NTC: Shakespeare’s Language in Context: Its History, Originality, and Legacy

This seminar will analyze aspects of Shakespeare’s language that add depth to modern readers’ understanding of the Bard. Participants will examine some of the linguistic and external history that made Elizabethan English an important transitional phase of  the language, and they will learn about the pedagogical value of some aspects of the language that are usually unavailable to students, such as original spellings and the revived Early Modern English pronunciation used in some productions at London’s Globe Theatre. The session will conclude with an examination of Shakespeare’s contributions to modern English. Discussions will generally focus on language in the Shakespeare texts that are taught most frequently in high schools: “Macbeth,” “Hamlet,” “Julius Caesar,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and a few sonnets.