The Big Teach
1.
Preview the literary theories (kinds of criticism) and choose one or two that interest you.
2.
As you/we read, note characters, events, and language that may relate in some way to the
assumptions/strategies related to the theory or theories that you have chosen.
3.
Research your literary theory. You must locate one (1) reputable source about your theory in general and one
(1) reputable source that connects your theory to Hamlet.
Annotated Works Cited
4.
Create an annotated works cited page—instructions and example attached.
Note: Hamlet must be included on the page but not annotated.
Teaching Lesson (5-10 min)
5.
Prepare your lesson using the following guidelines:
Presentation of the lesson should take between 5-10 min and everyone needs to participate.
You will create an effective, attractive PowerPoint or Prezi presentation as a means of presenting your
information. Five slides/sections is a good number to aim for.
The brief presentation must include clear, succinct information about your literary theory and how it
manifests in the play.
You must include one PARAPHRASE from each of your two sources. Paraphrase the information so that
you clearly communicate the essence of your theory and its application to Hamlet to your classmates.
Each paraphrase must be CITED CORRECTLY on your presentation mode—see the final page of this
handout for correct citation format.
In addition, you must include at least one (1) passage from Hamlet that you will utilize to illustrate a
connection between theory and play. This passage must be cited correctly--see final page.
Share the presentation with me via Google Docs, upload it to YouTube and send me the link, or email it
to me. You should NOT bring it in on a flash drive.
Performance Piece (5-10 min)
6.
The next part of your teaching project involves a performance piece.
You will act out a scene/scenes from which you took your passages. You needn’t stick solely to the
passages themselves; please present a meaningful “chunk” of the play.
You must use Shakespeare’s exact language in your performance, and each actor (and ALL of you must
act) should memorize his/her lines. You may have an index card or two for security when you perform,
but they really should be memorized.
I invite you to be creative in your “directing” of your scene(s). For instance, if you are presenting
soliloquies, several of you can play Hamlet—divvy up the lines. Or you could do some choral reading. Or,
if you are stringing scenes together, you could have a narrator jump in to fill in some gaps. Be creative!
You are also free to edit out lines—no revision, though!
Questions
7.
Each group must write five (5) really good multiple choice questions that test knowledge of the theory and its
relationship to Hamlet.
One question should test general knowledge of the theory. Base this question on something from the
source that defines/explains your theory.
Two questions should come from the source that connects the theory to the play.
The final two questions will ask your classmates to APPLY your theory to aspects of/passages from
Hamlet. For these questions, include the passage the question references.
Each question must include four (4) answer choices.
Include the correct answer in parentheses following each question.
Note:
Your final exam will consist of 30 multiple choice questions taken from those submitted by the groups as well as
an AP essay.
L
ITERARY
T
HEORIES
A very basic way of thinking about literary theory is that these ideas act as different lenses critics use to view and talk about art, literature, and even culture. These different lenses allow critics to consider works of art based on certain assumptions within that school of theory. The different lenses also allow critics to focus on particular aspects of a work they consider important.
Gender / Feminist Criticism
Assumptions1. The work doesn’t have an objective status, an autonomy; instead, any reading of it is influenced by the reader’s own status, which includes gender, or attitudes toward gender.
2. In the production of literature and within stories themselves, men and women have not had equal access.
3. Men and women are different: they write differently, read differently, and write about their reading differently. These differences should be valued.
Strategies
1. Consider the gender of the author or the characters: What role does gender or sexuality play in this work?
2. Specifically, observe how sexual stereotypes might be reinforced or undermined. Try to see how the work reflects or
distorts the place of women (and men) in society.
3. Look at the effects of power drawn from gender within the plot or form.
Social Power/Marxist Criticism
Assumptions1. Karl Marx argued that the way people think and behave in any society is determined by basic economic factors.
2. In his view, those groups of people who owned and controlled major industries could exploit the rest of the population, through conditions of employment and by forcing their own values and beliefs onto other social groups.
3. Marxist criticism applies these arguments to the study of literary texts.
Strategies
1. Explore the way different groups of people are represented in texts. Evaluate the level of social realism in the text and how society is portrayed.
2. Consider how the text itself is a commodity that reproduces certain social beliefs and practices. Analyze the social effect of the literary work.
3. Look at the effects of power drawn from economic or social class.
Archetypal / Jungian / Mythical Criticism
Assumptions1. Meaning cannot exist solely on the page of a work, nor can that work be treated as an independent entity.
2. Humankind has a “collective unconscious,” a kind of universal psyche, which is manifested in dreams and myths and which
harbors themes and images that are hard-wired in all of us.
3. These recurring myths, symbols, and character types appear and reappear in literary works.
Strategies
1. Consider the genre of the work (e.g., comedy, romance, tragedy, irony) and how it affects the meaning.
2. Look for story patterns and symbolic associations, such as black hats, springtime settings, evil stepmothers, and so forth, from other texts you’ve read.
3. Consider your associations with these symbols as you construct meaning from the text.
New / Formalist Criticism
Assumptions1. The critic’s interest ultimately should be focused on the work itself (not on the author’s intention or the reader’s response). 2. The formalist perspective pays particular attention to issues of form and convention.
3. The formalist perspective says that a literary work should be treated as an independent and self-sufficient object.
Strategies
1. Read closely. You can assume that every aspect is carefully calculated to contribute to the work’s unity—figures speech, point of view, diction, recurrent ideas or events, everything.
2. The methods used in this perspective are those of close reading: detailed and subtle analysis of the formal components that
New Historical Criticism
Assumptions1. When reading a text, you have to place it within its historical context.
2. Historical refers to the social, political, economic, cultural, and intellectual climate of the time.
3. Specific historical information will be of key interest: information about the time during which an author wrote, about the time in which the text is set, about the ways in which people of the period saw and thought about the world in which they lived.
