This course will provide a deep dive into William Shakespeare’s King Lear. Structurally, we will split a reading of the play over the five weeks we meet: each week we will begin by reading one act of the play and then spend the rest of our session in discussion (no outside reading is therefore required).

Active participation will be encouraged, but if you are more of a listener, then you can still join in on the discussion at the end without taking on an “acting” role. As we will discuss, there are significant textual variations in editions of the play; please purchase the Norton Critical Edition (edited by Grace Ioppolo, 2008).

Our study group instructor, Margo Kolenda-Mason, is a PhD Candidate in the English Language and Literature Department at UM, where she studies medieval and renaissance literature.

This study group will meet on Fridays for five weeks beginning on October 22. Preregistration is required via the OLLI website or phone. A link to access the study group will be e-mailed prior to the first session.