Department of English

This course will be an introduction to ten of Shakespeare's major plays: Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, Richard II, Henry IV, Part I, Hamlet, Othello, Antony and Cleopatra, The Winter's Tale, and The Tempest. We will concentrate on learning to read the texts well, attending to how each is constructed for the stage and looking at how Shakespeare uses language to create character and to produce other dramatic effects. We will also explore the social implications of these plays, in particular their role in constructing early modern ideas about such things as gender roles, the nature of kingship, England's identity as a nation, and the relationship of the English to religious and racial others such as the Jew and the Moor. There will be two exams and one paper.