Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Matt EmersonApril 21, 2015

Paula Marantz Cohen, Professor at Drexel University, has written (WSJ, 4/18) one of the best defenses of teaching Shakespeare -- mere Shakespeare, I should say -- I've read in recent memory. Her opening paragraphs: 

Of all the courses I have taught over my 30 years as an English professor, the one that I enjoy teaching most and that students seem to enjoy taking most is “Shakespeare.”

That’s the title. Not “Shakespeare and the Elizabethan World” or “Shakespeare and Stagecraft”; not “Shakespeare and Imperialism,” “Shakespeare and Gender,” or “Shakespeare and Postmodern Theory.”

I don’t even title the course, as I once did, “Introduction to Shakespeare,” though it is open to all students and has no prerequisites. Appending “introduction to” would admittedly emphasize the fact that Shakespeare is a vast and deep terrain, but it would also suggest that the course leads to “Advanced Shakespeare.”

This is not the case. The Shakespeare course is not the first step in a graded ascent but an immersion in a world. I want it to be Shakespeare without addendum or dilution. My belief is that anyone at any level can derive benefit from this course, not because I teach it so well but because reading a certain number of Shakespeare’s plays with close attention is an end as well as a beginning. It can yield rudimentary insights but it can also yield highly advanced and sophisticated ones.

What are some of those insights? See her essay for more.  

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

After an early morning attack on the Holy Family Church in Gaza, Pope Leo XIV called for an immediate ceasefire, dialogue and peace in the region.
Something essential is lost when generations remain siloed at church.
Juan MercedJuly 17, 2025
You’ve got a 401K. But do you have a spiritual retirement plan?
Myles N. SheehanJuly 17, 2025
Syrian security forces secure the area near St. Joseph Church in the Bab-Sharqi neighborhood of Damascus, Syria June 23, 2025, following the June 22 suicide bombing at Mar Elias Church. (OSV News photo/Firas Makdesi, Reuters)
A brief opening to shore up progress toward stability in Syria unfortunately coincides with Trump administration decisions to sharply curtail humanitarian and development assistance and to terminate the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Kevin ClarkeJuly 17, 2025