01   TTH6  CAC  67662  LEVAO  SC-201

Shakespeare & Friendship

We will examine Shakespeare’s share in what used to be called the “Renaissance cult of friendship,” a nearly obsessive appropriation andtransformation of classical and medieval speculation about friendship by early-modern writers. We will consider three major classical discussions, by Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero, and look briefly at some medieval and Renaissance representations including Montaigne’s essay, “Of Friendship,” and Marlowe’s play, Edward II, in the course of reading Shakespeare. Among the questions we will consider are:  What impels the search for and contemplation of an alter ego? How is friendship (philia) to bedistinguished from erotic love, and how permeable is the boundary?  What kinds of friendship are possible between men?  between women?  How is friendship theory deployed in formulating the ideal of a “companionatemarriage”?  Is friendship a foundation for political order or a threat to public life?  Is friendship a form of self-knowledge?   Is friendshipaltruistic or an egoistic impulse masquerading as altruism?  What is the relation between friendship writing and early-modern subjectivity, solitude, and anxiety?   Some modern theorists, philosophers, and literary critics will also be used to help us in our discussions, but the primary emphasis will be on Shakespeare. Shakespearean works will probably include the Sonnets, Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Merchant of Venice, As You Like it, Macbeth, The Winter’s Tale, and  Two Noble Kinsmen.  Seminar members will be required to participate in class discussion, to write three papers of gradually increasing length, the final being about10-15 pages long.  A final exam is possible.