Browse Hierarchy ESH366: Shakespeare: the Play, the Word and the Book

This module examines Shakespeare's development as a dramatic artist and as a writer and will cover a range of his plays in detail. It enables you to move beyond reading the plays and situates his work within the specific historical contexts of stage history and print culture, it also examines the latest developments in Shakespeare criticism. We will consider the ways in which Shakespeare re-worked his source material, examine the dramatic and artistic contexts of the period, and look at the variety of ways in which his texts appeared in both performance and in print. We will examine some of the problems involved in the transmission and editing of Shakespeare's texts, and the resulting implications for criticism and performance.