Which Shakespeare Great Course?

[EndOfOrdinary]

There are four different Great Courses about Shakespeare.  At this point we are not specializing in any one facet of Shakespeare or any specific play(s), so any or all of them are totally fine.  Though they all deal with slightly different subject matter, I was curious if anyone had specific likes or dislikes about any of them.

# 273 Shakespeare: The Word and The Action by Peter Saccio

# 280 Shakespeare: Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies by Peter Saccio

# 2752 Shakespeare's Tragedies by Clare R. Kinney

# 2711 How to Read and Understand Shakespeare by Marc Connor

 

Thanks!
 

[yvonne]

Another approach might be to pick one of Shakespeare's plays and then listen to the relevant sections of the different Great Courses' lectures, rather than picking one GC course to go through.

 

We read Macbeth this year and have been listening to the sections specifically about Macbeth from the different Great Courses Shakespeare lectures. We also listened to the first couple lectures of each Shakespeare lecture if they covered a general overview of Shakespeare or tragedies. It's worked well for us because each professor has their own particular focus when they study Macbeth. Not only do we get to hear and think about all these different facets of the play, depending on the professor, but my boys and daughter can also see that there are many different ways to approach a work of literature. There are lots of threads one can choose to follow and examine in a piece of literature.  It's been fun!

[brookspr]

I agree with the post above.  Many of our area libraries have inter-library loan, so we have access to many of the Great Courses materials.  The last two weeks my daughter was studying the time period of Julius Caesar and so she watched the 1950's movie and read parts of the Shakespeare play.  She then watched the corresponding Great Courses lectures (I believe we had set #280).  She said it was very interesting and she learned quite a bit.  I wanted her to get a taste of Shakespeare and the Great Courses since we will be using those more often in the high school years.  In the future, I will probably watch them with her so we can discuss what was in the lecture.  I believe there was a booklet included in the DVD set that could be used in addition to the lectures for review.