As a popular art form that is inherently social, Shakespearean comedy invites its audiences to look at how, by whom, and for whom society and its systems of justice are structured. This seminar will focus on three comedies – Measure for Measure, The Merchant of Venice, and Cymbeline – that raise important questions about the meting out of law and order, privilege and punishment. As we zero in closely on each play, we will interrogate the representation of social justice as critics, paying attention to the texts’ dramatic and historic contexts. Working with professional actors, we will also explore the theatrical strategies that give these plays life in and as performance: we’ll consider how they engage emotion as well as thought, and how they shape social experience as well as understanding. For the major seminar project, students will use these theatrical tools themselves to bring Shakespeare’s visions of social justice powerfully into the present: they will step into the plays as a character and create – and perform – a theatrical monologue that helps us see and feel the impact of social justice or injustice ourselves.
As its outcome, the seminar will give new and seasoned readers an opportunity to experience Shakespeare’s plays as living texts and to develop both critical and creative strategies for addressing social justice issues not only in Shakespeare but also in contemporary culture. Readings will include Measure for Measure, The Merchant of Venice, and Cymbeline as well as relevant critical and contextual material. As the main course requirement, students will be expected to produce and perform a 5-minute monologue that has been taken through several stages of revision.
About Professor Bartels
Professor Bartels is author of Speaking of the Moor: From Alcazar to Othello (2008) and Spectacles of Strangeness: Imperialism, Alienation, and Marlowe (1993), which won the Roma Gill Prize for Best Work on Christopher Marlowe, 1993-94. She is co-editor, with Emma Smith (University of Oxford), of Christopher Marlowe in Context (2013) and editor of Critical Essays on Christopher Marlowe (1997). Her most recent essays include: “Strange Bedfellows: The Ordinary Undersides of ‘A True Reportory’ and The Tempest,” “Identifying ‘the Dane’: Gender and Race in Hamlet” (2016); and “Julius Caesar: Making history” (2016).