Shakespeare and Contexts (Pre-1800)

This course is designed to sample the breadth of Shakespeare's dramatic art, from Titus Andronicus to The Tempest, with an eye to understanding both how the plays may have resonated for his first audiences on stage and how subsequent readers have drawn their own meanings from the published texts. We will therefore pay particular attention to such dramaturgical issues as the construction of character and of plot, the reworking of sources, spectacle, meta-theatricality, and versification, as well as consider what political and commercial implications these plays might have had during Shakespeare's life and what meaning they hold for us today. 3 hrs. lect./3 hr. disc./3 hrs. screen.