Department of English

This class is designed for students interested in becoming familiar (or more familiar) with Shakespeare's work, with no prior experience required or assumed. We will study eight of Shakespeare's plays, including some of his greatest and most famous: tragedies like Hamlet, King Lear, and Othello; comedies like A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, and Measure for Measure; the late romance The Winter’s Tale. Our focus will be on the structure and language of the plays, their dramatic form and genres, and their relations to the social and political tensions of Shakespeare's time. The course centers on close readings of the texts and is designed to develop facility in reading Shakespeare's language and in dealing critically with the issues raised by the plays, but our readings will also be supplemented by historical texts and contexts, performance and theater histories, as we attempt to place the plays in their historical moment as well as in our own. Classes will consist of two lectures and one recitation per week. Requirements: recitation attendance and participation, midterm exam, final exam, a performance exercise (no acting ability needed!), and two papers. Please see below for TA contact per recitation. ENGLISH 101.002 Kenton B. Butcher (kentonb@sas.upennn.edu) ENGLISH 101.003 Knar E. Gavin (knarge@sas.upenn.edu) ENGLISH 101.004 Anne Malcolm (malcolma@sas.upenn.edu) ENGLISH 101.005 Nicholas J Millman (nmillman@sas.upenn.edu) ENGLISH 101.006 Stephanie R. Scherer (schers@sas.upenn.edu)