SHAKESPEARE PERFORMANCE STUDIES

Catalog description

This course will work across three general approaches to Shakespearean drama and performance. First, we’ll consider the historical forms of performance that have used Shakespearean drama as the material for theatrical endeavor. Second, we’ll consider theoretical paradigms for performance that resituate an understanding that privileges either the “theatrical” or the “literary” identity of Shakespeare’s plays. And, finally, we’ll consider how we might consider the plays as themselves theoretical instruments for thinking about performance. Throughout the semester we will consider stage, film, and online productions, and the ways they articulate a sense of both “Shakespeare” and “performance.” This course is a seminar, and while there is no formal prerequisite, students who have had a previous Shakespeare course will find the reading more manageable: we will rarely be doing the kind of “overview” of a play, but will be incisively considering specific elements of performance. Application Instructions: E-mail the instructor [email protected] with the title of the course in the subject line. In your message, include basic information: your name, school, major, year of study, and relevant courses taken, along with a brief statement about why you are interested in taking the course. Admitted students should register for the course; they will automatically be placed on a wait list, from which the instructor will admit them as spaces become available