ENG 440G STUDIES IN BRITISH LIT: Shakespeare Aloud
5/16/2022-6/12/2022
MTWRF 9:10 in-person
Walt Forman

Though Shakespeare designed his plays to be spoken aloud and understood aloud, John Heminges and Henry Condell, two of his longtime partners in the theater business, thought they were also valuable texts for private reading so they published a collected edition several years after their friend's death.  This course is founded on the notion that these forms of encounter with the plays—private reading (whether silent or—as would have been far more common in Shakespeare's day than in ours—aloud) and communal reading and speaking aloud (and thus listening)—are mutually illuminating and provide a way into a capacious understanding and appreciation of the interacting emotions and arguments of the characters, their ideas and doubts, their desires and needs, their griefs and joys.  To read a Shakespearean role as if you knew what it meant is a great start toward finding out what in fact it does mean, or rather what it can mean, as is hearing other people read other characters' parts as if they too knew what they meant by what they said.  We will look at how different oral performances find different meanings in the same works.  We will use two plays, one a tragedy and one a comedy: Macbeth and Twelfth Night.  We will read lots of Shakespeare's words in class, tinkering with rhythm, stress, and silence, and we will look at video and listen to audio versions of our plays to get a sense of how other people think they should sound.  The aim of the course is not to produce actors for public consumption but to provide readers with a more vital connection to Shakespeare's words—a performance for oneself.  NOTE:  ENG 330 is NOT a required prerequisite for this section of ENG 440G.  Anyone interested in the topic is welcome to enroll (i.e., has the "consent of the instructor," who may be reached at namerof@uky.edu).