Course Description:
This course examines the major comedies, tragedies, and history plays of Shakespeare with attention to the Renaissance socio-political background.

Course Objectives:
This course will emphasize the importance of critical and analytical skills in examining Shakespeare's dramatic within the context of the late  sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Students will be expected to develop their own interpretive abilities while demonstrating their ability to

• examine the political and religious factors that influenced the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and James I of England, including the Exclusion Crisis and Succession Crisis;
• identify the political and religious factors associated with, and the connections among the War of the Roses, the Anglo-Spanish Wars and the Dutch War of Independence;
  
• examine the Renaissance conceptions of the African, the Jew, and the woman in terms of racial, national, class, and gender identity;
• examine the influence of and portrayal of these events in plays of William Shakespeare;
• demonstrate their understanding of course content through participation in informed class discussions and the preparation of written discussions of the literature under discussion, both with and without the incorporation of secondary source criticism.

• evaluate the influence of specific historical and political events on Shakespeare's dramatic works;
• analyze the texts assigned for the course in terms of their historical and political contexts and their engagement with the themes relevant to the course;
• distinguish between the different texts in terms of their political and philosophical viewpoints;
• produce effective written arguments, in both oral and written forms, regarding the texts under consideration.

Course Requirements and Student Evaluation:

• Students will be expected to complete all assigned readings for each session before coming to class and arrive prepared to discuss them.
• Written assignments will include weekly brief response papers (ca. 500 words) on the secondary texts assigned for the course, one slightly longer critical response paper (1300-word min.), and one fully-documented critical research paper (6000-word minimum). All written assignments must be submitted through Canvas to receive credit.
•  Written response papers are due at the beginning of class on the due dates. Late papers will be penalized.
• The critical response paper and critical research paper are due by 11:59 pm on the due dates. Late papers will be penalized.
  
• The critical response paper and research paper must be on two separate subjects.
• Students will also give a brief (20-30 minutes) oral presentation on one of the assigned readings.
• The brief presentation will be selected from a list generated by the instructor. A written version of the presentation will be submitted at the time of the presentation. Although no secondary source material is required for this assignment, all sources must be clearly cited in the written version of the presentation.  Oral citation of sources will be insufficient and may lead to serious consequences (Please familiarize yourself with the Graduate School's guidelines on academic dishonesty, which can be found in the most recent catalog).
• Students will also experience a final, essay examination on the materials covered in the course.

Required Texts:

• Shakespeare, William, Collected Works (provided)
• Handouts and On-line Sources
  

Secondary Texts (e-books):

• Anderson, Thomas Page. Shakespeare's Fugitive Politics. Edinburgh University Press, 2019.
  
• Barker, Simon. War and Nation in the Theatre of Shakespeare and His Contemporaries. Edinburgh University Press, 2007.
• Booth, Ted. A Body Politic to Govern: The Political Humanism of Elizabeth I. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013.
• Bradbrook, M. C. Shakespeare: The Poet in His World. Routledge, 2004.
• Cormack, Bradin. A Power to Do Justice: Jurisdiction, English Literature, and the Rise of Common Law, 1509-1625. University of Chicago Press, 2007.
• Donskis, Leonidas, and J. D. Mininger, eds. Politics Otherwise: Shakespeare as Social and Political Critique. Rodopi, 2012.
• Fitzmaurice, Andrew, et al. Shakespeare and Early Modern Political Thought. Cambridge University Press, 2009.
• Fulton, Thomas. Rethinking Historicism From Shakespeare to Milton. Cambridge University Press, 2012.
• Gregor, Keith. Shakespeare and Tyranny: Regimes of Reading in Europe and Beyond. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 2014
• Hadfield, Andrew. Shakespeare and Renaissance Politics. The Arden Shakespeare, 2004.
• ---, and Paul Hammond. Shakespeare and Renaissance Europe. The Arden Shakespeare, 2005.
• Hopkins, Lisa, and Matthew Steggle. Renaissance Literature and Culture. Continuum, 2006.
• Jardine, Lisa. Reading Shakespeare Historically. Routledge, 1996.
  
