ENGL2120 Shakespeare

This topic will focus on the plays of William Shakespeare both as a window onto the richness of Renaissance culture and as works of current timeliness.

Students will be encouraged to imagine the plays both in their historical context and in the context of their own lives and concerns. We will study plays from all the major genres (comedy, history, tragedy, and romance), and explore the ways character, spectacle, poetry, and genre shape the experience of Shakespearean drama.

Special attention will be paid to the 'hot' issues in recent debates about Shakespeare, and students will have the opportunity to become acquainted with some of the scholarship surrounding this most famous of English writers.

This topic aims to:

• Develop familiarity with the formal characteristics of genre, character, and poetic language in drama
• Address thematic and theoretical issues central to literary studies of historicism, canonicity, patriarchy, and timelessness

1. Analyse the life and works of Shakespeare to indicate extensive knowledge of the subject
2. Examine a range of theoretical issues concerned with addressing classic literature
3. Apply advanced skills in literary interpretative practice