Shakespeare.

Catalog description

It is probably no exaggeration to say that Shakespeare is the author who taught us to live in the modern world. Though his contemporaries like Sidney and Spenser wrote moving poetry, they often wrote retrospectively, harkening back to older traditions and forms. Shakespeare, in embracing the renewed dramatic tradition of the late 16th century, was decidedly forward looking, building new and wonderful things on the foundation of Renaissance Humanism he would have received at the King’s New School in Stratford-upon-Avon. Born in 1564, Shakespeare never experienced the turbulent political aftermath of Henry VIII’s reign, but it surely informed both his sense of history and his keen understanding of the political dimension of tragedy. This course offers a broad-based grounding in Shakespeare: we will read plays from all four genres (tragedy, comedy, history, romance) as well as a significant amount of non-dramatic poetry. The course will also introduce students to the ins and outs of Shakespeare’s language, and provide an experience of the substantial critical tradition that truly begins with the publication of the First Folio in 1623.