How to Read and Understand Shakespeare
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How to Read and Understand Shakespeare
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Narrated by:
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Marc C. Conner
About this listen
Shakespeare's works are among the greatest of humanity's cultural expressions and, as such, demand to be experienced and understood.
But, simply put, Shakespeare is difficult. His language and culture - those of Elizabethan England - are greatly different from our own, and his poetry, thick with metaphorical imagery and double meanings, can be hard to penetrate.
Yet the keys to understanding Shakespeare are written into the plays themselves. If you can learn to recognize the playwright's own clues, you'll become able to engage meaningfully with his language, to follow the plot structures and themes that drive his plays, and to track the development of his characters.
Over the course of 24 lectures, this innovative and penetrating exploration of Shakespeare's plays reveals how to enter Shakespeare's dramatic world, how to grasp what's happening in any of his plays, and how to enjoy them fully both on the page and the stage.
Under Professor Conner's expert guidance, shaped by decades of studying and performing Shakespeare, you learn more than 40 interpretive tools, drawn from the texts themselves, that give you direct insight into the plays. These guiding principles allow you to follow the narratives of the plays as they unfold, with a clear understanding of how the plays function and fit together.
The professor also reveals fascinating details of Shakespeare's era, which shed further light on the plays and the way his contemporary audiences perceived them.
This course builds the skills that allow you to reach your own understanding of the plays - to deeply comprehend Shakespeare's transcendent poetic language, the spellbinding world of his great characters and stories, and his revelatory reflections on human experience.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.
©2013 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2013 The Great CoursesListeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about How to Read and Understand Shakespeare
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Pamela
- 25-02-21
Excellent guide to Shakespeare's plays.
It's hard to believe that I did Hamlet and Measure for Measure for A level when I realize how very little understanding and knowledge was taught. This is a wonderful course by Marc Conner that gives the listener tools to use in enriching their understanding of Shakespeare.
And allows Shakespeare to be the gift that keeps on giving the more it is understood and explored.
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- Stacy Danika Alcantara-Garcia
- 24-07-20
Amazing!
It's my first time to delve deep into Shakespeare's works so I'm happy to have started with this lecture. love it! I recommend it to everyone!
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2 people found this helpful
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- chris
- 07-08-17
Captivating :)
Never having read Shakespeare I started with these lectures to educate myself and can't wait to get cracking now as I feel I can finally understand something of his plays which before I felt ignorant about and hence avoided them !!
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Terry Allen
- 12-07-16
Great for long car journeys. Fascinating stuff
Would you listen to How to Read and Understand Shakespeare again? Why?
Yes, I think I will eventually listen to this all again, maybe in a year of two. I really enjoyed the explanations of the different elements within the various works.
What about Professor Marc C. Conner’s performance did you like?
Very engaging - varied voice and delivery, really seems to know his stuff.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
No - maybe two or three lectures at a time were okay though
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- Colin
- 09-12-16
A Highly Recommended Title...
Like many people, whilst I can appreciate Shakespeare's impact upon the world of literature and theatre, I often find the plays themselves a bit inaccessible. In recent years I've had the great pleasure to see Kevin Spacey's Richard III, Midsummer Nights Dream with Sheridan Smith and also an amazing Henry V, starring Jude Law. All were absolutely spell-binding, and yet, here and there, I found myself getting lost in the text. If you're the same, then this is definitely a book for you.
Prof Marc Conner strips away the layers of mystique and potential confusion surrounding Shakespeare's words, to explain clearly the thread of each story, the arc of the characters and how the overall structure of each work echoes the time it was written. And he does so with clarity and a clear love and enjoyment for the subject. His presentation is very engaging and keeps you both entertained and informed at every turn.
Through reading this I've been inspired to revisit some of the plays (mostly, I'll admit, those that have been filmed) and found myself totally immersed in the rich language, instead of being confused by it.
Very highly recommended...
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6 people found this helpful
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- Kieran McLoughlin
- 05-08-20
Absolutely brilliant introduction into Shakespeare
like many, I often disgarded my limited school-based experiences of Shakespeare as non-sensical old English. Personally, this for me reveals that you should be exposed to Shakespeare at a later age, because so much of what's hidden beneath the surface can really only be explain and more importantly understood at an older age, when one reaches the point of pondering questions on being human. For me, this was a brilliant university-level course which was delivered so passionately and in a way which made perfect sense. it was like removing the barrier which I imagine many of feel when we begin to feel curiosity towards Shakespeare and his work. It absolutely gave me the desire to read them myself, now far more confident of my ability to understand what is going on. would 1000% recommend this for anyone who wants to get into Shakespeare but is afraid of not being able to understand. This explains everything perfectly, and the tools you'd need to understand everything.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Jacqueline Gardes
- 24-08-20
Truly inspiring
Couldn't get enough. The narrators passion shines through while he provides us with the tools to enjoy Shakespeare' s plays, be they comedies, tragedies, historical plays or romances.
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- Dylan
- 13-04-17
An impressive course
Any additional comments?
This is an impressive series of lectures, which gives much insight into Shakespeare's plays, ideal for those, like me, who've avoided the playwright since being put off him at school. Prof. Connor's enthusiasm and knowledge makes me want to listen to many plays.
If you want an informative, insightful, intelligent and enjoyable introduction to Shakespeare, this is a good pick.
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6 people found this helpful
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- papapownall
- 06-08-18
Good overview of Shakespeare left me wanting more
I had Shakespeare drummed into me as a child and I did not particularly enjoy the experience of analysing Macbeth, Merchant of Venice and Mid Summer Nights Dream in a classroom. Since then I have learned to appreciate the richness of the language and the cleverness of the characters and plots by attending real life performances of several plays and also read up a bit about the Bard and his life and works. I approached this course with an eagerness to learn more and I was generally pleased with the content of these lectures. There is plenty of contextualisation in terms of putting the plays against the backdrop of Shakespeare's life and times and there are some interesting comparisons between the plays which is helpful. The bit that jarred with me a bit with this course was the continual reference to "tools" that can be applied to help the reader understand Shakespeare. When I first heard the reference to "tools" it immediately reminded me of the Alexei Sayle quote about "workshops" and I could not get this out of my mind. Other than that, I am looking forward to watching a production of the Tempest on stage in a couple of weeks and will see if the "tools" provided here help to heighten appreciation of the work.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Edward M Pratt
- 27-01-21
Enthralling
A joy to listen to an expert teacher share his knowledge and tools with unbounded passion. Pure quality in all aspects of content, structure and performance. A wonderful gem that is sure to delight you.
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