BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE, PILANI, K.K.

BIRLA GOA CAMPUS

INSTRUCTION DIVISION Course Handout (Part II)
First Semester AY 2020 - 2021

In addition to part I (General Handout for all courses appended to the time table) this portion gives further
specific details regarding the course.

Course No : HSSF373

Course Title: Shakespeare and Popular Culture

Instructor-in-charge : NILAK DATTA

I. Scope and Objective of the course: This course has 3 distinct objectives.First, it will enable students
to have an in-depth understanding of Shakespeare’s connection to popular culture through the test case of
Hamlet. Second, it will enable students to understand the way the original audiences understood
Shakespeare’s plays as they saw them performed at the Globe open-air stage.Third, it will examine some
select recent popular culture versions of Shakespeare’s plays with the famous test case of Hamlet. Since
this course relies on student learner engagement with a well-known play and its cultural relevance today,
it will introduce various deep-learning strategies that will enable greater student retention and foster life-
long learning experiences.
II. Course Description: The course takes a two-pronged approach to Shakespeare’s connection to
popular culture through the test case of Hamlet. In the first approach, the play is understood through the
mainstream cultural expectations of Protestant England. In the second approach, the course takes learners
through select popular cultural representations of Hamlet to understand the play’s cultural relevance
today. The “mainstream cultural expectations” aspect is seen through a focus on Renaissance political
exigencies of government, especially issues such as the prince’s right to govern and its connection to the
use of political force. Another way is to see the play’s treatment of early modern cultural expectations of
the governed and Renaissance individual’s reliance on Fortune as a means of negotiating the social
sphere. Both these cultural expectations are understood (in terms of texts) by placing the play beside
Machiavelli’s The Prince and Castiglione’s The Book of the Courtier. In the “popular culture” approach,
plays like Hamlet are understood through recent popular representations in the graphic arts and in cinema.
For instance, cinematic/theater representations of the plays (in mainstream theater, Bollywood cinema or
Hollywood motion pictures) and in recent graphic arts (comics panels or youtube) offer a variety of
arenas for understanding the contemporary relevance of Shakespeare’s plays. This course will engage
student-learners in deep-learning modules about the nature of artistic composition, the discursive nature
of the relationship between the past and the present, and help explain why certain works tend to have
lasting significances for audiences across centuries.

III. Pedagogy: The entire course will be divided into 5 portions to synchronize the teaching of the 5 acts
of the test case (Hamlet). Each act will be considered from the viewpoint of (a) a “theater of the mind” (a
traditional form of reading) (b) a part of a specific historical artifact that expresses Early Modern notions
of history, politics, religion, and culture, (c) a performance piece in popular culture. As such, the play
will be discussed as per various approaches outlined above.

IV. Textbook:
1. Shakespeare, William.Hamlet. Revised Edition.The Arden Shakespeare. Ed.Ann Thomson and Neil
Taylor. Bloomsbury, 2006.
2. Castiglione, Baldesar. The Book of the Courtier. Trans. George Bull. Penguin, 2003. (Selections)
3. Machiavelli, Niccolò. The Prince. Trans. James B. Atkinson. Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2008.
(Selections)

V. Reference Books/Materials:
1. Frye, Roland Mushat. The Renaissance Hamlet: Issues and Responses in 1600. Princeton UP, 1984.
2. White, R.S. Avant-Garde Hamlet: Text, Stage, Screen. Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2015.
3. Cook, Patrick J. Cinematic Hamlet: The Films of Olivier, Zeffirelli, Branagh, and Almereyda. Ohio UP,
2011.
4. Greenblatt, Stephen. Hamlet in Purgatory. Princeton UP, 2013.
5. Murray, Janet H. Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace. The Free Press,
1997.
6. Bradley, A.C., Shakespearean Tragedy. 3rd Edition. MacMillan, 1992.
7. Eisner, Will. Hamlet on a Rooftop. Graphic Illustration.
8. Almereyda, Michael. Dir. Hamlet 2000.Cast. Ethan Hawke, Julia Styles, Bill Murray, etc. Miramax
Films. 2000.
9. Bhardwaj, Vishal. Dir. Haider.Cast. Shahid Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor, Kay Kay Menon, etc. V. B.
Pictures. 2014.
10. McCloud, Scott. Making Comics: Storytelling, Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels.
Harper-Collins, 2006.

Note: The list of references might be changed during the semester if it is found necessary in the interests
of the course.

VI. Course Plan:

Lec. Learning Objectives Topics to be Covered Ref. Chap./ Sec.

No. No.

