This is a course on Shakespeare’s career, given at Brandeis University in the spring of 2010, by William Flesch. It covers several representative plays from all four genres: comedy, tragedy, history, and romance. We consider both the similarities and differences among those genres, and how his more and more radical experimentations in genre reflect his developing thought, about theater, about time, about life, over the course of his career. In terms of texts, any complete Shakespeare will suffice, including this free version online from MIT. The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, is also recommended.
1. Introduction on Shakespeare’s thinking about time, especially in Sonnet 73, and then Richard II: Audio
2. Richard II, part 2: Audio
3. Richard II, part 3: Audio
4. Richard II, concluded; Midsummer Night’s Dream: Audio
5. Midsummer Night’s Dream concluded: Audio
6. Merchant of Venice: Audio
7. Hamlet, part 1: The idea of revenge: Audio
8. Hamlet, part 2: Introspection vs. drama: Audio
9. Hamlet, concluded: The circumstances of revenge and moral luck: Audio
10. King Lear, part 1: Audio
11. King Lear, part 2: Audio
12. King Lear, concluded: Audio
13. Macbeth, part 1: Audio
14. Macbeth, concluded: Audio
15. Antony and Cleopatra, part 1: Audio
16. Antony and Cleopatra, part 2: Audio
17. Antony and Cleopatra, part 3: Antony: Audio
18. Antony and Cleopatra, concluded: Audio
19: The Winter’s Tale, part 1: Things Dying: Audio
20. The Winter’s Tale, and the course, concluded: Things New Born Audio
