A Tale of Two Shakespeares

Both are led by professors with reputations for brilliance. Both require the reading of some of Shakespeare's greatest plays. Both had crowd-pleasing lectures on Richard III this week.

They are hardly the same.

One has weekly quizzes in section; the other has daily plot summaries in lecture. One is conducted partly as interactive discussion; the other is pure lecture in the cavern of Sanders Theatre. One is among the most challenging of classes. The other isn't.

In fact, a close look at Stephen J. Greenblatt's English 126g: "Shakespearean Tragedy" and Marjorie Garber's Literature and Arts A-40: "Shakespeare, The Early Plays" provides unique insight into some of the differences between a course in Harvard's core curriculum and a high-level department offering.

"After attending both classes, I felt that Professor Garber's class offered more of an MTV view, that it seemed too fast for any real introspection into the plays," says Ryan T. McGee '98, who shopped both and opted for Greenblatt, "whereas Professor Greenblatt's class offered an in-depth and interesting view of the Shakespearean canon."

Interviews with students and teaching fellows suggest that the differences in the course are not simply attributable to the fact that the English concentrators in Greenblatt's class are more comfortable working with literature. In part, undergraduates get less out of the core class because it demands significantly less preparation.

"I think Greenblatt is going to require more actual work," says Kelly M. Dodge '96, who took Garber's class during her first year and is currently in Greenblatt's course.

Greenblatt

Students say the most obvious differences between the two classes are the professors' lecture styles and their takes on Shakespeare.

"Greenblatt does more historical background and Garber did more gender based commentary," Dodge says.

Greenblatt's views on Shakespeare is unique, students and TFs, say. He takes what Wena Poon '95 describes as "a historical-cultural-anthropological approach" that some undergraduates find appealing.

"On the one hand, I'm trying to give the students a sense of Shakespeare in his culture, in some sense Shakespeare for Elizabethan and Jacobian culture," says Greenblatt, a visiting lecturer from the University of California, Berkeley. "But secondly and at the same time, I'm trying to give a sense of what is peculiarly unique and individual about this particular playwright."

The atmosphere in the class, which meets at 10 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays in Sever 113, is casual. This Thursday, Greenblatt showed up in a black soft leather shoes, blue jeans, blue shirt and a bright green tie with a picture of South African president Nelson Mandela in the middle.

He opened his class by having one of his roughly 150 students, Nicholas Corman '97, play a little "riff" on the room's piano.

The lecture is on the metaphysical, political and psychological dimensions of Richard III. The professor makes occasionally wry references to the history of the period. With 20 minutes left in the class, Greenblatt opens the floor for questions, and after taking several, he ends class 10 minutes early to catch a flight to California.

"Professor Greenblatt enlivens the class with many anecdotes--fascinating footnotes and asides about the plays and Shakespeare's time," says teaching fellow Chris Miller. "Greenblatt also seems more than willing to entertain off the cuff remarks blurted out during the course of his lecture. They simply become absorbed into the stream of his commentary."

While he is open, he is also demanding. Greenblatt assumes students have read the plays and launches directly into analysis. This isn't a core, after all.

"Greenblatt's course has more required background--reading literary criticism--about the plays," Dodge says. "I think Garber's class just reads the plays themselves...and Garber also does more plays so she does not go as in-depth."

In part, that's because Greenblatt's students are more interested in digging deep.

"Everyone in Professor Greenblatt's class is truly interested in delving deep into the world of Shakespeare instead of receiving a surface level study," McGee says.

"Professor Greenblatt's class is much smaller, obviously more interactive, and more tuned for people who have been studying English as a major," says Deborah Kory '95, who is enrolled in both classes. "Greenblatt is more... improvisational... and he tends to be at least thus far a little more esoteric."

Still, during the four years he has taught off-and-on at Harvard, Greenblatt says he has tried to do less performing in class and more in-depth discussion.

"One thing I have learned in the four years I have been teaching at Harvard is that I have an enormous amount to learn from the students," Greenblatt says.

Garber

Garber, on the other hand, has to perform. She has more than 500 people to entertain in Sanders Theatre on Mondays and Wednesdays at 11 a.m.

This Wednesday, Garber, who is professor of English, stood on the stage dressed almost completely in black, including her stocking and high heels. A teaching fellow wrote a list of terms on the blackboard behind her.

Garber's lecture focuses on what was "natural and unnatural" about Richard III. She repeatedly refers to the plot of the play, and reads and acts out scenes from behind the podium.

While reading scenes, she speaks slowly, her voice rising and falling depending on the speeches, her hands moving wildly to add emphasis. She talks faster while lecturing, and approaches the end of the hour with an analysis of "the breakdown of Richard's character."

"She is very concerned that students view the plays not just as written text but as living pieces of performance," says Shelley Salamensky, a teaching fellow in the course. "In a sense it is theater--her lecture style is extremely entertaining as well as informative and in quoting passages from Shakespeare, she also performs them superbly."

At the end of lecture, the crowd in Sanders gives her a brief but loud round of applause.

"I would say I like being in Marge Garber's class because I find her inspirational," Kory says. "There aren't very many women at Harvard teaching those 'hear me roar' classes in Sanders Theatre."

Like Greenblatt, Garber offers a unique approach to Shakespeare. The course is centered around a small number of themes, including cross-dressing.

"She does explore cross dressing," Salamensky says. "But I think people have the impressions that she speaks about cross dressing more than she does because she wrote a book about it."

"I would say she explores the deeper human issues--psychoanalytic issues and artistic issues in the plays," she adds.

Even while exploring complicated issues, Garber's teaching can be simplistic, students say.

"She can't just assume that the hundreds of people in her class have studied English or Shakespeare or literature and so she has to obviously cater to a wider audience," Kory says.

