ENGL 234 - Shakespeare

Institution:

University of Richmond

Subject:

Description:

Analysis of selected plays and poems from variety of critical perspectives. Prerequisite(s): English 103 with a grade of C or better or exemption. General Education Requirement: (FSLT) Unit(s): 1 Additional Information: This course investigates a selection from Shakespeare's comedies, histories, tragedies, and romances. Special emphasis is placed on close reading and on genre analysis. Both comedy and tragedy are complex literary modes that have been invested with a variety of meanings and functions in the Western tradition. We explore what these roles have been, and in particular how Shakespeare adopted and manipulated generic conventions to serve his own purposes. This course also engages a variety of recurring issues that emerge in these works, including questions about the nature of the individual subject, gender roles, communities, history, political institutions, art, and questions about the relations among all of these. We also explore what theater is and how it works, making use of film clips of various performances of the plays as one way of approaching this issue. The most important goal of this course is for students to reach a good level of familiarity with and understanding of Shakespeare's language and imagery. Students also examine how interpretations of these plays may be affected or influenced by our own involvement in the Shakespeare "myth," and we will consider ways in which the playwright himself seems to offer his readers hints for approaching his own texts.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.richmond.edu

Phone Number:

(804) 289-8000

Regional Accreditation:

Southern Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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