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British Library: Teaching Resources: A Midsummer Night's Dream: Dreams, Illusion and Doubling
In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare explores and reflects upon Elizabethan debates around the nature of dreams. These activities revolve around how the structure, characters and themes in A Midsummer Night's Dream reflect this...
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British Library: Discovering Literature: Collection Items
Explore a selection of collection items that relate to Shakespeare, Renaissance writers, and the context in which their works were created.
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British Library: Teaching Resources: Macbeth: Lady Macbeth
This varied series of activities is designed to encourage learners to exercise independence of thought when exploring the presentation of Lady Macbeth throughout the play. The tasks draw learners' attention to the varied ways in which...
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British Library: Teaching Resources: Macbeth: Discovering Literature Resources
This site provides links to various resources such as collection items, articles, and teaching activities for Macbeth. It includes a 16th-century pamphlet on witchcraft, alongside character analyses of the weird sisters and Lady Macbeth....
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British Library: Teaching Resources: Othello: Critical Approaches
This activity allows learners to consider how different critical approaches can influence a reading of the play. Students will work in groups to explore different attitudes to Othello by looking at a range of texts from the past,...
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British Library: Teaching Resources: Much Ado About Nothing: Comedy and Tragedy
Engaging with these sources will encourage students to examine the way Shakespeare approached his work, as well as examples of contemporary texts with similar themes, some of which are challenging. Included are discussion questions,...
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British Library: Teaching Resources: Measure for Measure: A Problem Play?
What is Measure for Measure's problem? The play confronts us with questions about sex, morality, and power, which challenge us as readers and audiences. In these activities, students will debate why the play is so problematic, through...
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British Library: Discovering Literature: Myths, Monsters and the Imagination
A shadowy man-eating monster, a strange green knight, and fictional accounts of journeys around the world: investigate the boundaries between the real and imaginary in medieval literature.
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British Library: Discovering Literature: Female 'Soveraynetee' in Chaucer's 'The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale'
This article explores the character of the Wife of Bath and the ambiguity surrounding her outspoken views on marriage, power, and religious doctrine.
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British Library: Discovering Literature: The Life of the Anchoress
During the medieval period, hundreds of women chose a life of prayer and contemplation, shut up alone in a cell. This article explains the path to becoming an anchoress, how anchoresses spent their days, and what medieval texts such as...
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British Library: Discovering Literature: The Elegies of the Exeter Book
The poems in the Exeter Book known as the 'Old English elegies' focus on loss, separation, and the transience of earthly things. This article explores these poems, which include The Wanderer and The Wife's Lament, and highlights the...
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British Library: Discovering Literature: The Exeter Book Riddles in Context
The Exeter Book, compiled by 10th-century clerics, contains a number of surprisingly euphemistic riddles. This article explores what these bawdy puzzles tell us about sex and gender in Anglo-Saxon England.
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British Library: Discovering Literature: Faith and Religion
From stories of saints and demons to reflections on life and death, God and salvation: discover how medieval literature navigates matters of faith and religion.
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British Library: Discovering Literature: Dream Visions
The dream vision as a form was as popular in the late medieval period as the novel is today. From courtly comedy to social critique, via feminist polemic, this article explores some of the most captivating works of the medieval period.
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British Library: Discovering Literature: Travel, Trade and Exploration in the Middle Ages
Medieval Europeans were fascinated by the lands that lay beyond their own continent. This article looks at the real and imaginary travels of explorers and tradesmen through works including The Book of John Mandeville, The Travels of...
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British Library: Discovering Literature: Medieval Drama and Mystery Plays
The mystery plays and morality plays of the 15th and 16th centuries were very different from modern drama. This article takes us back in time to show how these plays portrayed scenes from the Bible, conveyed religious doctrine, and...
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British Library: Discovering Literature: Saints and Sanctity in Medieval England
This article explores how medieval Europeans memorialized the lives of real and fictional Christian saints, transforming them into superheroes and celebrities of the Middle Ages.
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British Library: Discovering Literature: Women's Voices in the Medieval Period
Drawing on examples from Margery Kempe, Julian of Norwich, and Christine de Pizan, this article looks at the experiences of women as writers and producers of texts in the medieval period and reflects on the survival of their works.
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British Library: Discovering Literature: Gender and Sexuality
Examine representations of gender, sex, and relationships in medieval literature, from the works of women's writers to tales of courtly love to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
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British Library: Discovering Literature: Saracens and Racial Otherness in Middle English Romance
This article considers how 'Saracen' characters are portrayed in Middle English romances, and what these texts can reveal about ideas of Otherness in this period.
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British Library: Discovering Literature: Old English Heroic Poetry
This article introduces some of the key texts of Old English heroic poetry, including Beowulf, The Battle of Maldon, The Dream of the Rood, and Judith.
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British Library: Discovering Literature: Love and Chivalry in the Middle Ages
This article explores the ideal of chivalry through several works of the Middle Ages.
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British Library: Discovering Literature: The Legends of King Arthur
This article tracks the many appearances of King Arthur, from a 9th-century history to a Hollywood blockbuster, via the works of Chretien de Troyes, Thomas Malory, and the author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
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British Library: Discovering Literature: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: An Introduction
This article explores Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and reflects on how he approached his own translation of the poem.