LIT 88 — What Dreams May Come: Hamlet Up Close
Quarter: Summer
Instructor(s): Carolyn Sinsky
Date(s): Jul 14—Aug 18
Class Recording Available: Yes
Class Meeting Day: Tuesdays
Class Meeting Time: 5:30—7:20 pm (PT)
Tuition: $415
Refund Deadline: Jul 16
Unit(s): 1
Enrollment Limit: 55
Status: Registration opens May 18, 8:30 am (PT)
Quarter: Summer
Day: Tuesdays
Duration: 6 weeks
Time: 5:30—7:20 pm (PT)
Date(s): Jul 14—Aug 18
Unit(s): 1
Tuition: $415
Refund Deadline: Jul 16
Instructor(s): Carolyn Sinsky
Enrollment Limit: 55
Recording Available: Yes
Status: Registration opens May 18, 8:30 am (PT)
Few works of literature draw us into the depths of the human mind like Hamlet, Shakespeare’s haunting exploration of grief, vengeance, and the fragile work of self-understanding. Recent reinterpretations, such as Maggie O'Farrell's novel Hamnet and its 2025 film adaptation, which imagines the personal losses that may have shaped Shakespeare’s art, underscore the play’s enduring power to provoke reflection across centuries. In this course, we take a deliberate, immersive approach to Hamlet, tracing its emotional and philosophical undercurrents and considering how its questions continue to resonate today. Each week, we linger over moments that have shaped generations of readers, from Hamlet’s early soliloquies of sorrow and self-scrutiny to Ophelia’s unraveling at the intersection of surveillance and desire, and the graveyard’s stark meditations on fate and mortality. Sessions blend close reading with thoughtful discussion, creating space for literary insight and personal reflection. Whether returning to Hamlet or encountering it for the first time, students will engage in an intimate and deeply human exploration of Shakespeare’s most enduring tragedy.
CAROLYN SINSKY
Independent Scholar and Writer
Carolyn Sinsky received a PhD in comparative literature from Yale, where she received the Vardis & Opal Fisher Fellowship and the Prize Teaching Fellowship for excellence in teaching literature and writing. She has taught at Yale, the Fashion Institute of Technology, the Great Books Summer Program at Stanford, and Stanford Continuing Studies. Textbooks for this course:
(Optional) William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Folger Shakespeare Library edition (ISBN 978-1451669411)