Global Shakespeare

Catalog description

To what extent can "Shakespeare" serve as the focal point for a cultural heritage that belongs to the entire globe? This course offers a comparative, interdisciplinary approach to Shakespeare's plays, considering them both as exemplary of Western literature and also as world literature, influential in many cultures. Three sets of questions ground the course: 1) In what ways was Shakespeare a "global" author in his own day, adopting a "worldly" approach that transcends his English context? 2) How do the publication, performance, and critical histories of his plays transform "Shakespeare" into a global commodity? 3) What cultural legacy has Shakespeare's work left for a variety of global media forms, including plays, films, novels, operas, and works of visual art? The course begins with two plays, Othello and The Tempest, that have inspired adaptations in a variety of contexts and genres. It then pays close attention to the global spread of Shakespeare’s most famous play, Hamlet, from 1603 to the present. The course concludes with a creative project inspired by Shakespeare's lost play, Cardenio.