English 117S

Book List

Bevington, ed.: The Necessary Shakespeare, 3rd edition

Description

This will be an introduction to close reading Shakespeare that will address all of his genres and periods, at least after 1596.  I am interested primarily in unabashedly celebrating Shakespeare’s various forms of genius by tracing how complex, engaging, and intelligent the plays are about human passions. So I will try to steer the class away from political and even ethical readings, especially based on abstractions about race, class, and gender unless the student's work can find significant internal evidence in the language for stressing those concerns. Readings of political and ethical passions and their fate, on the other hand, will be encouraged.   We will read roughly a play a week, with some taking two weeks.  There will two papers, a mid-term, and a final, and attendance will be required. Richard II, Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Measure for Measure, Macbeth, Anthony and Cleopatra, A Winter's Tale, The Tempest.