ENL 3334 - Spring 2025 - Bourus

This class is designed to increase your enjoyment and understanding of Shakespeare’s work through a close reading of the texts in relation to performance of the plays, their social and historical settings, and the development of the plays as dramatic performances, on stage and on film. We will cover only a few of Shakespeare’s 43 extant plays and three books of poetry, but we will examine the broad spectrum across which Shakespeare wrote: sonnets, comedy, romance, history, and tragedy. In taking this approach, we will necessarily also examine William Shakespeare, the man, and the cultural milieu of the Early Modern Period in which he wrote. Performance is key to understanding Shakespeare, so we will watch films of staged performances and also “movies”, and consider the differences between these performance genres. This course fulfills the general lit requirement for one-course pre-1800. It also satisfies the requirement for coursework in the following areas of concentration: Medieval and Early Modern British Literacy and Cultural Studies, American Literary and Cultural Studies (through 1600); History of Text Technologies; or a Literary Genre (Drama).