The Plan

The Plan

This study plan is designed to complete 35 plays (37?) and the Sonnets in time for Shakespeare's 400 anniversary of his passing, which will be remembered April 23, 2016.

PACE: One play per month, Sonnets in two months

ASSIGNMENTS: Read the play, then read the chapters in Bloom, Garber, Nuttall. Read pertinent part in recommended biographies.Watch movie if available. Discussion with other course participants.

REQUIRED TEXTS:

Shakespeare the Invention of the Human, by Harold Bloom

Shakespeare After All, by Marjorie Garber

What a Piece of Work is Man, audio recording by Harold Bloom

OPTIONAL: 

Shakespeare the Thinker, by A.D. Nuttall

RECOMMENDED BIOGRAPHIES:

Soul of the Age, by Jonathan Bate

Will in the World, by Stephen Greenblatt

Shakespeare, by Bill Bryson

DISCUSSION: Will take place either in person, via gmail chat, via phone, via email, via video conference or any other technology that may develop between 2012 and 2016.

READING:

Spring-Summer 2012: Informal reading of Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, The Tempest

October 2012: Antony and Cleopatra

November 2012: King Lear

December 2012: Richard III

January 2013: Othello

February 2013: Macbeth

March 2012: Julius Caesar

April-May 2013: Review of Spring 2012 reading: Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, the Tempest

June 2013: 77 Sonnets

July 2013: 77 Sonnets

August 2013: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

September 2013: Titus Andronicus

October 2013:  Henry VI part 1

November 2013: Henry VI part 2

December 2013:Henry VI part 3

January 2014: The Comedy of Errors

February 2014: Love's Labour's Lost

March 2014: A Midsummer Night's Dream

April 2014: Richard II

May 2014: King John

June 2014: The Merchant of Venice

July 2014: Henry IV part 1

August 2014: Henry IV part 2

September 2014: The Merry Wives of Windsor

October 2014: Much Ado About Nothing

November 2014: Henry V

December 2014: As you Like It

January 2015: Twelfth Night

February 2015: Troilus and Cressida

March 2015: Measure for Measure

April 2015: All Well That Ends Well

May 2015: Timon of Athens

June 2015: Pericles

July 2015: Coriolanus

August 2015: Cymbeline

September 2015: The Winter's Tale

October 2015: Henry VIII

November 2015: The Two Noble Kinsmen

December 2015: 

January 2016:

February 2016:

March 2016:

April 2016: parties and celebrations!