Shakespeare: Tragedies & Histories

Catalog description

In the closing decades of the sixteenth century, enterprising cultural producers in early modern London began to develop a new commercial venture called 'playing': a business that offered ordinary people a few hours of dramatic entertainment for the price of one penny. In addition to watching the professional players onstage, spectators also participated in a form of play themselves (in a sense) because theatrical experience provided a unique opportunity to engage imaginatively with otherwise inaccessible people, worlds, and ideas. More than four hundred years later, the drama of the period now ranks among the most esteemed texts in all English literature, and the name 'Shakespeare' has become a byword for literary genius. This course will offer an overview of Shakespeare's tragedies and histories. As we read through a selection of key works, we will endeavor to understand what, and how, they meant in their original context, thereby developing a historically informed perspective on their influence over our own cultural landscape. The course counts toward the Dietrich GenEd requirement. Course Website: https://bit.ly/f25cmupep245