Department of English

Topic: Thinking Hospitality with Shakespeare

Written almost 500 years ago, Shakespeare’s plays and characters continue to live on the page and stage, in film and other media, embodying issues that remain vitally relevant in our world today. We will study plays that address issues of hospitality and hostility through the complex interplay of language, staging, and characters caught in extreme circumstances that reflects some of the issues we confront today. How might we, through Shakespeare, imagine how our world could be different? We'll read a selection of plays along with critical analyses. Evaluation based on short papers, presentations, group work, and a final research essay.