Shakespeare Lectures 2015-16 (July version): Venues still to be confirmed
Lectures at 2 on Mondays and 12 on Wednesdays
Pre-course reading. Please look at the four plays set for the first weeks of term (A Midsummer
Night’s Dream, Hamlet, Henry V and Dr Faustus) and read about the Elizabethan Stage and the
theatre companies, for example in Andrew Gurr, The Shakespearian Stage 1574-1642, 4th edition
(Cambridge, 2009). You should purchase Shakespeare’s complete works in either the Norton or the
Oxford edition and Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus and other plays (Oxford).
Week One Wednesday 7 October: The aims of the module; the theatres; the companies (PP)
Week 2 Monday 12 October: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (AH)
Wednesday 14 October: Eyes and ears in Hamlet (PP)
Week 3 Monday 19 October: Henry V (PM)
Wednesday 21 October: Scenic form and Building sequences of scenes: Hamlet Act 3 (PM)
Thursday 22 October Visit to Henry V at Royal Shakespeare Theatre
Friday 23 October 11am post-theatre discussion (chaplaincy: to be confirmed)
Week 4 Monday 26 October: Endings (PP)
Wednesday 28 October: Hamlet (AH)
Week 5 Monday 2 November: Marlowe, Dr Faustus (AH)
Wednesday 4 November: Properties (CR)
Week 6 Reading week
Week 7 Monday 16 November: Marlowe, Edward II (LB)
Wednesday 18 November: Marlowe and Shakespeare (PM)
Week 8 Monday 23 November: Richard II (LB)
Wednesday 25 November: Comparing Richard II and Henry IV (The Rexfactor) (PP)
Week 9. Monday 30 November: Henry IV Part One (and some of part 2) (CR)
Wednesday 2 December: To be confirmed
Week 10. Monday 7 December: Twelfth Night (CR)
Wednesday 9 December: Shakespearian Comedy, Misrule, Cross-dressing (PM)
Term 2
Week 1: Monday 11 January: Measure for Measure (PP)
Wednesday 13: City comedy (SP)
Week 2. Monday 18 January: Middleton, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside (LB)
Wednesday 20 January: Chaste Maid, comic structure, carnival and Lent (SP)
Week 3 Monday 25 January: Troilus and Cressida (SP)
Wednesday 27 January: Troilus and Cressida in production (SP)
Week 4. Monday 1 February: Antony and Cleopatra (CR)
Wednesday 3 February: Antony and Cleopatra in production (CR)
Week 5 Monday 8 February: Middleton, Women Beware Women (LB)
Wednesday 10 February: Middleton and Tragedy (to be confirmed)
Week 6 Reading Week
Week 7 Monday 22 February: King Lear (AH)
Wednesday 24 February: King Lear and world theatre (Preti Taneja)
Week 8 Monday 29 February: Macbeth (CR)
Wednesday 2 March: Macbeth (AH)
Week 9 Monday 7 March: Coriolanus (PP)
Wednesday 9 March: Coriolanus, Plutarch and Political Theory (PM)
Week 10: Monday 14 March Late Shakespeare: The Winter’s Tale (PM)
Wednesday 16 March: The Tempest (AH)