Course Description

This survey of Shakespeare’s poems and plays will explore a range of topics related to the circumstances of Shakespeare’s life, work, and reception, from what it was like to write under England’s first female monarch to the rise of capitalism to England’s role in the wars of religion. We will focus, however, on the relationship between past and present: students will be introduced to the methodological distinction between presentism and historicism. Presentism, for our purposes, is an approach to historical literatures that focuses on their relevance to the present—it focuses, in other words, on reception. Historicism, by contrast, is an approach that focuses on historical moment in which they were written—on the circumstances of production. Students will come away with a more sophisticated understanding of the assumptions we bring to bear on the past and what tools we have, as scholars, for recognizing and addressing our own limitations. 

The practice of reading will be a constant topic for us, since we’ll be focusing on how to read slowly, how to read “dreamily,” how to read with purpose and intensity. We will discuss the plays one act at a time, lingering over their most puzzling, beautiful, or troubling passages. The study of literature does not consist of memorized of facts or right answers. Literature teaches us to recognize and confront problems that do not have easy answers, and to find a path forward in the face of uncertainty. As students of literature, our task is to find a question, problem, or puzzle raised by the text, to unfold its complexity, and to help other readers understand something new about it. To do so requires careful attention—attention not just to textual and historical details, but to the invisible assumptions and beliefs that inform our experience of the text. This class is designed to help students make the literature we read together meaningful to ourselves and the communities we belong to. Students will come away with a working understanding of both the historical conditions under which Shakespeare wrote and the reasons for his continued importance in the twenty-first century.

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