Course Description
Summary
In this course, we’ll read a selection of Shakespeare’s tragedies, including Anthony and Cleopatra, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, King Lear, Macbeth, Othello, and Romeo and Juliet. We’ll consider the historical context of the plays, their sources, and the shadows they have cast on subsequent cultural productions. We’ll study Shakespeare’s language closely, and think about what his depictions of murder, betrayal, revenge, factionalism, war, madness, desire, and despair might help us to understand about our present world.
