(Cross listed with MDVL_REN 4105/7105)

This course will look at Shakespeare’s comedies, which at times are “romantic comedies” and at times are so much more.  We will read eight plays: The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, The Merry Wives of Windsor, All’s Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure, and Troilus and Cressida.  Some of these plays will seem nothing like comedies at all, because Shakespeare increasingly tired of the traditional romance plot and used these plays to study all kinds of desire and social order. Classes will consist of a lot of close reading of interesting passages. Students will write discussion posts and short papers, as well as a final researched argument.  Students will also memorize and recite a speech from one of our plays.