Summer Humanities Institute - William Shakespeare: Passion, Power, and the Arts of Performance

This course explores Shakespeare’s plays as works of art as well as the social, intellectual, and theatrical contexts of which they were a part. While paying attention to the relationship between literature and stagecraft, we will come at the plays from different angles, examining, for example, how Shakespeare uses his settings – from ancient Athens to Renaissance Venice – as palimpsests on which he considers ideas about politics, race, gender, war, love, and the human condition. Along the way, we will ask humanistic questions that will have us reading and researching not only transhistorically but across different genres and media. What use did Shakespeare make of his source materials, which included the mythical tales of Ovid, the essays of Montaigne, Cinthio’s Hecatommithi, and the political ideas of Machiavelli? How and why is it that critics and artists confronting even the most immediate social issues – from the environment to female agency to Black Lives Matter – find these plays to be endlessly renewable sources of inspiration and wisdom? We will take a particular interest in modern adaptations of Shakespeare (both live – the course will include attending a performance at the Great River Shakespeare Festival – and on film) to consider why the plays continue to speak to us in such fresh and powerful ways. Students choosing literature as their primary field will work on both collaborative and individual research projects that will culminate in a range of essays, presentations, and performance. A $500 (included in cost) deposit is due with each general admission application. The remaining balance of $3,100 is due on of before the start of the program. If you are not offered admission into SCSI, the $500 tuition deposit will be returned to you. For accepted students, the tuition deposit is non-refundable. Please see the cancellation policy for further details.