Hark, a Voice! Shakespeare, Sound, and Identity

Catalog description

Whose voices matter in Shakespeare’s plays? In this class, we will draw upon diverse perspectives in the fields of voice and sound studies to explore questions of identity and agency, performance and play, in the works of Shakespeare. We will read and watch stagings of Hamlet, Henry VIII, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, and Macbeth—texts that insist upon understanding voices as powerful, though unpredictable, modes of expression. As we do so, we will learn about the history of early modern dramatic performance. What did voices sound like in the acoustic spaces of 16th/17th- century London’s indoor and outdoor theatres, and how are modern writers and artists responding to the “voice” of Shakespeare today? How did psychology, religion, and stories about witches combine to shape Shakespeare’s theatre music? How might familiar characters and plots become unfamiliar when we approach them through the context of children’s performance? We will also consider the ways that Shakespearean voices challenge our expectations about the performance of gender, race, class, and neurotypicality. “Mad” songs, hyper-drag theatrics, curses, jokes, and choked-up confessions: the variety of speech acts in Shakespeare’s works underscores the wide scope of perspectives that his plays offer. Readings from modern voice theorists like Nina Sun Eidsheim, Amanda Weidman, and Patricia Akhimie will help guide our discussion of the resonant social problems and possibilities that Shakespeare’s voices continue to speak, sing, and shout about. Novelists and Sociologists