One reason for Garber's use of plot summary, for example, may be that a significant percentage of students don't do the reading on time, if at all.

"I know some people in the class and they don't do the reading," says Aliza B. Goren '97, "and it makes it so that they can understand the lectures and what she's talking about even if they haven't read the plays before-hand."

There's nothing necessarily wrong with that, students and TFs say. A core course can't--and shouldn't--be as challenging as a departmental class, they argue.

Says Salamensky: "The plays are rich enough to stand alone for the purpose of a core course and the purpose of a core course is to bring unfamiliar material to life for students who might not otherwise gain access to it..

"I think Greenblatt is going to require more actual work," says Kelly M. Dodge '96, who took Garber's class during her first year and is currently in Greenblatt's course.

Greenblatt

Students say the most obvious differences between the two classes are the professors' lecture styles and their takes on Shakespeare.

"Greenblatt does more historical background and Garber did more gender based commentary," Dodge says.

Greenblatt's views on Shakespeare is unique, students and TFs, say. He takes what Wena Poon '95 describes as "a historical-cultural-anthropological approach" that some undergraduates find appealing.

"On the one hand, I'm trying to give the students a sense of Shakespeare in his culture, in some sense Shakespeare for Elizabethan and Jacobian culture," says Greenblatt, a visiting lecturer from the University of California, Berkeley. "But secondly and at the same time, I'm trying to give a sense of what is peculiarly unique and individual about this particular playwright."

The atmosphere in the class, which meets at 10 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays in Sever 113, is casual. This Thursday, Greenblatt showed up in a black soft leather shoes, blue jeans, blue shirt and a bright green tie with a picture of South African president Nelson Mandela in the middle.

He opened his class by having one of his roughly 150 students, Nicholas Corman '97, play a little "riff" on the room's piano.

The lecture is on the metaphysical, political and psychological dimensions of Richard III. The professor makes occasionally wry references to the history of the period. With 20 minutes left in the class, Greenblatt opens the floor for questions, and after taking several, he ends class 10 minutes early to catch a flight to California.

"Professor Greenblatt enlivens the class with many anecdotes--fascinating footnotes and asides about the plays and Shakespeare's time," says teaching fellow Chris Miller. "Greenblatt also seems more than willing to entertain off the cuff remarks blurted out during the course of his lecture. They simply become absorbed into the stream of his commentary."

While he is open, he is also demanding. Greenblatt assumes students have read the plays and launches directly into analysis. This isn't a core, after all.

"Greenblatt's course has more required background--reading literary criticism--about the plays," Dodge says. "I think Garber's class just reads the plays themselves...and Garber also does more plays so she does not go as in-depth."

In part, that's because Greenblatt's students are more interested in digging deep.

"Everyone in Professor Greenblatt's class is truly interested in delving deep into the world of Shakespeare instead of receiving a surface level study," McGee says.

"Professor Greenblatt's class is much smaller, obviously more interactive, and more tuned for people who have been studying English as a major," says Deborah Kory '95, who is enrolled in both classes. "Greenblatt is more... improvisational... and he tends to be at least thus far a little more esoteric."

Still, during the four years he has taught off-and-on at Harvard, Greenblatt says he has tried to do less performing in class and more in-depth discussion.

"One thing I have learned in the four years I have been teaching at Harvard is that I have an enormous amount to learn from the students," Greenblatt says.

Garber

Garber, on the other hand, has to perform. She has more than 500 people to entertain in Sanders Theatre on Mondays and Wednesdays at 11 a.m.

This Wednesday, Garber, who is professor of English, stood on the stage dressed almost completely in black, including her stocking and high heels. A teaching fellow wrote a list of terms on the blackboard behind her.

Garber's lecture focuses on what was "natural and unnatural" about Richard III. She repeatedly refers to the plot of the play, and reads and acts out scenes from behind the podium.

While reading scenes, she speaks slowly, her voice rising and falling depending on the speeches, her hands moving wildly to add emphasis. She talks faster while lecturing, and approaches the end of the hour with an analysis of "the breakdown of Richard's character."

"She is very concerned that students view the plays not just as written text but as living pieces of performance," says Shelley Salamensky, a teaching fellow in the course. "In a sense it is theater--her lecture style is extremely entertaining as well as informative and in quoting passages from Shakespeare, she also performs them superbly."

At the end of lecture, the crowd in Sanders gives her a brief but loud round of applause.

"I would say I like being in Marge Garber's class because I find her inspirational," Kory says. "There aren't very many women at Harvard teaching those 'hear me roar' classes in Sanders Theatre."

Like Greenblatt, Garber offers a unique approach to Shakespeare. The course is centered around a small number of themes, including cross-dressing.

"She does explore cross dressing," Salamensky says. "But I think people have the impressions that she speaks about cross dressing more than she does because she wrote a book about it."

"I would say she explores the deeper human issues--psychoanalytic issues and artistic issues in the plays," she adds.

Even while exploring complicated issues, Garber's teaching can be simplistic, students say.

"She can't just assume that the hundreds of people in her class have studied English or Shakespeare or literature and so she has to obviously cater to a wider audience," Kory says.

One reason for Garber's use of plot summary, for example, may be that a significant percentage of students don't do the reading on time, if at all.

"I know some people in the class and they don't do the reading," says Aliza B. Goren '97, "and it makes it so that they can understand the lectures and what she's talking about even if they haven't read the plays before-hand."

There's nothing necessarily wrong with that, students and TFs say. A core course can't--and shouldn't--be as challenging as a departmental class, they argue.

Says Salamensky: "The plays are rich enough to stand alone for the purpose of a core course and the purpose of a core course is to bring unfamiliar material to life for students who might not otherwise gain access to it..