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English Literature: Understanding Shakespeare
Highest Rated
Rating: 4.7 out of 5(107 ratings)
777 students

English Literature: Understanding Shakespeare

Get to Grips with the Language, Themes and Influence of One of Literature's Greatest Writers
Highest Rated
Created byEve Williams MMus
Last updated 1/2025
English

What you'll learn

  • Discover what made Shakespeare one of the greatest writers in world literature
  • Understand Shakespeare's language
  • Find out about the themes of his plays and poetry
  • Engage with modern and historical criticism of Shakespeare's work
  • See Shakespeare in his historical and literary contexts
  • Enjoy some of the most beautiful literature ever written
  • Quote Shakespeare
  • Use the set discussion questions and resources to formulate your own reponse to the texts
  • Learn about Shakespeare's tragedies, comedies, romances, historical playsl classical plays, problem plays and his long poems and sonnets
  • Should you choose, you can engage with other students and the instructor at the monthly book club
  • Excel at English Literature tests and essays on Shakespeare
  • Discover great resources for studying the work of Shakespeare

Course content

12 sections • 58 lectures • 19h 7m total length

  • Introduction3:12

Requirements

  • You should be fluent in English

Description

After the success of my best selling English Literature and World Lterature courses, many students messaged me with questions about Shakespeare, a towering figure in world literaure. Maybe you love Shakespeare or maybe you have been forced to read his work to pass an exam or you just can't make headway with the language. Peace, gentle friend! This course is for you.

We will look at Shakespeare's life, language and the historical and literary context of his works. We will then look at his plays and poetry. For each text we will look at its sources, background and publication then a synopsis, an analysis of its themes and a commentary on key passages, then look at key productions you may be able to access. The videos end with a series of questions for you to reflect on your perceptions of the play/poem.


Texts Covered:

· Hamlet

· Othello

· King Lear

· Macbeth

· Romeo and Juliet

· Love’s Labour’s Lost

· Much Ado About Nothing

· Twelfth Night

· As You Like It

· A Midsummer Night’s Dream

· Pericles

· The Winter’s Tale

· Cymbeline

· The Tempest

· Julius Caesar

· Antony and Cleopatra

· Titus Andronicus

· Coriolanus

· Henry IV Parts I and II

· Henry V

· Richard III

· Henry VIII

· All’s Well That Ends Well

· Measure for Measure

· Troilus and Cressida

· The Sonnets

· Venus and Adonis

· The Rape of Lucrece



As a graduate of the prestigious Queen;s University of Belfast with both an Honours degree and Master's in English, and as the teacher of the best selling English Literature course on Udemy, I am delighted to be your guide through this adventure of treachery and intrigue, enchanted forests, the Roman forum, shipwrecks, mystical islands and the English court where we will meet kings, jesters, fairies, soldiers, star-cross'd lovers and a guy with a donkey's head.

Don't stop to ask 'to be, or not to be'. Enroll today with no risk due to Udemy's 30 day money back guarantee.

Prithee, join us anon and thou shalt know the Bard.


Who this course is for:

  • Anyone who needs to read Shakespeare for academic programmes
  • People who love Shakespeare
  • People who are terrified to read Shakespeare
  • Anybody who would like to have the language of Shakespeare made more accessible
  • Anyone who wants to underatand the themes of Shakespeare's work in their historical and literary context

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