ENG 121-01 & 02 - Introduction to Shakespeare

4 credits (Fall)

This course introduces students to Shakespeare’s drama and poetry. As students read Shakespeare’s works within a historical and critical context, they will develop critical writing, close reading, and advanced research skills. We will read archival source material and consider how Shakespeare engages with contemporaneous texts, such as ballads, conduct manuals, and medical discourses. More specifically, we will discuss how Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets reflect, complicate, and contradict popular ideas, particularly those surrounding unstable categories such as femininity, masculinity, blackness, and whiteness. In addition, as read Shakespeare’s plays, we will keep in mind that these dramatic texts were intended for the stage. As a class, we will discuss early modern theatrical conventions as well as contemporary productions, such as Julie Taymor’s Titus Andronicus and Michael Hoffman’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Biggie