REPORT RESUMES ED 013 827 TE 000 1169 A CURRICULUM FOR ENGLISH, TEACHER PACKET,GRACE 12. NEBRASKA UNIV.! LINCOLN! CURRICULUMDEV. CTR. PUB DATE 65 CONTRACT OEC-.2-10-119 EDRS PRICE MF--,t1.00 HC NOT AVAILABLE FROM EDRS. 229F. DESCRIPTRS-. *CURRICULUM GUIDES, *ENGLISH CURRICULUM,:ENGLISH INSTRUCTION, *GRADE 12, *TEACHING GUIDES,ENGLISH LITERATURE; COMPOSITION (LITERARY)! EPICS, INSTRUCTIONALMATERIALS, LITERATURE, TRAGEDY, NOVELS, POETRY, SATIRE,LITERARY ANALYSIS, NEDRASKA CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENTCENTER THE TEACHER PACKET FOR THE 12TH-GRADEENGLISH PROGRAM OF THE NEBRASKA CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT CENTERCOMPRISES, MRCOGH THE STUDY CF SELECTED WCRKS, A SURVEY CFENGLISH LITERARY PERIODS FROM THE RENAISSANCE TO THE 211THCENTURY. UNITS ARE PROVIDED IN THE FOLLOWING AREAS-.--(1) "SENECANREVENGE TRAGEDY---ITHYESTESI"THE SPANISH TRAGEDY!' AND'HAMLET,'" (2) THE CHRISTIAN EFIC - -'THE FAERIE QUEENE,' BOOK I,AND 'PARADISE LOST,'" (3)"THE NEW ENLIGHTENMENT WORLD, AUGUSTAN SATIRE," (4) HE ROMANTIC REVOLUTIONODE, SONNET; ALLEGORICAL ROMNCE!" AND (5) "THE CLASS SYSTEM,THREE 19TH-CENTURY VIEWS." THE UNIT THEMES EVOLVEFROM MAN'S VIEW OF THE WRLD-.-HIS RELATIONSHIP TO NATURE,TO SOCIETY, AND TO MORAL LAW. FURTHERWRE, MATERIALS STUDIED INPREVIOUS PACKETS ARE ASSUMED TO BE FART Cr THE STUDENTS' ANDTEACHER'S BACKGROUND, SO THAT THE UNIT ON "THE CHRISTIAN EPIC," FOR EXAMPLE, RELIES ON KNOWLEDGE Cr THE EPIC GENRE STUDIED EARLIER. INCLUDED IN THE PACKET ARE INTRODUCTIONSAND AIDS TO UNIT MATERIALS, BIBLIOGRAPHIES FOR TEACHERS,SUPPLEMENTARY STUDENT READING LISTS, AND SUGGESTIONS FORTEACHING PROCEDURES AND AUDIOVISUAL AIDS. THE LANGUAGE ANDCOMPOSITION UNITS FOR THE TEACHER PACKET, EMPHASIZING THE.RHETORIC Cr PARAGRAPHS, THEMES, AND DEDUCTION! ARE NOT YET AVAILABLE. THIS MANUAL IS AVAILABLE FROM THE UNIVERSITY CrNEBRASKA CURRICULUM CENTER, 231 ANDREWS HALL, LINCOLN, NEBRASKA68508. THE RELATED STUDENT PACKET FOR GRADE 12 IS TE 000 070 . (DL) ED013827 e A' A: 7 ....teei U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION& WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCEDEXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATINGIT.POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENTOFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY. A CURRICULUM FOR ENGLISH Teacher Packet SENECAN REVENGE TRAGEDY: Thydstes, TheSpanish Tragedy, andHamlet Grade 12 Copyright, The Universityof Nebraska, 1965 bcperimmtal Materials Nebraska CurriculumDevelopment Center "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED t,BYe TO ERIC AND ZATI i NS OPERATING UNDER AGREEMENTS WITH THE U.S. OFFICE OF EDUCATION. FURTHER REPRODUCTION OUTSIDE THE ERIC SYSTEM REQUIRES PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNER." I. Overview: We are in this unitconcerned with tragedy, and with tragedyof a particular sort--that in which theprimary concern of the protagonistis with a past crime which seems to becovered and unpunished: in which the finding out of the crim- inal, and the circumstancesof the crime, is the protagonist's first problem; and in which decidingwhether circumstancesare sufficiently difficult and the 'crime' of sufficientenormity to require 'taking the law into one'sown hands' is his second problem.ouch tragedies always exploita series of set devices- - a revenger who isone part madman, one part delaying and calculating detective; a ghost who urges passionateaction: a corrupt court which will not ect;a play within a play whichcan expose corruption and so forth. One of our e 'MS is with these formulaeof popular artas they appear say in Kyd; another i 'th their exploitation in great art, i.e. Hamlet;our final concern is uLth tL. x- ploitation ofsimilar devices in modernpopular art--in detective stories anil spook shows, inBatman and Dick Tracy--aswell as in Faulkner and James Bond. The tenth gradeunit on Tragedyconcerns itself with Tragedy's treatment of three questions: first, the question of thenature of the Gods, of what man should worshipand of the extent to whichthe Gods intervene in the lives of men; second, its treatmentof determinism and free-will,of the kinds of forces out- side man which are considered as controllinghis actions (either physical or meta physical forces); third, its presentationof the hero as living and suffering in a world more or less determined,more or less influenced by forces outside his Cory - -as living in such a world and,through his suffering, suggesting to us what the general meaning of sufferingis. The ghost in "Revenge Tragedy" and the genre's treatment of destiny and providenceintroduces the question of the nature of the Gods and the characterof the other world; the revenger's problem of dis- r covering how toeffect justice ina world radically unjust introduces the theme of God's