The class will only start in the second week of the semester - on Tuesday, 26th Oktober 2021
405 years have passed since William Shakespeare died, and his plays are still being read, performed, and adapted for various artistic purposes all over the world. What does Shakespeare’s theatre – Shakespeare’s plays, the theatrical conventions of his time, the cultural and historical contexts – have to do with our contemporary readings and performances of “the bard’s“ plays? How do we relate to his plays today? We enjoy and sometimes grapple with Shakespeare's dramatic, historical language, yet we quote his lines in all kinds of contexts – from everyday conversations to advertisements. While performances are staged in contemporary theatrical settings, there is at the same time a constant interest in and revival of performances under (historical) outdoor conditions.
In this course, we are going to read two of Shakespeare's plays: A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest. We will read these plays very carefully with regard to their dramatic language, the constellations of their characters and the dynamics of their conflicts, and also with regard to Elizabethan theatrical practices and conventions. We will engage creatively with the dramatic texts and aim at performing some of the scenes from both plays ourselves, too, in class (depending on what Corona-conditions allow us to do).
Please get your own copies of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest by the beginning of the semester. The Arden and Oxford editions are very good scholarly editions.
William Shakespeare, The Tempest,
The Arden Shakespeare. Ed. Virginia M. Vaughan /Alden T. Vaughan (1999/2011)
Or
The Oxford Shakespeare. Ed. Stephen Orgel. (2008).
William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream,
The Arden Shakespeare. Ed. Sukanta Chaudhuri (2017)
or
The Oxford Shakespeare/Oxford World’s Classics. Ed. Peter Holland. (2008). |
