230573 British Literature before 1800: Shakespeare's Dramatic Works (V) (SoSe 2006)

This lecture course is designed as an introductory survey of William Shakespeare¿s work for the stage. Topics to be discussed will include:

• the practice of theatre in Elizabethan and Jacobean England
• performance culture and print culture, text and theatre
• language and education in the Elizabethan age
• the use of dramatic genres in Shakespeare's plays
• the development of Shakespeare's art
• Shakespeare and his (narrative) sources
• the uses of history
• the "Elizabethan world picture" and the position of the human being in the Renaissance
• major themes in Shakespeare's plays (such as: family and state, or, the domestic and the dynastic; power and rulership; sin and redemption, justice and revenge etc.)
• the cultural impact of Shakespeare (the making of a cultural icon; Shakespeare's work in literary criticism, adaptations, sequels, interpretations).

PLEASE NOTE: This is a lecture course, not a seminar. It will therefore yield a standard TWO credit points (for regular attendance and minutes of one session) and is offered mainly for students who need a course in the "frei wählbares Profilmodul" without "Einzelleistung", i.e. outside their obligatory modules.

A film viewing programme screening important film adaptations of Shakespeare's plays will accompany the lecture course (dates to be announced).
Attendance at the film screenings (alternate Thusdays, 16-19), however, is not obligatory.