Staging the Renaissance: Shakespeare
Convenor: Chloe Porter (c.porter@sussex.ac.uk)
On this module we study a range of Shakespeare’s plays (comedies, tragedies, tragi-comedies
and romances) from different stages of his career, analysing the playwright’s stagecraft, his
use of prose and poetry and his reworking of traditional forms for the commercial stage.
Although the module explores some recent adaptations for stage and screen, it is particularly
interested in the plays as produced in their original historical and cultural contexts.
Assessment: 3500 word essay (please see Sussex Direct for deadlines)
Essential purchases:

The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Preferably the Norton Shakespeare or Oxford
Compact ) or individual editions (such as Arden or Cambridge)

Shakespeare: an Anthology of Criticism and Theory 1945-2000, ed., Russ McDonald
(Blackwell, 2004). **NB. We will take much of our secondary reading from this
anthology **
The best way to prepare for the module is to immerse yourself in reading Shakespeare’s plays
and sonnets. We will read, in the following order:
Hamlet
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Twelfth Night
Richard II
The sonnets
King Lear
Measure for Measure
The Taming of the Shrew
The Merchant of Venice
Othello
Titus Andronicus
Coriolanus
Pericles
The Winter’s Tale
The Tempest
Secondary reading
It would be a good idea to start dipping into the critical essays in Shakespeare: an Anthology
of Criticism and Theory 1945-2000. In addition, the following are useful as starting points for
reading Shakespeare’s plays in their original historical and cultural contexts:
Dutton, Richard (ed), The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern Theatre (OUP, 2011)
Hunter and Adamson (eds), Reading Shakespeare’s Dramatic Language: A Guide (Arden
Shakespeare; Thomson Learning, 2001)
Kastan and Stallybrass (eds), Staging the Renaissance: Reinterpretations of Elizabethan and
Jacobean Drama (Routledge, 1991)
Wells, Stanley (ed), The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare Studies (CUP)
Sullivan, Cheney, Hadfield (eds), Early Modern English Drama: a critical companion (OUP,
2006)
If you can, it’s also a great idea to watch a Shakespeare play in performance. Frantic
Assembly’s production of Othello is due to be revived at the Lyric Hammersmith in January /
February 2015, and Henry IV parts 1 and 2 is on at the Barbican until January. Please also
check the upcoming season for Shakespeare’s Globe theatre, and the Sam Wannamaker
playhouse (the indoor theatre at the Globe).