Shakespeare

Who's Who in Shakespeare
822.33 CRI QUE 1995

The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare Studies
822.33 CRI DOB

Oxford English Dictionary Online

HANDBOOKS

Shakespeare's language
822.33 CRI KER 2001

Shakespeare on Love & Lust
822.33 CRI CHA 2000

Asimov’s Guide to Shakespeare
An excellent source of background material for each play, discussing the historical, legendary and mythological background for each play and the two narrative poems.
REF 822.33 CRI ASI 1993

Shakespeare for students  [electronic resource] : critical interpretations of Shakespeare's plays and poetry  2nd ed.

Shakespeare for students. Book I : critical interpretations of As you like it, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, The merchant of Venice, A midsummer night's dream, Othello, and Romeo and Juliet
REF 822.33 CRI SHA 1992 and 822.33 CRI SHA 1992

Shakespeare for students. Book II : critical interpretations of Henry IV, part one, Henry V, King Lear, Much ado about nothing, Richard III, The taming of the shrew, The tempest, Twelfth night REF 822.33 CRI SHA 1997

Shakespeare's Characters for Students Arranged alphabetically by play title, this book covers plots, themes, and then gives detailed analysis of each character. Each section concludes with an annotated bibliography.
REF 822.33 CRI SHA 1997

BIOGRAPHY

William Shakespeare. The Extraordinary Life of the Most Successful Writer of All Time
Brings Shakespeare’s world to life through an informative text and 300 colour photographs that were created for the book.
822.33 SHA GUR1995

Shakespeare and His World
A look at Shakespeare’s life, time, and surroundings, with references to the plays and works.
822.33 HAL

Shakespeare. His Life, Work and Era
A practical discussion of the plays interwoven with Shakespeare’s life and times.
822.33 SHA KAY 1992

The Library uses the Dewey Decimal Classification System to group books and videos together by subject on the library shelves. The call number on the Online Catalogue corresponds to the number on the label on the spine of the book (e.g. 155.4 BEE).

Most of the materials on Shakespeare and his plays are shelved in the 822.33 section. Check the REFERENCE section as well as the Nonfiction collection.

BOOKS

The Meaning of Shakespeare
An excellent source for interpretation of Shakespeare’s plays. Informed and very readable essays dealing with plot, character, theme, etc.
822.33 GOD 1951 vols. 1-2

Modern Critical Interpretations and Major Literary Characters series
Sample titles: (Hamlet, Iago, Othello, Shylock)
These series of critical essays, edited by Harold Bloom, provide advanced level interpretation. For call numbers, run an author search on the Online Catalogue for Bloom, Harold.

Readings on the Tragedies of William Shakespeare
These critical essays provide students with a definition of tragedy, discuss specific tragedies, and cover plot structure, character, theme, symbol, and author’s viewpoint. A solid introduction to literary criticism.
822.33 TRA REA 1996 

For additional critical material on the tragedies, check the shelves under the following call number:

822.33 TRA
See also Readings on the Comedies 822.33 COM REA

Teaching Shakespeare into the Twenty-First Century
An excellent resource for instructors, filled with ideas for making Shakespeare accessible to students.
822.33 SHA TEA

EDITIONS

See the different editions of the play you are studying for introductory essays that provide background information on Shakespeare, the ideas of his time, sources for the plays, critical interpretations, etc. You can call up editions of a play in the Library’s catalogue by performing a title search. Some editions with excellent introductory essays include Signet and Swan.

VIDEORECORDINGS

Shakespeare’s plays were meant to be performed. Ideally, we should be experiencing his plays with actors, costumes, stage props, and effects. But if you cannot make it to the theatre, you can be an audience through videotape.

The Library has The BBC Television Shakespeare as well as Films for the Humanities series on videotape. Video stores also carry productions of Shakespeare’s plays which range from Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet to Franco Zeffirelli’s Hamlet starring Mel Gibson; from Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 film Romeo and Juliet to the hip, modern 1996 production starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Al Pacino’s Looking for Richard is an excellent documentary that shows us the problems American actors face in rehearsing and performing Richard III. Sample video criticism titles include:

Shakespearean Tragedy
822.33 TRA SHA

Hamlet Workshop 1 & 2
822.33 HAM

Exploring a Character [Shylock]
822.33 MER EXP

ELECTRONIC DATABASES

An electronic database is used to find articles in magazines, journals and newspapers. Portage Library subscribes to a number of Web-based electronic databases. For a complete listing of these databases, please see this list and consult with a library staff on the appropriate database(s) to use for your research needs. The databases that you will find useful for your studies are:

Access to databases is restricted to the Portage College students, faculty and staff

WEB SITES

There are a considerable number of sites on the World Wide Web dealing with things Shakespearean. Not all of these sites are of equal quality or relevance. It is always important to consider the authorship of Web documents. The following list represents some of the best starting points for Shakespeare studies.

Google Canada
Select images and type in your search term.