The lecture introduces students to Shakespeare's tragedies over the course of his dramatic career. Beginning with Titus Andronicus, we will trace his own particular development of the tragic form all through the 90s to the turn of the Jacobean Age and end with Antony and Cleopatra. Other plays included in the lecture are Richard III, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. The lecture is supposed to give students a comprehensive overview of Shakespeare's tragic strategy and paint a picture of the increasing complexity with which he dramatises the political potential of tragedy on the Elizabethan stage. We will look at princes and villains, crime and punishment and the plays' general tendency to evoke sympathy for the criminal and their conduct. In a very general sense, we will ask whether or not Shakespeare's plays can be duly considered a precursor of the currently so popular 'true crime' format.
- Lehrende/r: Franziska Quabeck
- Lehrende/r: Chris Wahlig