Strategies
1. Research the fundamental historical events of the period in which the author wrote.
2. Consider the fundamental historical events of the period in which the literary work is set if it is different from the period in which the author wrote.
3. View the text as part of a larger context of historical movements, and consider how it both contributes to and reflects certain fundamental aspects of human history.
Psychological / Psychoanalytical Criticism
Assumptions1. Creative writing (like dreaming) represents the (disguised) fulfillment of a (repressed) wish or fear.
2. Everyone’s formative history is different in its particulars, but there are basic recurrent patterns of development for most people. These particulars and patterns have lasting effects.
3. In reading literature, we can make educated guesses about what has been repressed and transformed.
Strategies
1. Attempt to apply a developmental concept to the work, or to the author or characters (e.g., the Oedipus complex, anal
retentiveness, castration anxiety, gender confusion).
2. Relate the work to psychologically significant events in the author’s or a character’s life.
3. Consider how repressed material may be expressed in the work’s pattern of imagery or symbols.
A
NNOTATED
L
IST OF
W
ORKS
C
ITED
An annotated works cited page adds a brief summary, or annotation, about each source. The annotation describes the
content, purpose, or special value and/or limitations of the work.
Sources: NO WIKIPEDIA, ECHEAT OR SIMILAR SOURCES, SPARKNOTES,
SCHMOOP, OR GENERAL ENCYCLOPEDIAS SUCH AS WORLD BOOK OR
BRITANNICA.
Start with the library databases.
Points to Remember when Writing an Annotation:
Follow the citation with a brief descriptive and evaluative paragraph. This is the annotation. It summarizes the central
theme and scope of the book or article. Be sure to use complete sentences and to avoid wordiness. Provide information
in about five sentences.
At least 3 of the following items should be included in your annotation:
Description of the content (focus) of the source (required)
Evaluation of the authority or background of the author
Comment on the intended audience
Explanation of how this work illuminates your topic
Discussion of any limitations the item may have, e.g. grade level, timeliness
Discussion of any conclusions the author(s) may have made
Description of the relevance and quality of the work
Description of the main purpose of the work.
Notation of any special features of the work.
Warning to readers of any defect, weakness, or bias of the work.
Author’s main purpose in writing the work.
Sample:
MLA in-text Parenthetical Citations
Single author named in parentheses:
The tendency to come to terms with difficult experiences is referred to as a "purification process" whereby "threatening or painful dissonances are warded off to preserve intact a clear and articulated image of oneself and one’s place in the world" (Sennett 11).
Single author named in a signal phrase:
Social historian Richard Sennett names the tendency to come to terms with difficult experiences a "purification process" whereby
"threatening or painful dissonances are warded off to preserve intact a clear and articulated image of oneself and one’s place in the world" (11).
Two or more authors:
Certain literacy theorists have gone so far as to declare that "the most significant elements of human culture are undoubtedly channeled through words, and reside in the particular range of meanings and attitudes which members of any society attach to their verbal symbols" (Goody and Watt 323).
Works with no author:
Several critics of the concept of the transparent society ask if a large society would be able to handle the complete loss of privacy ("Surveillance Society" 115).
Secondary source of a quotation (someone quoted within the text of another author):
As Erickson reminds us, the early psychoanalysts focused on a single objective: "introspective honesty in the service of self-enlightenment" (qtd. in Weiland 42).
Web page:
Abraham Lincoln's birthplace was designated as a National Historical Site in 1959 (National Park Service). Note: Internet citations follow the
style of printed works. Author and page number should be given if they exist on the website. Plays:
Drama is cited using the act, scene and line numbers if the play is written in verse, and the page numbers if the play is a prose play. Act,
scene and line numbers are presented in Arabic numbers, for example, Act 1, Scene 2, lines 1 through 10 should be written as 1.2.1-10. Iago’s deception of Othello is dependent upon the Moor’s honest and trusting nature: “The Moor is of a free and open nature / That thinks men honest that but seem to be so; / And will as tenderly be led by th’ nose / As asses are” (1.3.390-93).
Sally Smith
English IV AP/DC – Period 2
Mrs. Cobb
October 21, 2015
Annotated List of Works Cited
Barraclough, Jeffrey. “The Times Atlas of World History.” 10 Sept. 2005 <http://www.globalpolicy.org/empire/history/1979/htm>. This Internet
site was used to find background knowledge of events leading to the time-period discussed in this study. The majority of the
work was extraneous knowledge for my study; however, it did provide some insight into the German and U.S. rivalry leading to
the 20th century.
LaFeber, Walter. The American Age: United States Foreign Policy at Home and Abroad Since 1750. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1989.
Due the fact that this was US during the time period of my research. Also, it facilitated me in providing a source which
discusses US relations with Germany outside the Latin and South American arenas so I could have a greater depth of
understanding of the countries affairs. This book is the only one that truly discusses the World Wars and how they affected
foreign relations in both the US and abroad. Most importantly, it is the only source that discusses Kaiser Wilhelm’s plans for a
war with the US, which was a very important element to my research.
Mitchell, Nancy. German and American Imperialism in Latin America: The Danger of Dreams. North Carolina: The University of North Carolina
Press, 1999. This work provided me with the substance with which I was able to build my argument. The only truly subjective
work I used, it was my most valuable source in that it discussed my thesis of the validity of the threat, rather than solely
discussing a series of events. By reading Mitchell’s arguments that the Germans possessed no power to threaten the US, I was
able to form and strengthen my own arguments as a form of rebuttal to her conclusions. Although the book mainly focused
on the WWI era and discussed many events that I did not feel were substantial to support my thesis.
