Shakespeare

The course is broken down into 10 units over 10 weeks, each requiring approximately 10 hours of study time. The following topics are covered:

Unit 1: Getting started: Macbeth

• First act
• Language
• Ideas of tragedy
• Issues of culpability
• Imagery in the play

Unit 2: Macbeth in the Jacobean context and now

• The Globe Theatre
• Simon Forman at the Globe
• Lady Macbeth and the witches
• The play’s politics

Unit 3: Twelfth Night: ideas of comedy then and now

• Ideas of comedy
• Twelfth Night Act 1 Scene 1 and Act 1 Scene 2
• Modern ideas of comedy
• The roles of Malvolio and Feste
• The final scene

Unit 4: Twelfth Night: gender and sexuality

• All-male theatre
• Gender politics in early modern England
• Same-sex relationships in the play
• The structure of the play

Unit 5: Henry V: Elizabethan context and now

• The Elizabethan context
• The first printed text of the play
• Later productions and appropriations
• Changing attitudes to Henry

Unit 6: Henry V: Shakespeare’s use of sources

• Rhetoric
• Other language in the play
• Chorus
• Sources

Unit 7: Measure for Measure: What is a problem play?

• ‘Strategic opacity’
• Problem plays
• Characterisation
• Sources

Unit 8: Measure for Measure: law, justice, and morality

• Biblical and political sources
• Barnardine
• The play’s conclusion
• Substitution

Unit 9: The Winter’s Tale: late style and tragi-comedy

• The play’s structure
• Leontes
• Hermione
• Late plays

Unit 10: The Winter’s Tale on the modern stage

• The Winter’s Tale in performance
• The play’s recent stage history
• Thinking about performance
• Imaginary performances
• Review
• ‘Parting is such sweet sorrow’

We strongly recommend that you try to find a little time each week to engage in the online conversations (at times that are convenient to you) as the forums are an integral and very rewarding part of the course and the online learning experience.

Course aims

This course will enable students to:

• Develop their knowledge, understanding, and enjoyment of Shakespeare’s plays.
• Develop new critical skills with which to approach Shakespeare on page and stage and, by extension, skills of literary criticism and appreciation applicable more generally.
• Discuss and debate their ideas with other participants and with the critical tradition.
• Feel more confident in going to see an unfamiliar Shakespeare play.
• Revisit school or other previous experiences of learning Shakespeare and see how the field has changed.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this course, students can expect:

• To understand the plays studied in different critical contexts, including historical, theoretical, and theatrical.
• To have challenged their own ideas and come to new understandings of the material.
• To feel confident in their ability to understand and appreciate Shakespeare.

By the end of this course, students will have gained the following skills:

• Enhanced ability to read Shakespeare’s plays.
• An ability to recognise and deploy different critical methodologies and to understand something of the range of Shakespeare studies.
• Enhanced ability to understand their own critical/theoretical stance as readers and theatre goers.
• Enhanced ability to reassess their own views in the light of different opinions.

Level and demands

This course is open to all, and no prior knowledge is required.

This course is offered at FHEQ level 4 (first year undergraduate level), and you will be expected to engage in independent study in preparation for your assignments. Our 10-week Short Online Courses come with an expected total commitment of 100 study hours.

English Language Requirements

We do not insist that applicants hold an English language certification, but we warn that they may be at a disadvantage if their language skills are not of a comparable level to those qualifications listed on our website. If you are confident in your proficiency, please feel free to enrol. For more information regarding English language requirements, please see here.

IT requirements

This course is delivered online; to participate, you must be familiar with using a computer for purposes such as sending email and searching the Internet. You will also need regular access to the Internet and a computer meeting our recommended minimum computer specification.

Assessment methods

You will be set two pieces of work for the course. The first 500-word assignment is due halfway through your course. This does not count towards your final outcome, but preparing for it and the feedback you are given will help you prepare for your assessed piece of work of 1,500 words due at the end of the course. The assessed work is marked pass or fail.

Dr Wendy Trevor

Wendy Trevor has a BA in English, an MA in Shakespeare and Cultural History, and a PhD in English with a specialty in early modern drama and intellectual history. She has fifteen years of teaching experience in face to face and online modalities. Her research interests include the heraldic funerary ritual and death and commemoration in Tudor and Stuart England; early modern conceptions of male friendship and translations of works by Aristotle, Cicero and Seneca.

Credit Application Transfer Scheme (CATS) points 

Coursework is an integral part of all online courses and everyone enrolled will be expected to do coursework. All those enrolled on an online courses are registered for credit and will be awarded CATS points for completing work at the required standard.

See more information on CATS points

Digital credentials

All students who pass their final assignment will be eligible for a digital Certificate of Completion. Upon successful completion, you will receive a link to download a University of Oxford digital certificate. Information on how to access this digital certificate will be emailed to you after the end of the course. The certificate will show your name, the course title and the dates of the course you attended. You will be able to download your certificate or share it on social media if you choose to do so. 

Fees

Funding

If you are in receipt of a UK state benefit, or are a care-leaver in the UK, you may be eligible for a reduction of 50% of tuition fees. Please see the below link for full details:
Concessionary fees for short courses

Textbooks

To participate in the course you will need to have regular access to the Internet and you will need to buy the following books:

• Shakespeare, William, The Norton Shakespeare, 3rd edn. (W. W. Norton, 2022) (other editions of this text are also acceptable)

Or

• The Royal Shakespeare Company Shakespeare, 2nd edn. (Bloomsbury, 2022) (other editions of this text are also acceptable)

We recommend either one of these collected works of Shakespeare because they have useful notes, but other versions of the plays are also acceptable.

You also need to purchase:

• Smith, Emma, The Cambridge Introduction to Shakespeare. (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2007)

Please ensure that you can access copies of any required textbooks before enrolling on a course. While cancellations are uncommon, courses may not run if enrolment is too low. The Department accepts no responsibility for books purchased in anticipation of a course running.

Module code: O26P478LTV

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