Many of Shakespeare’s plays are set in the Mediterranean region; Italy, for instance, has been called Shakespeare’s “favourite imaginative haunt”. Padua, Rome, Sicily, Verona, Venice – these are just some of the Italian locations in which Shakespeare set one or several of his plays. Other Mediterranean settings include Alexandria, Athens, Marseilles, and Troy. Partly, the fact that Shakespeare chose Mediterranean settings for so many of his plays reflects a broader Elizabethan fascination with this region as a source of classical civilisation and a cultural archive. But Shakespeare’s Mediterranean plays frequently also comment on his contemporary England. We will consider how Shakespeare used the Mediterranean to examine the rise and fall of great empires and their leaders, as well as to explore the poetic language of love, which was, after all, modelled on Italian poets and verse forms.

Required Reading:
Shakespeare, William. Julius Caesar (c. 1599).
Shakespeare, William. Anthony and Cleopatra (c. 1606-7).
Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night’s Dream (c. 1595).
Shakespeare, William. Troilus and Cressida (c. 1602).
Preferred edition: Arden Shakespeare, Third Series.

This class will be conducted within the research area Blue Humanities. Blue Humanities studies oceans, rivers, and coastal areas in terms of (colonial) histories, migration and travel, sustainability and ecological issues, circulation of people and ideas, marine and Indigenous knowledges, literature and cultures, new geographies, extractivism, energy and economic issues, among others.

After discussing ocean literacy and the sustainable development goals of the UN on water, we will read and discuss short texts from the collection The Imperiled Ocean: Human Stories from a Changing Sea by Laura Trethewey and the two novels The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh and People of the Whale by Linda Hogan. The novels are ready for purchase at the University bookstore at the beginning of the semester: The Hungry Tide (13 €) and People of the Whale (17,50 €). Other primary and secondary texts will be uploaded on StudIP.
Pls note that regular attendance and class preparation and active class discussion are mandatory. You must register on StudIP for this class.

In this course environmental issues will become our lens through which we will look at a number of mainstream and independent films. How do these films present relations between human and environment, destruction and resilience? In how far do they depend on spectacular performances of devastation and individualistic heroism? And in how far can they offer narrative and aesthetic alternatives to formulaic storytelling? Moreover, what are the possible repercussions
on reception and spectatorship?
In the first part of the course, we will develop a theoretical framework that can help us to critically analyze and assess ecocinema.
Requirements:

• active participation
• in-depth knowledge of the films and the reading material
• non-graded assessment: oral presentation (handout and PowerPoint presentation)
• graded assessment: oral presentation and written term paper to be submitted by September 15.