Shakespeare as Literature and Drama aims to help students gain an introductory understanding of Shakespeare's work and how it fits into the context of his life and times.  Other goals for the course include the following:  to learn to write about Shakespeare's work; to learn how to read and analyze Shakespeare’s plays and their significance linguistically, historically, politically, socially, and culturally; to do close readings of text, noting the integration of literary devices and textual directives for performance; and to develop a methodology for approaching antiquated texts for academic reading, pleasure reading, and performance.