Shakespeare in the Everyday World

In the Fall Semester of 2018, I took the honors class titled Shakespeare in the Everyday World. This 3-credit-hour class took place once a week on Wednesdays. At the start of the semester we spent a fair bit of time reading from our assigned textbook: Hamlet Globe to Globe. This book covered the London Globe's quest to play Hamlet in every country on Earth. While the author was overly pretentious, it was still a good read and fleshed out the differences and similarities of people around the world.

This experience created a new viewpoint in which to see Shakespeare. It was particularly interesting to see how Shakespeare's works contributed to modern culture from popular sayings, such as "wild goose chase" and "seen better days", to influencing how entertainment and theater is seen around the world.

A particularly important part of the experience to me was the ability to go to a Shakespeare play in downtown Cincinnati. We went to go see Twelfth Night, which is an exceptionally funny play in addition to being the first that I have seen. It was an experience I will remember and an experience beyond just the play on stage. The whole theater was exceptional and unique and the intimate setting made the play feel personal.

This experience was a great way to look at academia beyond just the books and see the impacts that literature and other forms of academic life bring to the modern world in ways that impact more than just scholars. These courses continually bring me back to being able to see the bigger picture of why universities are so important.

Artifact

Reflection Essay

This is an assignment from the class that had us reflect on our experience in the class.