Shakespeare and the Renaissance

William Shakespeare’s works have had a significant and ongoing cultural impact that all professionals working in the fields of dramatic and literary studies need to appreciate. This unit introduces us to some of the literature, art and thought of Renaissance England, and provides opportunity for close interpretative reading of dramatic and poetic texts. The unit also explores the work of Shakespeare’s contemporaries. The dramatists and poets of Elizabethan and Jacobean England will be explored to help understand the traditions and contentions of the time. We also learn about the continuing influence of Shakespeare’s works today. The aim of this unit is to familiarise ourselves with Shakespearean language and to develop close readings of the work of Renaissance writers through considering the context of origin as well as the detail of the text.