| Lerninhalte |
In or about 1599, English literature changed. . Roughly halfway through his twenty-year career as a playwright, Shakespeare's creative energy was at its peak. Within a period of twelve months, he produced great plays in all four major genres: a Roman play (Julius Caesar), a comedy (As You Like It), a history play (Henry V) and a tragedy (Hamlet). In the seminar, we will read and discuss these plays, examining them through various "lenses" such as language, genre, theory, history, source criticism, and motives. Similarities across genres (e. g. not much happens in As You Like It as well as in Hamlet) and questions about the plays' historical and political perspectives (all of the four plays) interest us as much as readings of these plays from the point of view of contemporary critical discourses such as gender studies, new historicism or ecocriticism. However, primarily,, it is Shakespeare's art, the plays themselves in their historical and cultural contexts, that we will focus on. We will begin with Henry V. There are brand-new "New Oxford Editions" of Henry V, Julius Caesar and As You Like It available at a low price. Go for it! – and start reading as soon as you can. |
