Teaching Shakespeare's Theatre of the World (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781009111096)

This Element engages with one of Shakespeare's greatest thought-experiments: How does one navigate the 'theatre of the world'? It invites students to examine how Shakespeare challenges this metaphor's vertical hierarchies in response to shifting understandings of cosmological order. Teachers will find rich contextual frameworks for exploring how Shakespeare envisions 'worlds' as emerging from dynamic variables, raising urgent questions about how identity and justice are environmentally constructed. Focal plays include A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, Hamlet, Henry V, The Merchant of Venice, and Othello. Each discussion features student centred 'Explorations'. These play-specific classroom activities can also be adapted across Shakespeare's corpus and tailored for both secondary and university-level students. These exercises encourage non-linear critical and creative thinking, inviting students to contemplate big ideas and generate new perspectives about the shared points of contact between Shakespeare's world and their own.

Author: Kristen Abbott Bennett
ISBN-10: 1009111094
ISBN-13: 9781009111096
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 12/18/2025
Pages: 120
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.24lbs
Size: 7.00h x 5.00w x 0.25d