המחזות הרומים של שייקספיר Shakespeare’s Roman Plays

In this seminar we will examine in detail Shakespeare’s dramatic preoccupation with the history, ideology, ethics and politics of ancient Rome through the close reading and analysis of four plays: Titus Andronicus, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, and Coriolanus. Using the texts of the plays as a platform for discussion we will examine Shakespeare’s innovative use of classical sources, his experiments in these plays with genre and dramatic conventions, his engagement with epicurean and stoic philosophy, as well as the wider significance of Rome as a political allegory in the period, and the ways in which Shakespeare reinvents the Renaissance ideal of the Roman metropolis and the values associated with its ethos as a vehicle for Renaissance tragedy.

Primary texts: Titus Andronicus, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, and Coriolanus with side glances at The Rape of Lucrece, Richard III, Hamlet, Cymbeline and Marlowe’s Tamburlaine the Great.

Requirements: A seminar paper of about 18-20 pages, oral presentations with written summaries to be handed in for evaluation, and two short take-home exam essays in lieu of a midterm.