Although attempts will be made to locate Shakespeare within a few of his various “contexts,” and to look at Shakespeare on film, the primary focus of this course will be an extremely close reading of five or six plays -- on developing, through many detailed writing exercises, the ability to recognize interpretive choices within the text and articulate strategies for working on them. This is a writing intensive course. Probable topics will include attitudes toward “cultural others,” anxieties about gender, problems of knowledge, ambivalence about war and use of sources. (Theatre Studies C)