Introduction

Shakespeare: The Winter's Tale

In this course, we explore several aspects of one of Shakespeare’s later plays, The Winter’s Tale. In particular, we consider the political and theatrical context for the play, the importance of allegory and symbolism, the play’s peculiar structure, and, of course, Shakespeare’s most famous stage direction: “Exit, pursued by a bear”

Introduction

In this module, we outline a few of the issues that will be explored in more detail throughout the course: the play’s structure, its use of allegory and symbolism, and its relation to the changing artistic and theatrical ideas of the day.