Time Schedule:
Todd A Borlik
ENGL 225
Seattle Campus
Introduces Shakespeare's career as dramatist, with study of representative comedies, tragedies, romances, and history plays.
Class description
For AUTUMN 2007: How did the son of a provincial glove-maker write a series of plays that have come to be esteemed the supreme achievement of Western Literature? What accounts for their enduring popularity on stage, screen, and in the classroom? In pursuit of the answers we will hurl ourselves into some of the most famous writings to spill from his quill: 2 Comedies, 2 Tragedies, a History Play, a Late Romance and a smattering of Sonnets. Beyond familiarizing students with the basic plotline of the dramas, the course will offer strategies for understanding and savoring Shakespeare’s English. Class discussion will center on in-depth analysis of key passages. Lectures and supplementary readings will help situate the plays in the context of the cultural, political and religious turmoil engulfing Elizabethan England. Finally, we will also view clips of several film adaptations of Shakespeare to better size up the shadow his legacy casts on our culture today.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Recommended preparation
Class assignments and grading
