Prerequisite: Sophomores with permission. Topic will vary by semester. This course may be repeated once for credit when the topic is different. Topic for Fall 2011: "Framing Shakespeare." An intensive examination of two or three Shakespearean plays as vehicles for exploring contemporary literary theory. We will explore the nature of reading as the "framing" of a text: both selecting a context for interpretation and charging the text with meaning. To this end, we will evaluate and practice "reading in slow motion" (a contemporary adaptation of close reading), and we will consider other interpretive methodologies, such as deconstruction, psychoanalysis, and new historicism. V.2