ENG 7314 Shakespeare's Tragedies
Drawing upon a variety of sources--the Bible, Plutarch, Roman tragedy, the Medieval morality play, and English Renaissance tragedy--to explore the human being in extremis, when things go terribly wrong and almost everything is destroyed, Shakespeare wrote tragedies throughout his career to ask this question: Are we destroyed by our own character and choice, other people’s actions, fated circumstance, nature, chance, and/or divine providence (just, indifferent or malicious)? What is the distinct instruction and pleasure of Shakespearean tragedy? This course addresses that exploration in plays such as Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Anthony and Cleopatra, and Coriolanus.