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. And that episode is now live: go listen to a discussion most tragical and historical.

Listen here or wherever you find your podcasts:

Further Reading

Why We Should Celebrate the 400^th Anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio

The First Folio (see more about the First Folio and the infamous catalogue page)

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