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UNIT PLAN
Level: advanced [C1], 4th level upper secondary school (liceo scientifico, classico or linguistico)
Pre-requisites:
- Knowledge of the basic conventions of drama and drama before Shakespeare
- Knowledge of the world of the Elizabethan Theatre
- Knowledge of essential facts about Shakespeare’s life and works
- Knowledge of essential facts about Shakespeare’s King Lear and its sources
- Linguistic competence at upper-intermediate level [ B2]
- Basic knowledge of the languages of visual arts
Approach: genre-based, thematic, textual, contextual and interdisciplinary
Objectives:
By the end of this unit students will have:
- Interpreted the language, imagery, and motifs of King Lear
- Identified major characters, plot and setting of the play
- Identified the major themes of the play
- Appreciated different interpretations of this play
- Recognised the universality and timelessness of Shakespeare’s drama
- Reflected on family relationships, possible conflicts and solutions
- Developed reading and analytical skills
- Developed appropriate transferable skills:
1) Reading comprehension and fluency
2) Organisation and presentation of ideas in oral and written forms
3) Critical analysis of texts
4) Capacity for independent study and research skills
5) Self-confidence and appropriate participation in group discussion
Contents:
Extracts from Shakespeare’s King Lear (Penguin Edition):
Text One – “Meantime we shall express our darker purpose” (Act 1, Scene 1, ll. 36-122)
Text Two – “Is not this your son, my lord?” (Act 1, Scene 1, ll. 1-35)
Text Three: “Thou, Nature, art my goddess” (Act 1, Scene 2, ll. 1-22)
Text Four: “These late eclipses … portend no good to us” (Act 1, Scene 2, ll.102-132)
Text Five: “Sirrah, you were best take my coxcomb” (Act 1, Scene 4, ll. 97-148)
Text Six: “Now, Edmund, where’s the villain?” (Act 2, Scene 1, ll. 34-62)
Text Seven: “I heard myself proclaimed” (Act 2, Scene 3)
Text Eight: “I pray you, father, being weak, seem so” (Act 2, Scene 4, ll. 196-280)
Clips from the film “ Ran ” directed by Akira Kurosawa [Japan, 1985]:
1.the opening: Hidetora’s decision to divide the land and power amongst his three sons and his banishment of the youngest (minutes 9-21)
2.the middle: Hidetora’s defeat and madness (minutes 54-75, from where he learns of youngest son’s love and loyalty through the brutal carnage of the attack on the castle by the two disloyal sons, ending with the father’s bewildered lapse into madness as he wanders from the burning castle, a total of 21 minutes. If a comparison of Shakespeare’s and Kurosawa’s “heath” scenes is desired, the next ten minutes of the film can be included.
3.the ending: (minutes 135-160) in which the two armies clash and the youngest son is reunited with his father in the tragic conclusion.
Materials: handouts, King Lear text, “Ran” by Akira Kurosawa (VHS/DVD)
Equipment: BB, OHP, VCR/DVD player, PC
Timing: 12 periods of 55 minutes each (approx. 12 hours)
Links:
INTRADISCIPLINARY
William Shakespeare, As You Like It (1600)
Nahum Tate, The History of King Lear (1681)
Alexander Pope (ed.), King Lear (1723)
Lamb Charles and Mary, Tales from Shakespeare, (1807)
John Keats, On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again (1838)
Gordon Bottomley, King Lear's Wife (1924)
Samuel Beckett, Endgame (1956)
Edward Bond, Lear (1971)
Jane Smiley, A Thousand Acres (1991)
INTERDISCIPLINARY
Film Versions
King Lear (Korol Lir), directed by Grigori Kozintzev [URSS, 1970]
King Lear , directed by Peter Brook [UK/Denmark 1971]
King Lear , directed by Michael Elliott [Granada Television 1983]
King Lear , directed by Jean-Luc Godard [USA 1987]
King Lear , directed by Richard Eyre [adaptation for the BBC 1997]
A Thousand Acres , directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse [USA 1997]
The King is Alive , directed by Kristian Lewring [Sweden/Denmark/USA 2000)
King of Texas , directed by Uli Edel [USA 2002]
My Kingdom , directed by Dan Boyd [UK 2002]
Adaptations in Literature
Ivan Turgenev, A King Lear of the Steppes (1870)
Adaptations in Music
Hector Berlioz, King Lear , Ouverture, H53 (1831)
Stefano Gobatti, Cordelia (1881)
Antonio Cagnoni, Re Lear (1890)
Giulio Cottrau, Il re Lear (1913)
Alberto Ghislanzoni, Re Lear (1937)
Vito Frazzi, Re Lear (1939)
Jef Van. Durme, König Lear opera, op. 59 (1955)
Dmitri Shostakovich, King Lear (for Kozintzev, 1970)
Aribert Reimann, Lear (1978)
Darijan Bozic, Kral Lear, (1986)
Tosjo Osokawa, Vision of Lear (1998)
Paintings, Illustrations
John Hamilton Mortimer, Edgar (1775)
William Blake, Lear and Cordelia in Prison, c. 1779
Frances Legat, King Lear, Act V, Scene III (1792)
William Sharp, King Lear, Act V, Scene III (1749-1824)
Ford Madox Brown, Lear and Cordelia (1848-54)
J. Franklin, The Death of Cordelia (1850)
William Dyce, King Lear and Fool in the Storm (1851)
Ford Madox Brown, Cordelia's Portion (1866)
Marcus Stone, Lear and Cordelia (1874)
Benjamin West, King Lear, (1878)
Edward Austin Abbey, Cordelia's Farewell(1898)
John Gregory (1878-1945), King Lear (bas relief for the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington D.C.)
Oscar Kokoschka, King Lear Series (Lithographs) (1963)
Derek Devereaux, King Lear (2003)
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