Something Shakespeare This Way Comes

Ep 6: Exploring Genre - Comedy and Tragicomedy


Listen Later

Make ‘em laugh! Make ‘em cry? Make ‘em feel…weird???


We are talking genre! Specifically the genres of Shakespeare’s

plays, how we started to categorize the plays into these genres in the first place, and how that’s affected our reading of and study of the plays since.


I also cover what constituted a comedy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and how it’s not as straightforward as you would think. Afterwards, I dive into the tragicomedies, which have been confusing people even more for hundreds of years.


This episode is a part one! Next time I’ll be covering tragedies and histories. So come back for part two!

 

Further Reading:

Why We Should Celebrate the 400th Anniversary of

Shakespeare’s First Folio: https://lithub.com/why-we-should-celebrate-the-400th-anniversary-of-shakespeares-first-folio/

 

The First Folio (see more about the First Folio and the

catalogue page at the Folger Shakespeare Library website: https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeare-in-print/first-folio/)

 

The New Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare, particularly the chapters:

“Shakespeare’s comedies” by Stanley Wells

“Shakespeare’s tragicomedies” by Janette Dillon

 

The Bedford Companion to Shakespeare by Russ McDonald, particularly the chapter:

“Theater à la Mode: Shakespeare and the Kinds of Drama” and

accompanying primary documents

 

Shakespeare After All by Marjorie Garber, especially the introductory information and the chapter on The Merchant of Venice


Some Shakespearean comedies:

The Comedy of Errors

Twelfth Night

The Merchant of Venice


And some Shakespearean tragicomedies/romances:

The Tempest

The Winter’s Tale

Cymbeline


For more on The Tempest, listen to my episode on The Tempest as theater metaphor


Credit where credit is due

Art by ⁠Halie Branson⁠

Music recording by ⁠josdvg⁠

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Something Shakespeare This Way ComesBy Something Shakespeare This Way Comes