The Nature of Shakespeare (Pre-1800)
The plays and poems of William Shakespeare contain some of the best-known commentary on nature, human nature, and the relationship between the two. In this seminar we will focus on what Shakespeare wrote about the physical environment and humanity's relationship to it. As we read selections from the sonnets, narrative poems, histories, comedies, tragedies, and romances, along with a substantial amount of scholarship, we will pay particular attention to such topics as forests, the sea, human-animal relations, floral symbolism, the discursive construction of gender, and the supernatural. Texts will include Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, selected sonnets, Richard III, As You Like It, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Henry V, Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, Pericles, and The Tempest. 3 hrs. sem.