FYS 118 Hamlet
Shakespeare’s Hamlet is perhaps “the” central literary work of Western culture. Why? In attempting to answer this question, we will read the play carefully and talk about it; we will perform scenes and think about how they work; we will consider the play’s sources and its historical background; and, perhaps above all, we will ponder the many things that Hamlet the play and Hamlet the character have meant over the years, to writers as diverse as Goethe, Freud, and Tom Stoppard, in literary works, theatrical productions, films, and popular culture.