Shakespeare and the Renaissance
Term 1
MWF, 2:00 – 3:00 p.m.
In this course we focus on Shakespeare’s literary output during the last decade of the sixteenth century. We’ll explore his recycling of classical sources (the poetry of Ovid, for example) and his relation to English dramatic traditions. We’ll attend especially to the idea of “personhood” in his early plays and poetry, interrogating the relation between a person and the various institutions (educational, economic, familial, governmental, legal, medical, religious, and theatrical) that define and may reconfigure that person. Readings will likely include The Taming of the Shrew, The Comedy of Errors, Titus Andronicus, The Rape of Lucrece, Richard II, Henry V, The Merchant of Venice, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
