L.008.32540 When England Became England: Shakespeare Writing the Nation

Lehrende: Prof. Dr. Christoph Ehland

Veranstaltungsart: Seminar

Orga-Einheit: Anglistik/Amerikanistik

Anzeige im Stundenplan:

Semesterwochenstunden: 2

Unterrichtssprache: Englisch

Min. | Max. Teilnehmerzahl: - | 45

Literatur:

Shakespeare, Richard II
Shakespeare, Henry IV Part I
Shakespeare, Henry IV Part II
Shakespeare, Henry V

Kommentar:
When the BBC asked the nation to name the 100 greatest Britons of all time William Shakespeare came second only to the monarch under whom he had lived most of his life: Elizabeth I. It is not a coincidence that the British look back to the Tudor age when they search for greatness: under the Tudor monarchs England began its formative period as a global power. Henry VIII may have lost with Calais England's continental foothold but he steered the country away from Rome and thus laid down the foundation for a new horizon for English political involvement in the world which his daughter Elizabeth I would successfully consolidate.

Forty years Shakespeare lived and wrote under the Tudors. He witnessed the turmoil of an age of change and the opportunities of its new political outlook. His history plays on the Wars of the Roses are intimately bound up with giving the young dynasty its founding myth. In these plays he not only explores kingship as a complex and often muddled institution but he also develops his notion of an English nation. The seminar aims to explore the way Shakespeare's history plays imagined England in its formative period. From the pitiful failure of Richard II to the greatness of Henry V at Agincourt Shakespeare investigates the ideal of monarchy as well as that of the English nation.

Wichtige Hinweise:
Read Richard II and Henry IV Part I for the beginning of term.

Note that there will be a reading test at the beginning of term and a CAE (Critical Appreciation Exercise) later during the semester.