A History in All Lives: Shakespeare's History Plays

A History in All Lives: Shakespeare's History Plays

Lifelong Learning | Available (Membership Required)

9000 Babcock Blvd Pittsburgh, PA 15237 United States

PSC 101

7/9/2024-8/6/2024

3:00 PM-4:30 PM EDT on Tue

This term, we will explore the third major category of plays by Shakespeare, those based on British history.  The five selected will be Richard II, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, Henry V, and Richard III.  Each is a story of king, but also of the country going through conflict, with others but mainly with itself.  Oh, we also meet one of the great comic characters: Sir John Falstaff.  There is a lot of real history involved in these plays, like the very true battle of Agincourt in Henry V, but it is also the Bard’s interpretation of the people and times, and maybe of his own times.

Young, Michael

Michael Young has over three decades of teaching experience at schools like the University of Nebraska, Kansas State University, and over 20 years at La Roche.  His Ph.D. in Writing and Literature is from the University of Cincinnati.  He has given numerous conference presentations and published articles on Shakespeare’s plays, poetry, bringing Shakespeare into the classroom, and the plays’ adaptations into film and television, along with the editorial work on the book Everyone’s Shakespeare by noted Yale professor Maynard Mack. He has won teaching awards at two major universities, was awarded a Faculty Enrichment grant by the Canadian government, and is the author of dozens of other articles and essays, along with short stories and poems.