Literature and Culture: Hamlet

Catalog description

Through its 400+ years in existence, Hamlet has been one of the most widely read, frequently performed, and scrupulously analyzed of all literary texts. This course begins with an attempt to put the play into its original cultural context by considering some key issues raised by the play, the political and religious backgrounds of these issues, and the conceptions of human psychology and physiology that inform Shakespeare's treatment of them. In considering the sources and context of Hamlet, we will locate Shakespeare's work in the Renaissance revenge tragedy tradition by exploring classical precursors and Shakespearean contemporaries in that genre. There follows an intensive six week study of the text itself, with our discussions enriched by considering the perspective of various disciplines - theology, psychology, ethics, feminism - on particular pieces of the play. Finally, we will move on to examining the "afterlife" of Hamlet in the creative arts of subsequent centuries.