Course description
This course explores how Shakespeare’s plays inform and shape our cultural imagination of the past, both when considered in the context of their own production in early modern England, and when performed in the twenty-first century. The plays we will read – Othello, The Merchant of Venice, and The Taming of the Shrew – all contain references to the Italian Commedia dell’arte tradition, and are set in Venice and Padua. In these plays, Shakespeare draws on the traditional masks and stereotypes of the Commedia tradition (the Pantalone, the Capitano) to explore societal questions that continue to be provocative and challenging today. Shakespeare’s use of the Commedia tradition already shows how theatre can cross historical and geographical boundaries; the class will build on this to trace attitudes to questions of identity across the centuries and across cultures. Disguise and performance of identity are key themes of the Commedia, and we will discover how Shakespeare uses these to explore questions of gender and race. The apparent misogyny of Taming, the antisemitism of Merchant and the racism of Othello can be illuminated by examining them in their historical contexts but also by exploring how they might be addressed in contemporary performance today.
There will be a strong performance element to the course, and each week will be divided into thematic discussion of the issues raised and engagement with the language and themes of the play through workshopping performances of short scenes, allowing us to discuss the difficulties of staging sensitive racial and cultural themes in contemporary theater. We will also incorporate viewings of filmed stage performances and feature films of the plays from different periods and cultures. Students will be assessed on both their critical responses of the plays and a creative project in which they will stage a short scene of their choice from one of the plays, either live or recorded.

Proposed co-curricular activities include: if possible, attending a live Commedia performance (or Shakespeare performance); visit to a Venetian mask workshop for an introduction to the masks of the Commedia.

Learning outcomes
• Students will reflect on the transmission of cultural knowledge and traditions through time and across languages.
• Students will be able to read and analyze Shakespeare’s plays.
• Students will acquire knowledge about the Commedia dell’arte tradition
• Students will develop performance skills.

Syllabus
Week 1: Introduction 1: History, identity and theatre Introduction 2: Shakespeare and the Commedia dell’Arte
Andrew Grewar, “The Clowning Zanies: Shakespeare and the Actors of the Commedia dell’arte,” 1989.

Week 2: Masks, Lazzi and wordplay: Taming of the Shrew 1 Reading: Acts 1 and 2
Focus on: Masters and servants: Lucentio and Tranio, 1.i. 145-246; Petruccio and Grumio, 1.i. 1-43

Week 3: Performing gender: Taming of the Shrew 2.
Reading: Acts 3 and 4
Focus on: the “Taming”: 4.i and 4.v. 1-53

Week 4: Framing the play: culture, memory, and metatheatricality Reading: whole play
Focus on: Induction 1-2; Katherina’s final speech 5.ii. 142-185.

Week 5: Zanni, Servette and the love plot: Merchant of Venice 1.
Reading: Acts 1-2
Focus on: Portia and Nerissa: 1.ii. 1-127
Lancelot Giobbe (The Clown): 2.ii. 1-105; 2.v. 1-55.

Week 6: The Return of Pantalone: Shylock. Merchant of Venice 2.
Reading: Acts 1-3
Focus on: 1.iii. 1-177; 3.1. 1-118

Week 7: Performing gender: the Dottore and the trial: Merchant of Venice 3.
Reading: whole play
Focus on: Portia and Bassanio, 3.ii. 149-174; Portia and Nerissa, 3.iv. 57-84
The trial, 4.i.

Week 8: The Capitano and the Zanni: Othello 1.
Reading: Acts 1 and 2
Focus on: 1.i. 40-64 (Iago); 1.ii. 62-81 (Brabantio); 1.iii. 129-170 (Othello); 2.i. 100-165 (Othello and Desdemona)

Week 9: Rhetoric and performance: Othello 2.
Focus on: 3.iii; 4.ii; 4. Iii.

Week 10: Commedia and Tragedy: Othello 3.
Reading: whole play
Focus on: 5.i. 1-235; 5.ii. 280 to end.

Week 11 and 12: Performances of creative projects and discussion

Evaluation
20% class participation. Students are encouraged to participate in both small- group discussion and interactive lectures.
40% creative project. Students will work in groups to produce a dramatic interpretation of a scene from one of the plays.
40% final essay

Bibliography Primary texts

William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew. Folger – online edition available. William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice. Folger – online edition available. William Shakespeare, Othello. Folger – online edition available.

Further reading

1. Shakespeare, history and memory
Ladina Bezzola and Balz Engler eds., Shifting the Scene: Shakespeare in European Culture. University of Delaware Press, 2004.
Clara Calvo and Coppélia Kahn, eds. Celebrating Shakespeare: Commemoration and Cultural Memory. Cambridge University Press, 2015.
Andrew Hiscock and Lisa Perkins Wilder eds., The Routledge Handbook of Shakespeare and Memory. Routledge 2017.
Jyotsna G. Singh and Abdulhamit Arvas, "Global Shakespeares, Affective Histories, Cultural Memories." Shakespeare Survey 68 (2015): 183-196.

2. Commedia dell’arte general
Richard Andrews, Scripts and Scenarios: The Performance of Comedy in Renaissance Italy. Cambridge, 1993.
Christopher B. Balme et al. eds., Commedia dell'Arte in context. Cambridge 2018.
Judith Chaffee and Oliver Crick eds. The Routledge Companion to Commedia dell’Arte. 2015.
Robert Henke, Performance and Literature in the Commedia dell'Arte.
Cambridge, 2002.

3. Shakespeare and the Commedia dell’arte
Louise George Clubb, Italian Drama in Shakespeare’s Time. Yale University Press, 1989.
Louise George Clubb, “Looking back on Shakespeare and Italian Theatre”
Renaissance Drama 36/37 (2010)
Louise George Clubb, “Italian stories on the stage” in the Cambridge Companion to Shakespearean Comedy, 2002, pp. 32-46.
Andrew Grewar, “The Clowning Zanies: Shakespeare and the World of the
Commedia dell’Arte”. Shakespeare in Southern Africa 3 (1989): 9-32.
Andrew Grewar, “The Old Man’s Spectacles and other traces of the Commedia dell’arte in early Shakespearean comedy.” Shakespeare in Southern Africa 11 (1998): 23-37.
Robert Henke, “Orality and Literacy in the Commedia dell’Arte and the Shakespearean Clown.” Oral Tradition, 11.2 (1996): 222-248.
Kathleen M. Lea, Italian Popular Comedy: a study in the Commedia dell’Arte.
New York: Russell and Russell 1934; reissued in 1 volume 1962.
Michele Marrapodi, Shakespeare and the Italian Renaissance: Appropriation, Transformation, Opposition. Ashgate, 2014.

Last updated: February 29, 2024