Fall 2010
ENGL404 - Shakespeare: The Later Works
In this course we will read plays from the second half of Shakespeare's career, probably: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, The Winter's Tale and The Tempest. Emphasis on careful reading, improving your writing about imaginative literature, increasing your appreciation of what happens when a text goes onto the stage, and consideration of how Shakespeare was both "of an age" and "for all time" (Ben Jonson). Class will be primarily discussion with some mini-lectures. Frequent dramatic readings, monologues and some scene work. There will be quizzes to ensure prompt reading and several papers, including one on the cultural context of one of the plays.
Test
Prerequisites:
Two English courses in literature or permission of department.