This module will introduce you to Shakespearean drama. You will explore major issues that defined the period in which Shakespeare wrote his plays, including race and colonialism, gender and sexuality, the body and the self, and war and religion. You will survey a range of genres and our close readings of this material will be informed by a blend of historicist and theoretical approaches. Using a range of digital archives, interactive websites, and film screenings, the module will encourage you to engage with both text and performance in order to consider how Shakespearean drama functioned in its earliest contexts, and how it continues to challenge readers and audiences today.