Shakespeare's Sonnets: Framing the Sequence

3 units

We will begin by exploring ways of reading a small number of individual sonnets, proceeding thereafter to think about patterns of meaning in language and image across broader groupings and the sequence as a whole. We will investigate the influence of earlier sonnet tradition, especially Petrarch's sonnets, and the relationship of the poems to modes of sexuality and selfhood. Finally, we will ask how some of Shakespeare's most creative readers--including Wilde, Booth, and Vendler--have responded to the challenges of the Sonnets. Students will work on writing their own commentary on a group of poems.