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Shakespeare in Context (College) - Course Introduction

Shakespeare: a playwright by any other name would not be so frequently assigned.

His lines are infamous, his characters legendary, and his plays the 16th-century version of The Hunger Games meets Gossip Girl. They have love, hate, warfare, and of course, comedy. Where would we be without a few laughs now and then to get us through the heartbreak of Romeo and Juliet?

In this course, we'll go behind the scenes to see what a Shakespeare production would have looked like when they were originally written and performed. We'll get the scoop on how characters were cast, how fight scenes were choreographed, and which plays audiences liked best. But we won't leave you hanging there. We'll also discuss major themes in the plays and talk about what Shakespeare's audience would have thought of these feisty characters.

This course will be your all access pass to all the secrets from the Shakespeare movie set. Lights! Camera! Action!

Unit Breakdown (40 lessons)

Unit 1: All the World's a Stage (8 lessons)

Unit 2: Histories: Fact or Fiction? (4 lessons)

Unit 3: Family Feud (6 lessons)

Unit 4: What's Love Got To Do With It? (6 lessons)

Unit 5: All's Fair in Love and War (4 lessons)

Unit 6: The Master of Disguise (6 lessons)

Unit 7: Words, Words, Words (6 lessons)

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, you should be able to

  • describe the theatrical, social, and historical context of Shakespeare’s plays.
  • describe the workings of an Elizabethan acting company and playhouses.
  • identify the role of audience in performance.
  • identify and analyze major themes in select Shakespeare’s plays.
  • identify Shakespeare's dramatizations of historical events and figures.
  • explain the importance of language and meaning in select speeches and soliloquies.
  • recognize and analyze the use of literary devices such as allusion, metaphor, irony, and simile.
  • compare and contrast Shakespeare's portrayal of families, marriage, love, warfare, and race.
  • identify different types of disguises in Shakespeare's plays, including those involving cross-dressing, magic, and authorial intent.
  • identify the caesuras, meter, and pronunciation of Shakespeare's verse.
  • explain Shakespeare's influence on other authors, modern language, and life.