Instructor: Gordon Teskey
TBD | Location: TBD
Enrollment: Limited to 15 students.
Shakespeare’s career in playwriting (1589-1611) divides into two creative phases, each one lasting a decade. At the center is his most famous play, Hamlet (1600-1601), which closes with a roar of cannons, a premonition of the great tragedies to come. Before Hamlet, Shakespeare’s poetic style is brilliant, declamatory, and virtuosic. He discovers as he writes his own astonishing powers of expression, his uncanny ability to represent character from the inside and, not the least of these, his skill at plotting. Before Hamlet, Shakespeare is a crowd-pleasing entertainer who is gathering his powers. The plays of this period, especially the comedies, offer some of the purest delights in the theatre.
This course satisfies the “Pre-1700 Guided Elective" requirement for English concentrators and Secondary Field students.