A decade ago, I delivered a MOOC (“massive open online course”) for the University of Warwick, via its Business School in association with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. It was delivered on the FutureLearn platform. It has not been available for enrollment for many years now, but Warwick kindly gave me permission to re-use the short films that were integral to the course. So over the coming weeks, I’ll be making them available to my paid subscribers. As a taster for all subscribers, here are the first two videos. The next two, for paid subscribers only, will be available in a week’s time.
The course has 10 modules and each module has 6-7 short films beginning from a book, manuscript or object in the collections of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Shakespeare’s childhood home in Henley Street, Stratford-upon-Avon, or just occasionally from elsewhere. None of the videos is more than about 10 minutes long. Module 1 offers a general introduction to his life, work and world; module 2 looks at rural Warwickshire, life in Stratford-upon-Avon and The Merry Wives of Windsor, his comedy of small-town English society; module 3 turns to the theatre and the process of putting on plays, focused via A Midsummer Night’s Dream; module 4 reminds us that throughout the 1590s Shakespeare lived in a world at war - the focal play here is Henry V; module 5 looks at money, focusing on The Merchant of Venice; module 6 is on witches and doctors in Macbeth; module 7 uses Othello to explore Venice, Islam and race; module 8 explores the formative influence on Shakespeare of ancient Rome, via Antony and Cleopatra; module 9 spins out into brave new worlds from The Tempest; and the closing module looks at the history of Shakespeare’s posthumous reputation, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries.
So I’ll do a weekly paid-only post, each time including two films - and on some occasions you’ll get additional written commentary too. There’ll always be one video link at the top of the post and one at the bottom. Enjoy!
