English 310
Shakespeare: The Late Plays
Professor Willbern

The course is a representative survey of the last half of Shakespeare's career: roughly 1600-1610. We will read seven plays: comedies, tragedies, and romances. Specifically: Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure, Othello, Macbeth, King Lear, and The Tempest.

One focus will be on the ways in which Shakespeare's dramas foreshadow the modern notion of identity as performance, and the problems of identity maintenance under such a notion. We will examine concepts of self, sexuality, family, and power as enacted in these early-modern plays.

Always underlying dramatic performance are the particularities of language. My readings of Shakespeare's plays remain focused on the specific densities of his poetic text. Readings will be enhanced by excerpts from films of the plays, and by Internet links to various resources on Shakespeare.

This will be a multimedia, Web-oriented class. Many course assignments and requirements can be completed online, although class attendance will still be necessary. For a preview, see the course Web site:

http://www.cas.buffalo.edu/classes/eng/willbern/Shakespeare/index310.htm

Page last updated: January 6, 2005
Send comments to: Professor David Willbern