We will be reading eight plays three histories from early in Shakespeares career and five tragedies from later and considering films of some of them. The course will approach these plays from two angles. First, we will try to see them in relation to the culture for which they were written and which they helped shape--the newly established public theater in London, prevailing notions about social class and gender, Puritan attacks on playgoing, and the like. To help in situating the plays in this way, I will distribute brief essays from time to time. In addition, we want to see these plays in terms of "what's in it for us"? how current audiences and readers can enjoy and interpret these plays. We will be considering how complicit the plays are with the authoritative institutions and discourses of their time, and how well or poorly they speak to us now that those institutions and discourses have been replaced by others. The course may be taken to fulfill requirements in the Integrative Liberal Studies program or as a general elective. In it we will reflect on the changes and continuities in society, language, and ethical struggles across time. Students will be required to attend and participate regularly, submit brief responses in class and/or over email from time to time, write two prepared essays, and take a final exam.