1-8 Course Introduction and Act 1: To Questionable Ghost, Act 1 (Hamlet),

study the historical parameters of the Tyrranicide, Memory Frye (“Problems,
issue of Tyrranicide and Regicide, Challenges, and
Issue of Evidence and Supernatural Ambiguities”,
Intervention as acts of Statecraft “The Court and
the Prince”),
Greenblatt (“The
Rights of
Memory”);
Bradley (Lecture
3:“Shakespeare’s
Tragic Period –
 Hamlet” )

9-16 To study Act 2 and its socio-historical “Sprezzatura”, “Prudentia Act 2 (Hamlet),
underpinnings:Reliance on Fortune, Bifrontis” and “Fortuna Castiglione (The
the Renaissance’s Ideal Courtier Bifrons”, Virtue and Cruelty First Book .“To
as princely qualities Messr. Alfonso
Ariosto”), Frye
(“Choosing
Sides”),
Machiavelli
(“Concerning
Those Who
Became Princes
Through Iniquity”,
“How Princes
Should Keep Their
Word”) ; Bradley
(Lecture 4:
“Hamlet”)

17-24 To study Act 3 and its basis: the “Mars” and “Mercury” as Act 3 (Hamlet),
nature of ideal courtier as “prince-in- Ideals , “Conscientia”, Frye (“The
waiting” and of the prince as an “ideal Sequential art and Hamlet Deliberate
courtier-in-the-making” Prince”),
Castiglione (The
Second Book. “To
Messr. Alfonso
Ariosto”)
Machiavelli
(“How a Prince
Should Act to
Acquire Prestige”,
“Concerning the
Prince’s
Confidential
Staff”, “How to
Avoid Flatterers”),
White (“On Stage:
Hamlet and Avant-
Garde Theatre”),
McCloud
(“Writing with
Pictures: Clarity,
Persuasion, and
Intensity”), Eisner
 (Hamlet on a
Rooftop)

25-32 To study Act 4 and its basis: the Nature of Knowledge in Act 4 (Hamlet);
nature of Princely “Conscientia” Elizabethan England, Flattery Machiavelli
and its Forms, “Conscience (“Concerning
of the King”, “Uncanny” Troops That Are
Hamlet in film Auxiliary, Those
That Are Mixed,
and Those That
Are A Prince’s
Own”, “The
Power of Fortune
in Human Affairs
and How She can
be Countered”),
Castiglione (The
Fourth Book. “To
Messer. Alfonso
Ariosto”), Cook
(“Michael
Almereyda’s
Hamlet: Uncanny
Imagination”),
White (“On
Screen: Hamlet
and Film Genres”)

33-40 To analyze the intellectual basis ofAct Memento Mori, dans Act 5 (Hamlet),
5: The Renaissance attitude to death, macabre, Frye (“The Prince
Skulls and Transi Amid the
Tombs”), Murray
(“Hamlet on the
Holodeck?”)

Extra TBA (If Necessary due to N/A N/A

Classe contingencies such as holidays, class
s cancellations etc). Note that
discussions of MLA rules, plagiarism
in class assignments, etc. might either
be included in the lecture sessions
above or held as extra classes. Film
screenings or extra discussions of
film (if needed) will be done outside
class hours.
VII. Evaluation Scheme: TBA

E.C. Component Duration Marks Date and Nature

No. Time

1. Assignment 1 2 days 10 TBA At home

2. Test 1 (T1) 30 minutes 30 Bet Sep 10-20 In-class

(TBA) as per (online)
Institute notice

3. Assignment 2 2 days 10 TBA At home

4. Test 2 (T2) 30 minutes 30 Bet Oct 09-20 In-Class

(TBA) as per (online)
Institute notice

Mid Semester Grading

5. Assignment 3 2 days 10 TBA At home

6. Test 3 (T3) 30 minutes 30 Nov 10- 20 In-class

(TBA) as per (online)
Institute notice

7. Assignment 4 2 days 10 Nov 21- 22* At home

8. Comprehensive Exam 2 hours 70 Dec 1-16; Proctored

(Check Time Examination
Table)** Online (as per
Institute)

Total 200

* Pre-Compre total will be displayed by Nov 28, 2020 as per Institute notice.

** Students are to check Institute time table to ascertain exact date/time of Comprehensive Exam

Mid Semester grading will include:

Assignment 1 10 marks

Test 1 30 marks

Assignment 2 10 marks

Test 2 30 marks
 TOTAL MID SEMESTER 80 marks (or 40% of total)

VIII. Chamber Consultation Hours: Wednesday 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm. Doubt clearance will be done
during this one hour online time in Google Meet. The instructor can be reached at the email address:
ndatta@goa.bits-pilani.ac.in

IX. Notices & Responsibilities for all students:

(a) Notices concerning the course will be displayed on Moodle Quanta and Google Classroom only. If the
need arises, notices will be sent directly to students’ institutional email addresses by the instructor.
(b) Students are required to check the date of Comprehensive examination (or any other
examinations/tests) from the institute timetable/ examination timetable to ascertain/verify correct dates.
Students are responsible for appearing in any online proctored examination at the correct date/time as
may be announced by the institute.
(c) Make-up exams and make-up assignments will be granted due to medical reasons ONLY if students
have prior clearance from appropriate institute authorities such as ARC and/or if they have intimated the
instructor of the course beforehand. If the student fails to inform the concerned instructor about his/her
genuine inability to answer any component due to MEDICAL reasons, the student may not be granted
make-up etc.
(d) If a student has an extraordinary situation that does not allow him/her to appear for
examinations/submit assignments, the student is responsible for intimating the matter to the instructor at
the earliest. Ultimately, the decision (to allow the student a make-up) rests with the instructor.
(e) Changes can be made to the evaluation components and/or to sequence of readings for the course, if
the instructor deems it fit, from a professional point of view. Likewise, dates of certain evaluation
components might be changed if it is in the interest of the course and/or if the institute has made such
changes in the timetable.
(DR. NILAK DATTA)

INSTRUCTOR-IN-CHARGE