Scribner Seminar Program
Course Description
Shakespeare's Ecologies
Instructor(s): Andrew Bozio, English
Shakespeare wrote at the dawn of what scientists call the Anthropocene, the geological epoch in which human activity radically altered the earth鈥檚 ecologies. Thanks to our reshaping of the earth鈥檚 surface and to our transformation of the atmosphere, our presence on this planet will be visible in the fossil record long after we鈥檝e disappeared. What can literature tell us about the history of environmental upheaval and our relationship to it? In this course, we will study Shakespeare鈥檚 representation of forests, islands, and oceans as a way of rethinking the relationship between culture and the natural world. What ecological crises were unfolding at the dawn of the Anthropocene, and how does Shakespeare respond to those crises in such plays as A Midsummer Night鈥檚 Dream, The Tempest, and Macbeth? Furthermore, as we adapt Shakespeare鈥檚 plays for the twenty-first century, what can these works tell us about our own assumptions regarding sustainability and environmental decay? To answer these questions, we will study different disciplinary perspectives 鈥� ranging from history and philosophy to cognitive science 鈥� on the nature of the environment, asking how these disciplines can help us to rethink Shakespeare鈥檚 ecologies.