ENGL E-129 Shakespeare After All The Later Plays

Overview

This course focuses on Shakespeares later plays beginning with Measure for Measure and ending with The Tempest. Building on the discussions of individual plays in Marjorie Garbers book Shakespeare After All, this course takes note of key themes, issues, and interpretations of the plays, focusing on questions of genre, gender, politics, family relations, silence and speech, and cultural power from both above and below (royalty, nobility, and the court; clowns and fools). Designed as part lecture-presentation and part discussion, this is a course that is meant to be interactive, taking up topics generated by students as well as by the instructor. We discuss a play each week, along with the relevant critical reading.