HUAS80050 - Reading Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice … Twice!

Course Description

Using the strategy laid out in Mortimer Adler’s classic How to Read a Book, this course is devoted to developing a thorough understanding of perhaps Shakespeare’s most controversial play, The Merchant of Venice, by reading it once quickly to get an overview and then again more slowly to figure out the details. Along the way, we’ll pay careful attention to both the dramatic and the religious features of the text, and also compare Shakespeare’s play with Christopher Marlowe’s contemporaneous The Jew of Malta. Prior or concurrent participation in How to Read Classic Texts or equivalent experience is recommended. Students may wish to review Adler and Van Doren’s How to Read a Book prior to, or concurrent with, this course. Please complete the assigned “inspectional” skim reading for Week 1 before the first class.

Course Outline

Course Syllabus

Notes

Online registration deadline: Dec. 22, 5 PM CT

Remote courses require you to login to Canvas to access the Zoom Classroom. You will receive an invitation to join Canvas about a week before your course begins. Please visit the Liberal Arts Student Resources page to find step by step instructions for Canvas and Zoom: Online Learning Resources