Introductory description

Warwick is the nearest campus university to Stratford-upon-Avon and has a long tradition of highly eclectic research into the works of William Shakespeare. This module draws on Warwick’s unique resources to offer the only undergraduate module of its kind in the UK. Enlisting experts from a range of disciplines across the University and the region, we will take an interdisciplinary approach that values all contributions and requires no previous experience of studying Shakespeare. We will also exploit Warwick’s geographical proximity to Stratford-upon-Avon and make two field trips to Shakespeare’s hometown: we will even have a class in the schoolroom in which Shakespeare himself learned to read and write.

William Shakespeare is the most widely studied and performed creative artist the world has ever known. In the four centuries since his death, his plays have travelled across borders and between languages, all the while being modified and adapted to suit the needs of different people in different places. Shakespeare’s work has exerted an influence on – among others - philosophers, politicians, psychoanalysts, economists, musicians, environmentalists, advertisers, leadership coaches and freedom fighters. His work has also been the subject of research conducted by neuroscientists, linguists, lawyers, sociologists, historians, criminologists and semioticians. While historically and by convention, the university study of Shakespeare has been largely confined to English departments, in reality the subject is so vast and global that it exceeds the grasp of any single discipline.

We will therefore take an interdisciplinary approach to explore some key questions:

• What was the cultural, educational and scientific environment in which Shakespeare lived four hundred years ago?
• How did Shakespeare’s grammar school education prepare him for a career in playwrighting?
• What view of humans and human nature emerges from his work? How is the non-human world represented?
• How did Shakespeare think our bodies, minds and emotions worked? Was he right?
• How does reading or seeing Shakespeare affect our brain chemistry?
• How did Shakespeare go from being a ‘local’ playwright in London at the turn of the seventeenth century to being a truly ‘global’ phenomenon in the twenty-first century?
• How have people adapted Shakespeare’s stories to suit their political and personal needs?
• How might we use Shakespeare to confront the current climate emergency or other pressing issues of the twenty-first century?

A range of experts will help us think through these questions. Our set text will be The Tempest (1611), Shakespeare’s last solo-authored play and perhaps his most mysterious. It has been interpreted as: a Christian story of forgiveness and redemption; an autobiography of the playwright; a parable of colonialism and study of the master/slave relationship; a warning about the dangers of scientific knowledge; a study of the sinister effects of AI and surveillance culture.

The module is bookended by two sessions on ‘Shakespeare and Us/You’: each section will focus on what each student’s experience, heritage, discipline/s might bring to the vast field that we call ‘Shakespeare’. We will ask:

What has Shakespeare brought to your discipline?
What does your discipline bring to Shakespeare?

Which is another way of asking:

What might Shakespeare offer to you? What might you offer to Shakespeare?

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Set text: The Tempest

Week 1: Introduction – Shakespeare and Us
Led by Paul Prescott
Topics: Who was Shakespeare? Why does he matter? What makes The Tempest ‘Shakespearean’? What was your first encounter with Shakespeare? What might your discipline/s bring to the understanding and appreciation of Shakespeare?

Unit 1: Shakespeare’s Brain

Week 2: An Elizabethan Education, Or: How To Make A Playwright
(Relevant Disciplines/Fields: History of Education, Classics, Rhetoric, Law)
Guest speakers: Prof Gary Watt (Law) and Perry Mills (King Edward’s School, Stratford-upon-Avon)
Location: Shakespeare’s Schoolroom, King Edward’s School, Stratford-upon-Avon (transport will be provided)
Topics: How was Shakespeare educated? What was he made to read and think about? What was on the early modern grammar school’s curriculum? How did what he learnt help him to become a playwright?

Week 3: The Shakespearean Self
(Relevant Disciplines/Fields: History of Medicine, Classics, Philosophy)
Guest speaker: Dr Erin Sullivan (The Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham)
Topics: What did the Elizabethans think a person was? How was the body understood and explained? What examples of human (and non-human) selfhood do we see in The Tempest?

Week 4: Shakespeare in/on The Brain
(Relevant Disciplines/Fields: Neuroscience, Life Science, Psychology, Literary Criticism)
Guest Speaker: Prof Nick Dale (Life Sciences)
Topics: What did Shakespeare write about the human brain? Were emotions different four hundred years ago? What happens to our brains when reading or watching Shakespeare?

