Admission requirements
Successful completion of Literature 1A, 1B, 2 and 3 or equivalent.
Description
In this course students will examine Shakespeare’s political drama. While all of Shakespeare’s plays can be said to address political issues, our focus will be on those plays which do so most systematically: the history plays and the Roman plays. We will study the following eight plays: Titus Andronicus, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Richard II, Henry VI Parts 1 and 2, Henry V. We will look especially at how Shakespeare used drama to explore issues such as the nature of monarchy and of a republic, the legitimacy of political power, the relation between domestic and foreign politics and the role of the individual within larger political structures. We will do so by analysing Shakespeare’s use of language, dramatic structure and genre conventions and by reading his political plays in the light of the cultural and historical contexts to which they responded and which they helped to shape in their turn.
Course objectives
By the end of the course students will have gained a good basic knowledge of Shakespeare’s political plays. They will be able to analyse the political themes which these plays explore, as well as their form and language and genre characteristics, and to relate them to their cultural and historical context. They will also have gained insight into the history of Shakespeare scholarship and will have further developed their academic writing skills.
Timetable
The timetable is available on the BA English website
Mode of instruction
One two-hour seminar per week
Course Load
The course load of this course is 280 hours.
Lectures and seminars: 18
Reading material: 192
Essay: 40
Preparation for take-home exam: 30
Assessment method
Essay (40%)
Take-home exam (60%)
To pass the course, students should obtain at least a 6.0 for the essay.
Blackboard
This course is supported by Blackboard.
Reading list
Jonathan Bate & Eric Rasmussen (eds.), The RSC Shakespeare: The Complete Works. Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. ISBN 9780230200951.
Students are required to purchase this edition of Shakespeare’s plays. No other editions are allowed.
Further reading material to be downloaded via the Leiden University Library online catalogue.
Registration
Enrolment through uSis is mandatory. Please note that students other than BA English language and culture studies will have to have permission from the coordinator of studies before enrolling.
General information about uSis is available in English and Dutch
Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs
Registration Studeren à la carte
Registration Contractonderwijs
Contact
Student administration Van Eyckhof
Remarks
Students are required to purchase the RSC edition of Shakespeare’s complete works. No other editions are allowed.
Students are expected to have read the first three acts of Titus Andronicus before the first seminar.