ENGL 218 - Shakespeare and the Limits of Genre: Problem Comedy and Romance

Semester Offered: Second Semester
Full Course
Credits: 4 credits
Attribute: 4HU, WINT

This class will study Shakespeare’s most inscrutable plays: the disturbing “problem comedies” All’s Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure, Troilus and Cressida, and Merchant of Venice; and the dazzling “romances” Pericles, Cymbeline, and The Winter’s Tale. In both tragicomic modes, Shakespeare experiments with the limits of genre: crafting “happy endings” to plays that resist them, and thereby speculating on the nature of dramatic representation and fiction-making itself. British, Pre-1700.

Enrollment Limit: 25
Instructor: W. Hyman

Prerequisites & Notes: For complete prerequisites, please refer to the English Program section titled “200 Level Courses.”
This course may also count for the major in (consult the program or department major requirements) :
Theater and Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies