session will conclude the discussions previously initiated in Session 1 and 2 and will add a new dimension in the study of self and subjectivity with the analysis of a number of Sonnets where issues of procreation, immortality, poetry and memory will be addressed.
Reading: Selection of Shakespeare's Sonnets (I, III, XV, XXIII, XXIX, XXX, LXXI, LXXII, LXXIV, LV, LXIII, LXXVII, LXXXI, C, CXX, CXXII);
Film: Clips from A Waste of Shame (to be seen during the session).

ASSESSMENT

The first seminar grade expresses the activity in the seminar discussion. It can range from 0 to 10, the pass limit is 5. The second seminar grade assesses the quality of paper proposals (300 words minimum), the share of the student in the preparation of the final presentation, its contents and standard. It can range from 0 to 15, the pass limit is 8. The final essay grade is expressed in points from 0 to 30, the pass limit is 15. Deadline for the submission of the essay: 15 July 2013. Length of the essay: 3000-4000 words. The maximum number of points acquired for the 2 seminars and an essay is 80 (25+25+30). For the participation in a workshop 5 points are acquired (10 points for two workshops). For the the submission of an internship application 5 points are acquired and 10 points fort the shortlisting for the internship.