The on-lin course I have been following over the last ten weeks, Shakespeare and his World looked at eight of his plays in the context of issues of the time: Shakespeare And Stratford, The Birth Of Theatre, The World At War, Money And The City, Herbal Medicines And Witchcraft, Christendom And The Islamic World, Wider Horizons.
We looked at The Merry Wives of Windsor, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Henry V, The Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, Othello, Anthony and Cleopatra and The Tempest… Each week of the course was a mixture of video talks, objects to look at, links to other pieces of information and blogs, and a follow-up from the comments we made the previous week. it was absolutely fascinating and I have learned so much. I have studied Shakespeare, acted in Shakespeare, read his plays, read about him, his world, the history of the time, seen his plays on stage and on film, and thought I had a good overall knowledge.
Well, my eyes were opened! There was just so much I had never considered, and the way of theming each week with a play to demonstrate aspects of the theme (and mentioning other work too) was fascinating.
The course is due to run again later in the year and I really do recommend it to anyone who has an interest in Shakespeare; you will thoroughly enjoy it!
Here is the link to the site; although the Shakespeare course is not mentioned yet, there maybe other course which appeal to you:
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/upcoming
Lois Elsden 