ENG 121-02 - Introduction to Shakespeare (Fall)

4 credits (Fall)

This course is an introduction to Shakespeare’s drama and poetry. We will read Shakespeare’s work as a way to develop the skills necessary for literary analysis: close reading, clear writing, and logical argumentation. Shakespeare’s texts did not only paint a picture of the complicated Renaissance world; they attempted to change how that world looked. His poetry and drama powerfully challenged and redefined some of the dominant orthodoxies of Renaissance English culture. We will study how Shakespeare used the sonnet form to critique the norms governing Renaissance sexuality, the comedy to challenge gender codes in English society, the history play to reveal the long history of class tensions and social injustice dividing the English nation, and the tragedy to redefine the agency of the individual “subject” in corporate institutions such as the state and the church. Our course will conclude with a meditation on how Shakespeare addressed the problem of race in the first decade of English global trade and diplomacy. In studying how Shakespeare participated in some of the most pointed cultural debates of his time, we will consider how recent critics and theorists have read Shakespearean texts to critique aspects of contemporary culture.

Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Lee