Tudor-Stuart Drama · English And Comparative Literature
One play a week with the first two acts read for Monday and finished by Wednesday. Exams are very fair: midterm and final (not cumulative). He provides a list of characters and in 10 words you have to identify them; a couple passage IDs pulled from material discussed and/or acted out in class; one or two quotes that you have to explain the significance of in 30 words or fewer. Two essays during the semester: one 600-word theater review and another 2,100 word response to a very specific question regarding two plays.
Avg. English course workload. Midterm paper, 2 papers, and a final.
I think the workload is pretty fair, about one play of reading a week with a discussion post, with two papers, a midterm and final. Professor Robertson is a notoriously tougher grader on the essays, so I definitely recommend taking your time with them and GO TO OFFICE HOURS- she will help you so, so much with the writing process (and she'll likely push you in a good direction). To perfect a Robertson essay is to edit, edit, and edit, so expect long nights at Butler for those two papers. I will say I believe her exams are graded less harshly- the midterm was ID's with context and main themes of the play, and the final was the same + two short comparison essays. The bar writing-wise is lower, but you really need to know your specific details from lecture, so make sure to take good notes in her class. This isn't the kind of class you can sleep in and do okay in- your notes are key!
Excellent class, fascinating material (Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Thomas Kyd, Christopher Marlowe); small seminar style discussion format with a passionate and learned instructor, and relative freedom to explore interesting topics in research paper. Convenient evening time slot. The Department should offer this and other focused Renaissance lit classes more regularly!
Professor Shapiro is a WONDERFUL professor. He is enthusiastic, presents difficult material clearly and in a stimulating manner, and is extremely kind and approachable. Acting out the plays in class clarified dense text and made it exciting. The contextual information (political and social history, biographies of the play writes, etc) helped to create a trajectory in my head of how tragedies and comedies changed in response to one another and the period in which they were written. The only time I have had another professor give such critical feedback to my writing was in U Writing. Professor Shapiro puts a lot of thought into his comments to help his students strengthen their writing and thinking. I would recommend everyone take a class with Professor Shapiro during their junior and/or senior year. It may be more difficult for non-English majors, but his enthusiasm and clear teaching style makes the material less intimidating, and he works diligently to help students become better writers. Go to his office hours. Seriously, go to them. Shapiro is a boss in his field and one of the kindest professors I've ever met. He loves getting to know his students one-on-one and is extremely helpful with his writing assignments if you actually show up and talk to him.
Inspiring. He has an extensive knowledge of renaissance literature, but is humble and not egoistic at all. The reading load is fair. He is not an easy grader, but a very fair one. Also, he considers participation important, which makes his class discussions exciting and dynamic. Best english professor I have had at Columbia!
Wow, what an amazing class this was! Professor Robertson is truly one of the best lecturers I have ever encountered- there were some classes that my friends and I would genuinely leave in awe after. She has a way of really grasping your attention, delivering so much valuable historical insight, context, analysis and close-reading while also being very charming and friendly! She learned all of our names (and I believe there were about 50 of us), and she would often reference several student's discussion posts in class, which felt really nice as we could tell she actually read them and engaged with our observations. She has a seamless way of blending her lecture with engaging questions with us, as well as some fun days in which students would read/act out short passages of the plays or we would watch a clip of a production. Overall, this was definitely the best english class I've taken at Columbia so far, and Professor Robertson is a true gem of the English Department!
600-word theater review midterm that's all IDs final paper (the topic is given over a month in advance and he encourages you to go to office hours a lot) participation final exam (on the last day of class for us) that was a mix of IDs and two(?) essays on the text I found grading to be fair.
Short weekly discussion posts graded on completion (though I don't think she does these for every lecture), roughly one play per week, one midterm, one final, and 2 papers
]This was my favorite class of the semester by far. Shapiro is an incredible lecturer, and his passion for the works is truly infectious. I was hesitant to take this class because I wasn't super interested in the material (1600s non-Shakespeare drama), but he definitely changed that for me. He jokes that he lives in that time period, but he really does seem to have an endless amount of knowledge. He began every play talking about the playwright and situating him in the time period, and we generally acted out one (or sometimes more) scene(s) from each play -- Shapiro is big on the theatrical aspect of the works and how you feel in the setting, whether it's a big theater or a small theater, etc. We learned a lot about that sort of stuff which not every professor does. Also acting out the plays was hilarious to watch, at times. He also encourages class participation from everyone as much as possible. He caps his classes at around 60 students so that there's an intimate class/lecture environment, and it definitely works. He's pretty good about cutting people off who go too off topic, too. The only thing I felt Shapiro didn't do enough of was detailed textual analysis (eg syntax, diction, etc.) but the rest of the class more than made up for this and I really didn't think that much of it. He's an incredible professor and I would honestly recommend his class to just about anyone. He…