Course details
Name: ENGL - 509
Title: SHAKESPEARE: THE COMEDIES
Section: 01
Semester: Spring - 2024
Credits: 3
Description:
We'll be talking about major ideas and conflicts that informed Elizabethan and Jacobean thinking as reflected/deflected/inflected in the plays, theories of comedy as a genre, and current critical approaches to Shakespeare's work, including (but not exclusively) theories of racial and gendered representation. We study various modes and patterns of Shakespearean comedy: festive, city, satirical, as well as his use of Commedia dell’Arte traditions, the figures of Clown and Fool, comedy as social and political corrective, and as the genre of accommodation. Among the questions we address that may of particular interest to students are: why isn’t Shakespearean comedy funny? Why is The Merchant of Venice considered a comedy? Why does Shakespeare offer scenes of domestic violence, dialogs of misogyny, and clear scapegoating in his comedies? Why does Shakespearean comedy require marriage (or the promise of marriage) at the end of the play? What is the difference between Shakespearean comedy and tragedy, and between Shakespeare’s comedies and those of his contemporaries? These and similar inquiries form the core of our study; you are welcome to bring in any enduring and/or vexing questions you may have.
Last updated on 2023-10-31 By
Liebler Naomi (lieblern)
Schedule: Thursday From 5:30 pm To 8:00 pm
Graduation requirements:
- Genre Study (Drama)
- Shakespeare (TE 1a)
- Pre-1800 British (TE 1b)
- Graduate (BA/MA)
Teaching Faculty: Liebler Naomi (lieblern)
Is course canceled: No