Expand Your Horizons! Study Abroad: Shakespeare in Italy

Shakespeare in Italy will be an intensive EMU study abroad course focusing on the writing of William Shakespeare in the context of Renaissance humanism and early modern English views of Italian culture. Much like the tradition of the Grand Tour that meant to expose students to the great cities that gave birth to the art and philosophy that inspired their studies, this class will introduce students to the birthplace of the humanist rhetorical imagination (Florence, Venice, and Rome), as it relates both to human invention through Greek and Roman philosophy as it shaped sixteenth century English culture.

Students will read Shakespeare’s sonnets and representative dramatic works, but also Italian and continental authors including: Niccolo Machiavelli, Giovanni Picco, Marsello Ficino, Petrarch, Cicero, Quintilian. Students should expect to read and perform some of Shakespeare's plays in class in those very places that inspired his work: Othello in Piazzo San Marco in Venice or in front of the Doge’s palace, Merchant of Venice in the ghetto, Hamlet in the Sistine Chapel, Machiavelli’s The Prince and Iago’s soliloquys in front of the Palazzo Medici in Florence, Coriolanus under the Tarpeian Rock in Rome, or scenes from Julius Caesar near the Roman Forum.

Shakespeare in Italy (Feb 21-March 1)

To Apply:  Visit EMU's Study Abroad website for program details, fees, and application.

Application deadline: Dec. 1, 2019 

Interested? Attend the Study Abroad Fair on October 1, 2019 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Student Center - Grand Ballroom A for more information.