Unit 2: Shakespeare’s Globes

Week 5: Shakespeare and Ecology
(Relevant Disciplines/Fields: Climate Science; Botany; Geography)
Led by Paul Prescott and Dr Alys Daroy (online from Perth, Australia)
Topics: Were the Elizabethans aware of climate change? How does this register in Shakespeare’s plays? How might we now adapt the plays to speak to the current emergency?

Week 6: Shakespeare and Colonialism: The Tempest in the Caribbean
(Relevant Disciplines/Fields: Latin American and Caribbean Studies; Postcolonialism; Politics)
Guest speaker: Prof Fabienne Viala (Hispanic Studies)
Topics: What links can be drawn between The Tempest (1611) and Britain’s first ever colonial enterprise, the foundation of a colony in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1610? How has The Tempest been rewritten since to address later colonial contexts, for example in the Caribbean and Latin America in the 19th and 20th centuries?

Week 7: Shakespeare as Global Event
(Relevant Disciplines/Fields: International Relations, History of Sport, Theatre Studies, Cultural and Media Studies, Sociology)
Led by Paul Prescott
Topics: What happened when Shakespeare was placed centre-stage at a global mega-event, the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics? What did this and other 2012 events tell us about Shakespeare’s global reputation and about Britain’s status internationally and its approach to soft power? How can we measure Shakespeare’s ‘cultural capital’?

Unit 3: Shakespeare Now

Week 8: Shakespeare in Contemporary Culture
(Relevant Disciplines/Fields: Media Studies; Theatre and Performance Studies; UK postwar history)
Led by Paul Prescott and Nima Taleghani (actor, writer, Warwick alumnus)
The content for this week will be dictated by recent media coverage of Shakespeare-related stories; these will be read as symptomatic of Shakespeare’s place in contemporary culture. We will be joined by writer, actor and spoken word artist Nima Taleghani who will reflect on his work with the Jamie Lloyd Company and its controversial West End Romeo and Juliet of 2024.

We will also prepare for our visit to Stratford by considering the Royal Shakespeare Company as a cultural institution.

NB: Includes Theatre Trip to Royal Shakespeare Company production in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Week 9: Shakespeare and Global Education
(Relevant Disciplines/Fields: International Relations, Education Studies, Applied Linguistics, Intercultural Communication)
Guest Speaker: Dr Duncan Lees (Applied Linguistics)
Topics: In 2012, the British Council claimed that about ‘half the world’s schoolchildren study Shakespeare’: is that true? How has Shakespeare become the most widely taught writer on the planet? How is Shakespeare taught to tens of million Chinese students each year? And what is the world learning when it learns ‘Shakespeare’?

Week 10: Shakespeare and You
Led by Paul Prescott
Short, non-assessed presentations on one of three following topics:

1. What might my discipline bring to the study and understanding of Shakespeare?
2. What might Shakespeare bring to my discipline?
3. A brief outline of your planned SDA

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Understand how local, national and/or global contexts shaped the life and work of William Shakespeare
• Recognise the value of an interdisciplinary approach, specifically understanding the influence that Shakespeare’s works have had on multiple disciplines, and which multiple disciplines’ work has reciprocally had on our understanding of Shakespeare
• Understand the central role that adaptation has played in the dissemination of Shakespeare globally
• Demonstrate the ability to think critically and imaginatively about the application of the student’s discipline to Shakespeare and vice versa.
• Articulate how the adaptation, re-writing and transmediation of Shakespeare’s works has helped communities to confront urgent contemporary issues
• Undertake an original piece of creative research relating to one or more themes of the module
• Reflect on and justify their own work in an informed and analytical manner

Indicative reading list

Books and Articles
Bennet, Susan and Christie Carson, eds. Shakespeare Beyond English: A Global Experiment. Cambridge, 2013.
Bickley, Pamela and Jenny Stevens, Studying Shakespeare Adaptation: From Restoration Theatre to YouTube. London: Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare, 2021.
Cartelli, Thomas, Repositioning Shakespeare: National Formations, Postcolonial Appropriations. London: Routledge, 1999.
Dadabhoy, A. and Mehdizadeh, N, Anti-Racist Shakespeare. Cambridge, 2023.

Edmondson, Paul, Shakespeare and Stratford-upon-Avon. Oxford, forthcoming.

