First-Year Seminars 110SK - Shakespeare, Then and Now

A 2016 interactive article in The New York Times "Culture" section claimed via its title, "There Is No Escaping Shakespeare." Showing over fifty clips gleaned from film, television, and music videos, the piece aptly demonstrated how Shakespeare permeates various levels of not only Anglophone culture but global culture as well. Rather than simply studying Shakespeare's works in their own historical context, we will explore them as entities that travel through various media, historical periods, and cultural contexts. Why do so many authors, filmmakers, video artists, painters, songwriters, composers, and choreographers continue to adapt Shakespeare's works? How does "Shakespeare" accrue new meanings through the process of translation across language and media, and how do such adaptive strategies allow Shakespeare's work to remain current even four hundred years after they were written?

First-year students only, by placement.