ENGL 530-01: New Approaches to Shakespeare

Section Description:

While recent critical evaluations of Shakespeare’s plays and poetry have developed new perspectives from which to view his work, scholars have also revisited older approaches to his corpus, as evidenced in the New Formalism and reconsiderations of historicism. The first few weeks of this course will provide an introduction to the history of literary theory and criticism as it formulated itself in and through the works of Shakespeare. We will also consider new or renewed literary criticism in response to several of Shakespeare’s poems and plays. You will attend a library instruction presentation that will enable you to research the current critical and theoretical conversation on Shakespeare. The rest of the semester will be determined by your interests, as you will be asked to a select play or poem and research the current state of Shakespeare criticism on this text. You will select an essay or chapter found in your research, which we will place on the syllabus to be read in conjunction with your play. Assignments will include: an oral presentation to the class, weekly short written responses to the reading, and two longer essays.