Eklund, H. and Hyman, W.B., Teaching Social Justice Through Shakespeare: Why Renaissance Literature Matters Now. Edinburgh, 2019.

Holderness, Graham, ‘Bardolotry: the cultural materialist’s guide to Stratford-upon-Avon’, in The Shakespeare Myth, ed G Holderness. Manchester: MUP, 1988.

Lees, Duncan, ‘Citizen of the World, or Citizen of Nowhere? Shakespeare Lives in China in 2016’, In: E.G.C. King & M. Smialkowska (Eds), Memorialising Shakespeare. Palgrave, 2021.

Lees, Duncan, ‘Encouraging Deep Learning through an Interactive, Intercultural Approach to Shakespeare’, in J. Shaules & T. McConachy (Eds), Transformation, Embodiment, and Wellbeing in Foreign Language Pedagogy: Enacting Deep Learning. Bloomsbury, 2022.

Prescott, Paul, ‘Shakespeare, Ecology, Adaptation: An Introduction’, in Shakespeare, Ecology and Adaptation: A Practical Guide by Alys Daroy and Paul Prescott, 1-14. London: Arden, 2025.
Prescott, Paul and Erin Sullivan, eds. Shakespeare on the Global Stage: Performance and Festivity in the Olympic Year. London: Arden, 2015.
Prescott, Paul, ‘Shakespeare and Popular Culture’, in Wells and de Grazia eds, The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare. Cambridge: CUP, 2012.
Shakespeare, William, The Tempest, ed Stephen Orgel. Oxford: OUP, 2012.
Thompson, Ayanna, Passing Strange: Shakespeare, Race and Contemporary America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
Watt, Gary, Shakespeare and the Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023.
Online Resources
‘Shakespeare Stories Around the World’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgSAF6Tatrs

‘Shakespeare Around the Globe’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vawT1bndBYM&t=36s

‘Global Children Study Shakespeare’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8t9D5-3fw4

London Olympics Opening Ceremony:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4As0e4de-rI

Various speakers, ‘Shakespeare on the Brain’ symposium at Capital Centre, University of Warwick, March 2009: https://warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/podcasts/media/more/shakespearebrain

Research element

Students will be required to undertake original research for their SDAs. The essay/video assessment will require rigour and accuracy in referencing and presentation.

Interdisciplinary

The week-by-week indicative schedule for this module clearly signposts the range of subjects and disciplines that will be brought to bear on the vast subject of Shakespeare.

Shakespeare’s work has exerted an influence on – among others - philosophers, politicians, psychoanalysts, economists, musicians, environmentalists, advertisers, leadership coaches and freedom fighters. His work has also been the subject of research conducted by neuroscientists, linguists, lawyers, sociologists, historians, criminologists and semioticians. While historically and by convention, the university study of Shakespeare has been largely confined to English departments, in reality the subject is so vast and global that it exceeds the grasp of any single discipline.

International

The international dimensions of the module are signalled by its title. The module is designed to work from the micro to the macro, asking:
How has a local ‘product’ gone global?
While Shakespeare may have begun as an English phenomenon, the emphasis will be on a) the inherent cosmopolitanism of his plays (most are set in countries outside the British Isles and based on non-Anglophone sources); b) the spread (via modes such as colonialism, intercultural exchange and translation) of his works globally; c) their use value to a wide range of nations and communities in the four hundred years since they were written.
It is very much hoped that the module will recruit visiting / exchange students keen to sample an inclusive and place-based experience of what is, in effect, an icon of British culture.

Subject specific skills

The skills cultivated by this module are not specific to any one subject but are common to many disciplines and subjects. They are also transferable.
They include:

• Close textual analysis of fictional and non-fictional writing
• Lateral and imaginative thinking that forges connections between ostensibly unrelated ideas or areas
• Cultivated curiosity in peoples, places, and ideas
• The ability to contribute to and be inspired by a diverse community of learners (i.e. embracing proximal development)
• The inclination to engage both with the local and with the global
• Research-based self-expression, whether through a discursive piece of writing or an open-ended student-devised assessment

Transferable skills

• Critical thinking across and between disciplines
• Intercultural awareness
• Time management skills
• Interpersonal communicative skills
• Synthetic thinking that links information from a range of sources
• The ability to devise a bespoke research project and execute it with rigour, originality and integrity