Shakespeare and

Canon formation and disciplinary divisions have deformed the way in which we read Shakespeare. Frequently presented as a post-romantic singular "author," cut off from the sources, texts and genres on which he drew and the collaborators with whom he worked, Shakespeare looks, reads and performs differently in relation to the rich contexts in which the plays were produced and through which they are produced today. We will read plays and other materials with attention to formal and historical questions including genre, the Shakespearean text, gender, sexuality, status, degree, and nation.