Shakespeare and Human Character

CONTENTS OF CURRICULUM UNIT 09.03.08

  1. Unit Guide
  1. Introduction
  2. Overview
  3. Rationale
  4. Background
  5. Strategies
  6. Activities
  7. Teacher Resources
  8. Student Resources
  9. Appendix A Implementing District Standards
  10. Appendix B
  11. Endnotes

African Americans and Shakespeare: Partners in Search of Humanity

Barbara M. Dowdall

Published September 2009

Tools for this Unit:

Guide Entry to 09.03.08

Unbeknownst to the vast majority of average Americans — and certainly to average high school students — is the fact that a long and distinguished roster of African American actors, professional and amateur, embraced the language and characters of William Shakespeare, audaciously challenging a society that denied both their humanity and intellectual abilities. The wealth of material, both printed and electronic, that is available for research in these lives, dating back to the early 19th century career of the black actor Ira Aldridge, can stimulate student interest both in American social and literary history and in the Bard of Avon himself. High school students will study the narratives of Othello and The Merchant of Venice — plays presciently modern in depicting individuals cast as 'other' — analyze speeches that bring these characters to life and evaluate how these roles evolved through the ages. Student performance of key scenes and soliloquies, the display of timelines exhibiting the interplay between actors' lives and African American history, and published poster or mini-book biographies of the actors will serve as assessment.

(Developed for English II, grade 10, English IV and AP English Literature, grade 12; recommended for English, grades 10-12)

Comments:

,barbara Mcdowell Dowdall

April 25, 2010 at 11:29 am

African Americans and Shakespeare: Partners in the Search for Humanity

A newly-published additional resource: Newstok, Scott L. and Ayanna Thompson, ed. Weyward Macbeth: Intersections of Race and Performance. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. A fascinating collection of essays on this topic going back to colonial times and including material on the Federal Theater, music, and film renderings. Langston Hughes said "You put me in Macbeth...and in everything but what's about me."

Barbara Mcdowell Dowdall

March 29, 2022 at 3:43 pm

Correction omission from Starter List

Denzel Washington of course for current Oscar-nominated film “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” but also Othello (senior year in college) Coriolanus 1979 Richard III 1990 Much Ado About Nothing. 1993 Julius Caesar. 2005

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