EKIA4002 Henry the Fifth and Macbeth: two studies in leadership (4 op)

CONTENT

Shakespeare’s plays are studies in leadership. He explores through drama what makes a good leader or a bad one, and the roles of power and authority.

Henry the Fifth and Macbeth provide two contrasting presentations of leadership. Henry V is a play about such an inspiring, successful and wartime leader that a film was made of it during the Second World War to boost national morale in the struggle against Nazi Germany. The play has become a myth of wartime leadership. Macbeth on the other hand presents a usurper who murders the rightful King and establishes a reign of terror.

These plays are well suited for students who may come with little or no previous knowledge of Shakespeare. The plays will be studied in chronological order, Act by Act, with some supporting use of productions of the plays. While needed guidance is provided, the approach is at the same time heuristic – that is to say, the classes take place in a spirit of mutual discovery of what we find interesting.

COMPLETION METHODS

Lectures, written home assignment, active participation in class

ASSESSMENT DETAILS

A written ‘home’ assignment of not more than 1500 words. Oral contributions may be taken into account but only in a positive way in the final assessment.

By the end of the course students will:
• be able to understand Shakespeare’s language in the plays
• be able to analyse the appeal of Shakespeare’s drama and methods employed by Shakespeare to create that appeal
• understand the theme of leadership and how it is presented dramatically
• be able to understand how the plays relate to the age in which each set and both are written

Attendance policy
100% attendance is usually expected. More than two absences might result in the student having to leave to course, if in the teacher's judgment too much has been missed.

It is important for students to have editions that are well annotated on the same page as the text, and to have the same edition as I shall be using, namely the Arden Three Series editions: King Henry V, TW Craik, ed. (1995); Macbeth, Sandra Clark and Pamela Mason, eds. (2015). These books are readily and very cheaply available as second hand paperback copies at The Book Depository. com and Amazon, and some new copies are not expensive as books go.