ENG 3020 - Topics in Shakespeare

• Students will develop a sense of the material conditions of London’s Early Modern theater culture, including the building of purpose-built theaters, the origin of commercial playing companies, and authorial collaboration in playwrighting.
• Students will develop an understanding of early modern political, cultural, and philosophical contexts that inform the drama of Shakespeare and his contemporaries.
• Students will master strategies of close analytical reading of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century playtexts, and employ a sophisticated critical and theoretical vocabulary for literary analysis.
• Students will recognize and appreciate the dramatic literature of Shakespeare and his English contemporaries, studying specific dramatic conventions, including common themes, traditional plot structure and character development.