How to Read and Understand Shakespeare

By: Marc C. Conner, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Marc C. Conner

Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

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 Courses

Exceptional Introduction to the Bard

If you could sum up How to Read and Understand Shakespeare in three words, what would they be?

Intelligent, understated, authentic

Any additional comments?

What makes this lecture exceptional is the tone Conner strikes. He's a nice guy, with deep-seated passion, talking to reasonable, intelligent people about how to better understand Shakespeare. Shakespearean professors/lecturers often descend into the most noxious, self-involved, pretentious blather. This course helps one better appreciate just how funny, thoughtful, intelligent, emotionally complex, moving and relevant these works were and remain to this day.

Reawakens the Brilliance of Shakespeare

Not having read Shakespeare since high school, I have found the time to return to great literature in my retirement. This series of lectures has elegantly introduced me to the tools that the professor brings to the understanding of Shakespeare's plays. I will now eagerly delve into stage performances and the written page of The Bard.

Finally

Shakespeare has always confused me to the point where I have abandoned several attempts to see what everyone is talking about. This series has taught me so much about the life, time, history, and meanings behind these plays and this prolific author. I can't wait to dive back in and use what I leaned in this course to understand these plays more deeply!

A great course for anyone interested in Shakespeare

Fantastic course. Prof. Conner breaks it down in a way that anyone can understand it. I couldn’t imagine having to wait an entire semester to get though this. I binged it in the course of a few days.

So much interesting information!

I'm a long time lover of all things Bard. Still, every chapter added perspective and corrected long held errors and assumptions. From historical context to different ways to see old topics this title delivers. I've had this title for years and listened to it several times now.

Handy tools to analyze Shakespeare in Works

This is a definitely a fantastic introductory course to understand Shakespeare. Thanks for making the works less daunting with handy tools to analyze them.

Outstanding

I was taking a Shakespeare unit at University and thought this course might better prepare me for the class. I am so glad I did, this is by far one of the most insightful and helpful courses I've ever listened to. It is a must for anyone who is studying Shakespeare, however lovers of literature will also thoroughly enjoy this course. Professor Connor's passion and enthusiasm is infectious and his unique teaching methods make understanding Shakespeare easy.
I could not recommend this course enough!

Well done!

The knoweldge and understanding of the teacher was extremely forth coming and i learned a great deal about my favorite playright. This is a must read!

Perfect

Approachable methodology for learning how to comprehend Shakespeare yourself. The examples come from all of his categories of plays.

Excellent!

I love Shakespeare and have wanted to learn to study his works rather than simply enjoy them at face value. This course taught me so much, and I'm excited to begin applying the tools to study all the works. What fun!
The material is taught well and spoken at an even pace. Clearly the professor is passionate about these plays and spreads that enthusiasm to the listener.
I will be returning to this book again and highly recommend it if you want to better appreciate the stories, messages and methods of the beloved Bard.
Words, words, words... Enjoy!