fore-knowledge and his intervention in history, andrevenge tragedy's theme of madness, since it treats thehero as constrained by his own passion, is very closely related to the theme of free-will. Finally, the protoganist in the Revenge Tragedy tends to work outhis--and our--understanding of the meaning of suffering through trying tosecure justice for someone who suffers unjustly- - searching for justice, searchingfor "the culprit" by staging presentations of playe-within-the-play. and using other parallel detectivestory or spook show devices. More incidentally,this unit continues the students' investigation of the technical theatre; hopefully,your students will come to the unit possessing an understanding of the theatre, havingstudied dramatic techniques in the ninth grade unit, "The Idea ofa Play," and in the "Tragedy" unit in the tenth grade. In working with the philosophicperspectives of the plays in this unit, students should be helped by their encounterwith diverse world views in the unit, "Man and Nature" (their study of the sectionin that unit which covers the Elizabethan world view should prove particularly helpful). And they will have looked at the moral and political visions whichare part of Elizabethan tragedy in the tenth grade units on ".min and Loneliness"and on "The Leader and the Group." The present unit presuppeeee that the teacherha, a detailed knowledge of these preceding units. jr. liibliograptz for BeyengeTragedy: Cuncliffe, JohnW. The Influence 4 of Seneca on Elizabethan Tragedy, 1893. Bradley, A. C. illelse;ieeareaeTregoy, 1904. P Campbell, Lily B. "Theories of Ruv,,I,L71ip Rfmninnanne?. England," MP, xxxvIii (1930-1), 296ff. 2 Sranner, Theodore. Death and Elizabethan Tra edv,1936. Lucas, F. L. Seneca and Elizabethan Drama, 1922, Granville- Barker,Harley. Prefaces to Shakespeare, 3rd series, 1937. Coleridge's, dutkawarean Criticism, ed. T. M. Ray3or, 1930. Baker, Howard. Induction to Tragedy, 1939. Simpson, Percy. The Theme of Ramenie in Elital.A.AA-m Tragedy. 1935. Boas, F. 6, Shakespeare and His Emiesessors, 1939 Wilson, J. Dover. What Eannep in Hamlet, 1935 Bowers, Fredson. ElizabethanLimn Tragedy, 1940. de Chickera, Ernest. "Divine Justice and Private Revenge in TheSpanish Tragedyi MLR, LVII, (1962), 228-232. Farnham, W. The Medie_y:21_Heritage of ElizabethanTragedy, 1950. Empson, William. "Hamlet When New," SR, LXI(1953), 2-42, 185-205. The banish Tragedy, ed. Philip Edwards, 1959. III. The Genre: The description of any genre presents the dangerof suggesting that works in that genre are written to a formula - -asif writers drew up a list of rules, eighteenth century style, beforewriting. This danger is present in this study of revenge tragedy, butthe unit's observations about the revenge tragedy are inserted for whatthey are worth. As this curriculum has observed a hundred times, one shouldrefrain from lecturing to the students on "the nature of revenge tragedy," or on"the nature of anything else." Indeed one should hardly ever lecture --only when the discussion breaks down because students do not have somebit of fact or historical or iconological background.The student packet isdesigned so that students should arrive at anunderstanding of the plays through note taking, dramatizing, discussing creativedramatic work of their own. The Hamlet section consists of a hypotheticalproducer's notebook-- one in which the producer speculates aboutthe meaning of the playand about how he would produce it. Half of the notebook isleading and half is misleading; by pushing more deeply into thetext the student can sort out the 'leading' and the 'misleading' in it andcreate his own contrast- ing notebook, playing with the ideas of themodel notebook, following them up where they deserve support and showingtheir frailty where they need correction. Much of the unit depends on one's seeing thedifference between the use of a 'formula' for scaring people orexciting them in stock enter- tainment (Kyd) and the use of the same formulain a first rate play (Shakespeare) to scare and excite but also to deepenpreception and thought, for the purpose of the unit is neverto teach the 'characteristics of revenge tragedy' for their own sake.It is to providestudents with the means of recognizing stock theatricalsituations and for 'acting out' illtallig^ntly and interpreting perccliAivelygood theatrical ones. THE WHOLE UNIT IS FUTILE IP '111F, STUDENTSTO HOT RXPERTENCE THE PLAYS AS PLAYS. Revenge Tragedy--Spook $how and DetectiveStory Revenge tragedy dependson certain formulaic devices for eliciting audience interest. Get a ghost, a play withina play, a protagonist who seeks vengeance; addseveral mad characters,a court which is slow to give justice, anda crime which cries out for blood- -and you have a revenge tregedy. In most revenge plays,in the ones studied in this