In this course, we will examine the second half of Shakespeare’s career, including the comedies, tragedies and romances written (sometimes with other dramatists) between 1599 and 1613.
The course will emphasize particular shifts in Shakespeare’s dramatic style, preferred genres, and subject matter as the Tudor age ended and the Stuart dynasty began.
Our reading list will include Shakespeare's late comedy, Twelfth Night, as well as tragedies and romances, Othello, Macbeth, The Two Noble Kinsmen, A Winter's Tale, Cymbeline, and The Tempest. Students will write three essays and take a comprehensive exam. They will also conduct collaborative research in small groups on the cultural contexts in which one of the plays was produced; this research will allow each group to teach a 45 minute lesson on how those contexts illuminate and complicate our understanding of the dramatic text.
Statue of Shakespeare in Central Park, NYC.