In this lecture, I will provide an introduction to the very broad field called 'Shakespeare Studies'. After a brief background survey on politics, history, and religion, as well as on the development of the theatre before and during Shakespeare's time, I will focus on the problem of the plays' categorizations (history, tragedy etc) and then proceed with representative and exemplary analyses of plays such as Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, Richard II, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth, King Lear, Julius Caesar, The Tempest, and others. (I recommend that you read as many of these texts as possible before the start of the term.)