ENG 222 - Shakespeare’s Plays

 
Description
This course introduces the plays of William Shakespeare. A minimum of six plays selected from the comedies, tragedies and histories are read both as works of literature and as scripts for performance. Included in the course are performances of each play and background information on Shakespearean ideas, images and stage conventions.

1. Identify the major dramatic genres of Shakespeare’s dramas and the general characteristics of each.
2. Review the historical and cultural background of Elizabethan theater.
3. Recall basic elements of plot, character and setting in specific plays.
4. Describe major themes of specific plays studied and identify the roles of major characters in developing those themes and plots.
5. Analyze the dramas studied within the cultural context of Shakespeare’s time and their relevance to the present.
6. Synthesize an argument or analyze specific elements of a play and present that argument in a college-level essay.

1. Shakespeare’s plays
2. Production and staging in the Elizabethan theater
3. The Elizabethan world view, and historical and cultural background
4. Twentieth-century film and stage versions of Shakespeare’s plays
5. Themes, structures, and conventions of the drama genre

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