Reading

The primary text: Hamlet

Secondary reading:

(1) The chapter on 'Understanding Tragedy' from Sean McEvoy's Shakespeare: The Basics (Routledge, 2006)
(2) Look for The Cambridge Companion to Shakespearean Tragedy in the library catalogue. It is available both as a paper copy and as an e-book. Read the chapter on 'Gender and Family' by Catherine Belsey, and when you read Hamlet this week, consider whether it could also be read as the tragedy of Gertrude, or Ophelia.
(3) The reading list for Hamlet is here. Start exploring some of it if you can, but make reading the text itself your priority.

Optional additional reading (for now or later):
For a Renaissance view on revenge, have a look at Francis Bacon's essay 'Of Revenge'.
For ghosts, see this.

Other prep

Each study-group will have to work together to prepare a 5-minute presentation on both of the topics given below. In the tutorial, you will select one topic at random to present to the rest of the group.

(i) The group assigned 'Oedipus': Read, or at least find out more about Sophocles's Oedipus rex (there are numerous translations of this), and do some background research on the Oedipus myth.
You may also want to read the section on Tragedy in Aristotle's Poetics.

(ii) The group assigned 'Revenge tragedy': Read, or at least find out more about Thomas Kyd's trendsetting play, The Spanish Tragedy, and do some independent research on the sub-genre of the Elizabethan Revenge Tragedy. A good place to start would be the Oxford World Classics volume, Four Revenge Tragedies.

IMPORTANT! Over the Easter break, do make a point of doing some additional reading. Try to finish reading the remaining plays that we will be tackling when we return: it will leave you with a bit more time to do the prep-work during the week. Also, go back to the reading lists for the previous plays, and try to read at least one more item per play if you can; the more you do this, the easier it will be to write structured, critically-confident essays in your own right.
If you want to practise writing another essay, or essay plans, use the question papers on the module page on VITAL under 'Learning Resources'. I'll be happy to look through these when we return.