The Renaissance

Among the many attempts to prove that William Shakespeare was not really William Shakespeare but someone else, there is a little book entitled “Shakespeare fu un italiano”: Shakespeare was an Italian. This course will argue no such thing. Rather, we will explore the various ways in which Shakespeare was touched by and touched Italy, a country he only knew through books and second hand report. We will look at some of the works of Italian literature that he read and rewrote in his plays (works by Boccaccio, Ariosto, Bandello, and others), plays of his that are set in Italy (Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Merchant of Venice), Italian operas, works of literature, and films which re-present or appropriate Shakespeare’s oeuvre (Verdi’s Otello; Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author; and so on). In the process we will think about the process by which works circulate between places and over time, and how two very different cultures reciprocally interpret each other and in so doing, reveal themselves.

Requirements: attendance and participation; in-class presentations and short assignments; 3 papers (1250-1750 words); final take-home exam or longer paper (2500 words)

Readings:

William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Othello

Giuseppe Verdi, Otello

Luigi Pirandello, Six Characters in Search of an Author

Guido Ruggiero and Laura Giannetti, trans. Five Comedies of the Italian Renaissance

Plautus, The Menaechmi

Course Reader