ENGL 225 Shakespeare: Beyond Tragedy
A course about Shakespeare's comedies and histories. What constitutes these plays as "nontragic"? In what sense are their endings happy? What gets left out of their visions of personal or political reconciliation? Primary emphasis in our study and in your writing will be on the language and structure of the plays, with some attention to performance, and to the relationship--sometimes the tension--between Shakespeare's theatrical and poetic vocations. Some semesters may focus exclusively on history or on comedy, and topics vary but may include: chronicle, civil war, and national ideology; rebellion; law and criminality; race, religion, gender, and class; love, jealousy, marriage, and sexuality; the nature of literary/dramatic character; rhetoric and dialogue; time and timing; plot and plotting. Students in this class will learn how to read and interpret Shakespeare's comedies and histories and to understand them in their historical context as reflections on England and its relationship to continental Europe and the colonial world. Students will develop a vocabulary for critically discussing these plays with precision and nuance and write sensitive literary criticism about the structure, language, and themes of the plays.