Shakespeare's Sanctuary City

Class Description

We will explore how Shakespeare and his fellow playwrights represented London as a sanctuary city in their plays much like our modern-day Chicago. The term “sanctuary city” is frequently used in the news today but without much explanation of its current meaning or a sense of its history. We will learn about scholars who grapple with modern problems with citizenship by looking back to Shakespeare’s time to suggest a layered or multi-level approach to citizenship—where individuals would have rights attached to not only nation but also more local civic spaces like towns and cities. In plays such as Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, Coriolanus, and Sir Thomas More, and Francis Beaumont’s The Knight of the Burning Pestle, we will learn about how the city was both solution and problem in relation to issues of immigration, labor rights, civil and civic inclusion, and democratic rights.

Dr. Caldwell teaches courses on Shakespeare and modern literature at Carthage College. His research focus on citizenship in early modern drama, especially local forms of urban citizenship, and social issues related to race, gender, sexuality, religion, and economic class.

Come see a preview of this class at our Open House on May 17!

Interested but prefer virtual classes? Check out our other class running this term, "Shakespeare Otherwise: Reading and Performing from the Margins"!

What to Expect

Format: In Person

Class Capacity: 18

Class Style: Mostly discussion; participation-based

Materials List

Required

• Francis Beaumont, The Knight of the Burning Pestle. Manchester University Press, 2004. ISBN: 978-0719069673
• William Shakespeare, Sir Thomas More. The Arden Shakespeare, 2011. ISBN: 978-1904271482
• William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice. Oxford, 2008. ISBN: 9780199535859
• William Shakespeare, Coriolanus. Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN: 978-0199535804
• Other Instructor-Distributed Materials

First Reading

• Please read the selection from Etienne Balibar’s Citizenship and the free access short article by Harald Bauder, "Urban Citizenship: A Path to Migrant Inclusion"

A Brief Syllabus

1. Shakespeare’s Chicago and the History of Sanctuary Cities
2. The Other Within: Gender, Race, and Religious Difference in the City
3. Representing the History of City Riots and Immigrants on Stage
4. City Rights and/versus National Democratic Rights
5. Performing Citizenship in Shakespeare’s Playhouse

Cost and Registration

5 Sessions, $255 ($229.50 for Newberry members, seniors, and students). Learn about becoming a member.

We offer our classes at three different price options: Regular ($255), Community Supported ($235), and Sponsor ($275). Following the models of other institutions, we want to ensure that our classes are accessible to a wider audience while continuing to support our instructors. You may choose the price that best fits your situation when registering through Learning Stream.

To register multiple people for this class, please go through the course calendar in Learning Stream, our registration platform. When you select the course and register, you’ll be prompted to add another registrant.

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