Shakespeare’s Hamlet: The Ghost
5-7 hours a week • Start today
Individual Course
Course Length
4 weeks
5-7 hours per week
Featuring faculty from:
Harvard Faculty of Arts & Sciences
Enroll as Individual
Certificate Price:
$ 149
Enroll as Individual
Certificate Price:
$ 149
Explore relationships between Shakespeare’s world and present day, and learn literary analysis tools to better comprehend and enjoy his works.
How do we read Shakespeare? Do his plays belong to the past or the present? To a famed dramatic genius or to readers and audiences around the globe? What do his plays really mean?
Moving between the world in which Shakespeare lived and the present day, this course will introduce different kinds of literary analysis that you can use when reading Shakespeare. With short videos filmed on location in England and readings covering topics like Shakespeare's contemporaries and the politics of modern performance, you will learn a range of critical tools that you can use to unlock the meaning and relevance of Shakespeare’s plays.
Join us as we visit Stratford-upon-Avon, where Shakespeare was born in 1564; London, the lively city where he began as an actor; and the Globe Theater, where his first plays were performed. This journey through Shakespeare’s life will transport you to another era and will give you a new perspective on his timeless work.
Self-Guided
edX
Understand the cultural significance of Shakespeare's plays and their performance
Learn how Shakespeare’s work was considered in his own time and in the present, in his own country and around the world
Understand how to consider authorial intention, historical context, and present relevance
Your Instructor
Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University
Stephen Greenblatt is Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University. He is the author of twelve books, including The Swerve: How the World Became Modern; Shakespeare's Freedom; Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare; Hamlet in Purgatory; Marvelous Possessions; and Renaissance Self-Fashioning. He is General Editor of The Norton Anthology of English Literature and of The Norton Shakespeare, has edited seven collections of criticism, and is a founding editor of the journal Representations.
These courses can be bundled together to receive a professional certificate at a discounted price.
Learn More5-7 hours a week • Start today
5-7 hours a week • Start today
5-7 hours a week • Start today
Ways to take this course
A Verified Certificate costs $149 and provides unlimited access to full course materials, activities, tests, and forums. At the end of the course, learners who earn a passing grade can receive a certificate.
Alternatively, learners can Audit the course for free and have access to select course material, activities, tests, and forums. Please note that this track does not offer a certificate for learners who earn a passing grade.
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