Course overview
The aim of this course is to provide students with a comprehensive overview of many of the major issues in Elizabethan and Shakespearean drama, and introduce them to the major analytic, interpretive, and evaluative tools for making sense of work over 400 years old. The approach through genre is important to contextualising the nature of Shakespeare's writing practices, his understanding of audiences, his status as a shareholder in a major dramatic company, and his adaptation of various sources. The course will also place Shakespeare in a contemporary and comparative framework to allow for an enhanced understanding of how themes like race, sex and sexuality, gender, colonialism, and monarchical power travel in space and time through the agency of literary forms. It will allow students to see theatrical performance as more than merely entertainment, but as an active conduit for the circulation of social energy.
- Introducing Shakespeare
- Shakespearean Comedy
- Shakespearean Tragedy
- The ‘Problem Play'
Course learning outcomes
- Demonstrate critical understanding of some of the major genres in Shakespearean drama
- Analyse dramatic forms using accepted technical terms and critical concepts
- Relate dramatic forms to social and historical contexts
- Make informed judgements about the effectiveness and value of dramatic works
- Use acquired skills to interpret dramatic performance texts
- Understand the achievement of Shakespeare as a major artist