Approaches to Teaching Shakespeare's the Taming of the Shrew

The impetus for this Approaches to Teaching volume on The Taming of the Shrew grew from the editors’ desire to discover why a play notorious for its controversial exploration of conflicts between men and women and the challenges of marriage is enduringly popular in the classroom, in the performing arts, and in scholarship. The result is a volume that offers practical advice to teachers on editions and teaching resources in part 1, “Materials,” while illuminating how the play’s subtle and complex arguments regarding not just marriage but a host of other subjects—modes of early modern education, the uses of clever rhetoric, intergenerational and class politics, the power of theatre—are being brought to life in college classrooms. The essays in part 2, “Approaches,” are written by English and theatre instructors who have taught in a variety of academic settings and cover topics including early modern homilies and music, Hollywood versions of The Taming of the Shrew, and student performances.