Les infos clés
En résumé
How do we read Shakespeare? Do his plays belong to the past, or the present? To a famed dramatic genius or to readers and audiences around the globe? What do his plays really mean?
Moving between the world in which Shakespeare lived and the present day, this course will introduce different kinds of literary analysis that you can use when reading Shakespeare. With short videos filmed on location in England and readings covering topics like Shakespeare's contemporaries and the politics of modern performance, you will learn a range of critical tools that you can use to unlock the meaning and relevance of Shakespeare’s plays.
Join us as we visit Stratford-upon-Avon, where Shakespeare was born in 1564; London, the lively city where he began as an actor; and the Globe Theater, where his first plays were performed. This journey through Shakespeare’s life will transport you to another era and will give you a new perspective on his timeless work.
- The cultural significance of Shakespeare's plays and their performance
- How Shakespeare’s work was considered in his own time and in the present, in his own country and around the world
- Different approaches to textual interpretation
- How to consider authorial intention, historical context, and present relevance
- How to analyze Shakespeare's plays on the page and in performance
- Foundational knowledge on Shakespeare that can be applied to his specific works
Le programme
Part 1: Biographical Interpretation
In this unit, we'll learn more about Shakespeare's life and think about the interpretive possibilities that open up when we read with the author in mind.
By the end of this unit, you will be able to:
- Describe Shakespeare's childhood, education, and family life, determining how the facts of his life might have informed his playwriting.
- Evaluate different viewpoints on the "author problem," which relates to how relevant the author and his/her intentions are to interpreting a text.
- Generate an original interpretation of The Comedy of Errors that relates to Shakespeare's life and/or intentions.
Part 2: Historical Interpretation
In this unit, we’ll focus on historical interpretation by placing Shakespeare’s texts in their historical context.
By the end of this unit, you will be able to:
- Describe Shakespeare's unlikely entry to the theater world, as well as the facts of London, the Bankside, and the increasingly professionalized theater industry.
- Assess the viewpoint that Shakespeare's plays are embedded in their time and so require historical analysis to unlock what they "mean".
- Analyze a Shakespeare play or passage through knowledge of historical context.
Part 3: Presentist Interpretation
In this unit, we’ll cover presentist interpretation--what can we reveal about Shakespeare’s plays by placing them in a modern context?
By the end of this unit, you will be able to:
- Describe original performance practices, Shakespeare's death, and his legacy.
- Analyze a Shakespearean scene in performance, contrasting different approaches.
- Evaluate the viewpoint that Shakespeare's plays belong to the present, and that we should interpret/perform them as they are most "relevant" now.
Les intervenants
Stephen Greenblatt
Cogan University Professor of the Humanities
Harvard University
Le concepteur
L’université Harvard (Harvard University), ou plus simplement Harvard, est une université privée américaine située à Cambridge, ville de l'agglomération de Boston, dans le Massachusetts. Fondée le 28 octobre 1636, c'est le plus ancien établissement d'enseignement supérieur des États-Unis.
Elle fait partie de l'Ivy League, regroupement informel des huit universités de la côte Est des États-Unis. Plus de 70 de ses étudiants ont reçu un prix Nobel. Le corps enseignant est constitué de 2 497 professeurs, pour 6 715 étudiants de premier cycle (undergraduate, en anglais) et 12 424 étudiants de cycle supérieur (graduate en anglais). Harvard attire des étudiants du monde entier (132 nationalités représentées en 2004).
La plateforme
EdX est une plateforme d'apprentissage en ligne (dite FLOT ou MOOC). Elle héberge et met gratuitement à disposition des cours en ligne de niveau universitaire à travers le monde entier. Elle mène également des recherches sur l'apprentissage en ligne et la façon dont les utilisateurs utilisent celle-ci. Elle est à but non lucratif et la plateforme utilise un logiciel open source.
EdX a été fondée par le Massachusetts Institute of Technology et par l'université Harvard en mai 2012. En 2014, environ 50 écoles, associations et organisations internationales offrent ou projettent d'offrir des cours sur EdX. En juillet 2014, elle avait plus de 2,5 millions d'utilisateurs suivant plus de 200 cours en ligne.
Les deux universités américaines qui financent la plateforme ont investi 60 millions USD dans son développement. La plateforme France Université Numérique utilise la technologie openedX, supportée par Google.
