Discussion Topics: Tuesday 14 March 2023

I. Vocation: All literary students are dedicated to the same task, the discovery of truth.
Some prefer to call themselves s critics; some as scholars.
II. The Spirit of Scholarship:
1. To be a good researcher, one must be thoroughgoing skeptic.
2. One must make sure that the edition he uses is the best available, that is an
authoritative edition of a text.
III. Scholarly occupations:
1. The establishment of a dependable text
2. The determination of authorship: internal evidence and external evidence.
3. Source study
4. The tracing of reputation and influence
5. The contiguous field of history in which the literary student often travels.

Assignments: Prepare a PowerPoint presentation on one of the following topics:

1. Why do we have different editions of Shakespeare’s plays. Examine three or four different
editions od Hamlet or any other Shakespearean play and explain the reasons for having such
editions.
2. Examine the reputation od Shakespeare in his own time and among his fellow playwrights
and contemporary critics of the time.
3. Examine the language and imagery of two or three Shakespearean works to ascertain that
these works were written by Shakespeare based on the internal evidence.
4. Write a critique of the different controversies concerning the authorship of Shakespeare’s
plays.
5. Trace the historical development of Shakespeare’s works from the beginning all through the
19th century.
6. Discuss the recurrence of Oriental matters in Shakespeare.
7. Trace Shakespeare’s use of Flora and Fauna in his plays.