English 117S

Book List

Shakespeare, William: Norton Shakespeare: Essential Plays (3rd ed.); Shakespeare, William: The Comedy of Errors (Signet ed.);

Recommended: Greenblatt, Stephen: Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare

Description

Shakespeare wrote a massive number of plays.  Focusing on a selection of them, we’ll consider the range of Shakespeare's dramaturgy and why this range was important to him.  We’ll also explore how the variety of dramatic genres in which he wrote affected Shakespeare’s representation of plot and character, as well as the literary, social, sexual, religious, political, and philosophical issues he conceptualized through plot and character.  Finally, we’ll think about Shakespeare’s plays in relation to the range of social types and classes in his mass audience.