BASC80154 - Summer Literature Intensive Course: Shakespeare’s Venetian Plays Part 1: Merchant of Venice

Course Description

   Instructor: Nicholas Bellinson.  This one-week course may be taken as part of the two-week sequence (recommended) with “Shakespeare’s Venetian Plays: Othello”, or on its own.  Shakespeare sets two of his most painful plays in Venice: The Merchant of Venice and Othello. In both, Shakespeare dramatizes the downfall of a cultural outsider in a society historically renowned for its openness and diversity. What sort of world do the denizens of Shakespeare’s Venice – who are variously comic, devious, cynical, appetitive, pleasure-loving, and cruel; dazzling, impressive, beautiful, loyal, and truthful – inhabit and create? As we explore this world, our primary goal will be to read, appreciate, and attempt to understand these two plays in themselves and as they illuminate each other.  In the first week, we shall read The Merchant of Venice, with particular attention to questions of law and justice; bonds, including romantic love, family, debt, civic duty, and friendship; music and harmony; the relationship between the country estate Belmont and the city Venice; the quality of mercy; religion; and so on. Course code: BASC80154 Literature

Notes

**Participants should read the entire play – carefully – in advance of the first meeting.** Particular passages for re-reading will be assigned at the end of Monday through Thursday’s discussions. The Signet edition of The Merchant of Venice is recommended.

This is an online course. More information and FAQ on online courses can be found here.