EdX

Shakespeare on the Page and in Performance: Young Love (edX)

Offered by Wellesley College, WellesleyX,
Shakespeare on the Page and in Performance: Young Love (edX)

Explore Shakespeare's plays of young love, Romeo & Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, to learn what makes them so compelling and magical. This literature and theater course will delve into two wonderful plays of young love, Romeo & Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and try to bring alive what makes them so compelling and popular -- as both literature and drama.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see EdX's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

As we explore the genius of the plays on the page, we will also study the lives of the plays in performance, from Shakespeare's own theatre to the stages and screens across the globe today. To help us further, actors will occasionally join our effort to demonstrate ways of bringing the text alive as living theatre.

What you'll learn:

  • A new appreciation for Shakespeare's greatness and popularity, on the page and in performance across the globe.
  • How to combine literary and historical analysis with theatrical approaches to bring Shakespeare alive.
  • New ways of understanding Shakespeare's continuing relevance to us today as we explore recurring themes in plays that trace the arc of Shakespeare's career.
  • Analyze Shakespeare’s plays, Romeo & Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Shakespeare: On the Page and in Performance (edX) EdX
Wellesley College,WellesleyX

Shakespeare: On the Page and in Performance (edX)

Humanities Languages & Literature

An introduction to Shakespeare that combines literary study with theatrical analysis to understand both Shakespeare’s continuing popularity and his greatness. Shakespeare wrote for a popular audience and was immensely successful. Shakespeare is also rightly regarded as one of the greatest playwrights the world has known. This course will try to understand both Shakespeare’s popularity and his greatness by starting from a simple premise: that the fullest appreciation of Shakespeare can be achieved only when literary study is combined with analysis of the plays as theatre.

No sessions available
4 Weeks
Literary William Shakespeare Shakespeare
Details
AP® English Literature & Composition – Part 2: Poems (edX) EdX
University of California, Berkeley,BerkeleyX

AP® English Literature & Composition – Part 2: Poems (edX)

Languages & Literature

Learn how to read and interpret poetry and enhance your reading and writing skills in preparation for the AP® English Literature & Composition exam. This course prepares you to read more deeply and write more clearly about works of literature. Through an engaging collection of videos, authentic readings, and support material from a variety of sources, you will learn to appreciate literature from different genres. You will learn about different genres of poetry and the history of some of our greatest poets.

Self Paced
Self-Paced
Literature Composition Reading
Details
Online Games: Literature, New Media, and Narrative (Coursera) Coursera
Vanderbilt University

Online Games: Literature, New Media, and Narrative (Coursera)

Film & Audio

Intended for both newcomers who are curious about video games and experienced gamers who want to reflect on their passion, this course will explore what happens to stories, paintings, and films when they become the basis of massively multiplayer online games. The Lord of the Rings trilogy—the novels, films, and video game—are our central example of how “remediation” transforms familiar stories as they move across media.

Oct 12th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Game Literature Video Games
Details
Letteratura latina, dalle origini all'età augustea (edX) EdX
University of Naples Federico II,FedericaX

Letteratura latina, dalle origini all'età augustea (edX)

Languages & Literature

Una panoramica dei generi letterari tra repubblica e primo impero. La nascita e lo sviluppo della letteratura latina furono profondamente condizionati da un lato dall'influenza della cultura greca con la quale i Romani entrarono in contatto a partire dal II sec. a. C. soprattutto per la loro politica espansionistica nel Mediterraneo e poi in Oriente; dall'altro dalle pressioni esercitate dal potere politico che richiedeva al cittadino di prestare la propria attività innanzitutto a favore della res publica.

Self Paced
Self-Paced
Literature Latin Latin Literature
Details
The Meaning of Rome: The Renaissance and Baroque City (edX) EdX
University of Notre Dame,NotreDameX

The Meaning of Rome: The Renaissance and Baroque City (edX)

Architecture & Design

Learn how the art, architecture, and urban form of Renaissance and Baroque Rome projected the city’s image of itself to its citizens and the world. We can read a city in a number of ways: in its plan, in the buildings that make its streets and public spaces, in the skyline. We can ask, what are the buildings or spaces saying? How do they say it? How does it all stitch together?

No sessions available
5-12 Weeks
Architecture Art Renaissance
Details
Oscar Wilde, écrivain et penseur du langage (edX) EdX
Sorbonne University

Oscar Wilde, écrivain et penseur du langage (edX)

Humanities Languages & Literature

Ce MOOC présente l’œuvre entière d’Oscar Wilde: conférences, poésie, contes, roman, théâtre, essais, De profundis. L’accent est mis sur les relations de Wilde avec la France, sa langue et sa littérature, dont l’écrivain avait une connaissance profonde, et la nature innovante de sa relation au langage et à la littérature.

No session available
5-12 Weeks
Literature Poetry Novel
Details
Global Shakespeares: Re-Creating the Merchant of Venice (edX) EdX
MIT,MITx

Global Shakespeares: Re-Creating the Merchant of Venice (edX)

Languages & Literature

Learn how performance of William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice provides occasions for creative, thoughtful communication across personal, historical, and cultural boundaries on topics including language and theatricality, gender relations, and religious prejudice. William Shakespeare is the most performed playwright on the globe; this course brings his play The Merchant of Venice into the 21st century by comparing multiple recent performances, from film and television stagings to an international production that marked the first performance of the play in the former Jewish Ghetto of Venice, Italy.

Self Paced
Self-Paced
Literature William Shakespeare Drama
Details
Masterpieces of World Literature (edX) EdX
HarvardX,Harvard University

Masterpieces of World Literature (edX)

Languages & Literature History

Embark on a global journey to explore the past, present, and future of World Literature. This literature course explores how great writers refract their world and how their works are transformed when they intervene in our global cultural landscape today. No national literature has ever grown up in isolation from the cultures around it; from the earliest periods, great works of literature have probed the tensions, conflicts, and connections among neighboring cultures and often more distant regions as well.

Self Paced
Self-Paced
Literature Homer World Literature
Details