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Shakespeare's Othello: Storytelling and Performance

Explore Shakespeare's Othello through storytelling, examining how characters craft narratives and how artists reinterpret the play for modern audiences.

Explore Shakespeare's Othello through storytelling, examining how characters craft narratives and how artists reinterpret the play for modern audiences.

This comprehensive course analyzes Shakespeare's Othello through the lens of storytelling, exploring how characters construct narratives within the play and how artists adapt the work across different mediums. Students explore the play's treatment of power, identity, and the relationship between fact and fiction. Through lectures filmed in Venice and discussions with artists, academics, and Harvard librarians, the course examines how Othello grapples with issues of race, gender, class, and nationality. Students analyze both the original text and its various adaptations, from 19th-century opera to contemporary reinterpretations, gaining insight into how different artists and cultures have reimagined this classic work.

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Shakespeare's Othello: Storytelling and Performance

This course includes

4 Weeks

Of Self-paced video lessons

Beginner Level

Completion Certificate

awarded on course completion

12,288

Audit For Free

What you'll learn

  • Analyze Othello's storytelling techniques and their role in character development

  • Examine the play through historical sources and performance artifacts

  • Evaluate how adaptations address themes of race, gender, and class

  • Understand operatic interpretations including Verdi's Otello

  • Explore contemporary reinterpretations by various artists and playwrights

  • Analyze the relationship between storytelling and power in the play

Skills you'll gain

Shakespearean Literature
Theater Studies
Literary Analysis
Dramatic Arts
Performance Studies
Cultural Studies
Storytelling
Opera Studies
Adaptation Theory

This course includes:

PreRecorded video

Graded assignments, exams

Access on Mobile, Tablet, Desktop

Limited Access access

Shareable certificate

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There are 4 modules in this course

Through a focused examination of storytelling in Othello, this course explores the play's complex themes and its continuing relevance. Students analyze how characters construct narratives within the play and how artists have adapted the work across different mediums and contexts. The curriculum covers the original text's historical context, its various adaptations including Verdi's opera and contemporary reinterpretations, and its role in ongoing discussions about race, gender, and power. Special attention is given to how different artists and cultures have reimagined the play through various artistic choices and interpretations.

Story and Identity

Module 1

Story as Fabrication

Module 2

Operatic Othellos

Module 3

Revisionist Othellos

Module 4

Fee Structure

Instructors

A Pioneering Scholar in Literary Studies and Cultural Theory

Stephen Jay Greenblatt, born November 7, 1943, in Boston, serves as the Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University, where he has revolutionized literary criticism through founding New Historicism. After completing his education at Yale and Cambridge, he established himself as one of the preeminent Shakespeare scholars and Renaissance literature experts of our time. His influential works include fourteen books spanning Shakespeare studies, cultural history, and literary theory, with notable titles like "The Swerve: How the World Became Modern," which won both the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, and "Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare." As General Editor of The Norton Anthology of English Literature and The Norton Shakespeare, he has shaped literary education worldwide. His academic leadership extends to founding the journal Representations and developing innovative approaches to cultural criticism. His exceptional contributions have earned him prestigious honors including the 2016 Holberg Prize, membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Philosophical Society, and the British Academy. Beyond his scholarly work, he has held visiting professorships at universities across the globe, from Beijing to Bologna, while maintaining his position as a leading voice in humanities education and cultural analysis.

Bailey Sincox
Bailey Sincox

5 Courses

A Rising Scholar in Early Modern Drama and Performance Studies

Dr. Bailey Sincox currently serves as the Perkins-Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton University, where she studies early modern English drama and performance. After completing her BA from Duke University and master's degrees from both Oxford and Harvard, she earned her PhD from Harvard University. Her research spans Shakespeare and his contemporaries, gender studies, reception and adaptation studies, and book history. She is currently completing her first book project, "Female Revenge on the Early Modern Stage," while teaching courses such as "Theater in Early Modern London: The Purpose of Playing" at Princeton. Her scholarly work appears in prestigious journals including Shakespeare Studies, Shakespeare Survey, and The Review of English Studies, while her public-facing writing features in The Drift, Harvard Review, and Los Angeles Review of Books. Beyond her research, she contributes to making Shakespeare accessible through projects like the XSeries "Shakespeare's Outsiders" and is preparing a new introduction to "Much Ado About Nothing" for Oxford World's Classics.

Shakespeare's Othello: Storytelling and Performance

This course includes

4 Weeks

Of Self-paced video lessons

Beginner Level

Completion Certificate

awarded on course completion

12,288

Audit For Free

Testimonials

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5 course rating

12 ratings

Frequently asked questions

Below are some of the most commonly asked questions about this course. We aim to provide clear and concise answers to help you better understand the course content, structure, and any other relevant information. If you have any additional questions or if your question is not listed here, please don't hesitate to reach out to our support team for further assistance.