• Lake, Peter. How Shakespeare Put Politics on the Stage: Power and Succession in the History Plays. Yale University Press, 2016.
• Kinney, Arthur. The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare. Oxford University Press, 2012.
  
• Muir, Kenneth. The Sources of Shakespeare's Plays. Routledge, 2005.
  
• Moseley, C. W. R. D. Shakespeare's History Plays: Richard II to Henry V: the Making of a King. Humanities-Ebooks, 2009.
• Parvini, Neema. Shakespeare's History Plays. Edinburgh University Press, 2012.
• Saccio, Peter. Shakespeare's English Kings: History, Chronicle, and Drama. Oxford University Press, 2000.
  
• Smith, Emma. The Cambridge Introduction to Shakespeare. Cambridge University Press, 2007.
• Tennenhouse, Leonard. Power on Display: The Politics of Shakespeare's Genres. Routledge, 2004.
  
• Usongo, Kenneth. Politics and Romance in Shakespeare's Four Great Tragedies. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017.
• Wells, Robin Headlam. Shakespeare’s Politics: A Contextual Introduction. Continuum, 2009.

Other Secondary Texts:

• Baker, David J., and Willy Maley, eds. British Identities and English Renaissance Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
• Bloom, Harold.  Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human. New York: Riverhead, 1999.
• Brown, Georgia. Redefining Elizabethan Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2004.
• Burton, Jonathan, and Ania Loomba, eds.  Race in Early Modern England: A Documentary Companion. New York: Palgrave Mcmillan, 2007.
• Callahan, Dympna, ed. A Feminist Companion to Shakespeare (Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture) Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2005.
• Dusinberre, Juliet. Shakespeare and the Nature of Women. 3rd. Ed. New York: Palgrave Mcmillan, 2003.
• Fernie, Ewan et al. Reconceiving the Renaissance: A Critical Reader. New York: Oxford, 2005.
• Fiedler, Leslie.  The Stranger In Shakespeare: Studies in the Archetypal Underworld of the Plays.New York: Barnes and Noble, 2006.
• Garber, Marjorie. Shakespeare After All. New York: Anchor, 2005.
• Garner, Shirley Nelson, and Madelon G. Sprengnether, eds.  Shakespearean Tragedy and Gender. Indiana University Press, 1996.
• Goldberg, Jonathan. The Generation of Caliban. Ronsdale, 2002.
• Greenblatt, Stephen. Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare. New York: Norton, 2005.
• ---. Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics. Norton, 2018.
• Hall, Kim. F., ed.  Things of Darkness: Economies of Race and Gender in Early Modern England. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998.
• Harris, Jonathan Gil. Shakespeare and Literary Theory. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2010.
• Hattaway, Michael, ed. A Companion to English Renaissance Literature and Culture.: Oxford Blackwell, 2003.
• ---. Renaissance And Reformations: An Introduction to Early Modern English Literature. Oxford: Blackwell, 2006.
• Jorgensen, Paul A., ed. Women, Violence and English Renaissance Literature: Essays Honoring Paul Jorgensen. Phoenix AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2003.
• Loomba, Ania. Shakespeare, Race, and Colonialism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
• --- and Martin Orkin, eds.  Post-Colonial Shakespeares . New York: Routledge, 1998.
• MacFaul, Tom.  Problem Fathers in Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
• Mullaney, Stephen.  The Place of the Stage: License, Play, and Power in Renaissance England. University of Michigan Press, 1995.
• Rackin, Phyllis.  Shakespeare and Women. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
• Schwartz, Murray, and Coppelia Kahn, eds.  Representing Shakespeare: New Psychoanalytic Essays. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982.
• Vendler, Helen. The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1997.
  
• Wayne, Valerie.  The Matter of Difference: Materialist Feminist Criticism of Shakespeare. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991.
• Wells, Stanley, and Michael Dobson. The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2009.
• White, R. S. Natural Law in English Renaissance Literature. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1996.