Shakespeare and his Contemporaries on the Stage

Code

ENGL3079

School

English

Level

3

Credits

20

Semesters

Spring Malaysia

Summary

‘Shakespeare & Contemporaries on the Stage’ offers an in-depth exploration of the historical and theatrical contexts of early modern drama. Drawing on the era’s most innovative and provocative works by Shakespeare and key contemporaries (Marlow, Kyd, Middleton, Jonson, and others), this module invites students to explore the three-dimensional stagecraft of these writers. Lectures will introduce the physical environments of the first professional indoor and outdoor theatres, the political and institutional contexts that shaped dramatic production, and the conditions of performance for which dramatists wrote, seeing early modern playwriting as a vibrant and collaborative process.

Through a combination of historical research, close reading and creative exploration in workshops, students will build confidence in analysing the ways in which the extant texts imply and provoke performance, and draw on these knowledge bases in written assessments. The module will be delivered through lectures and seminars: the seminars will, on the one hand, give further practice in close reading and equip students with the skills necessary for reading early modern material fluently and easily, and on the other encourage examination of the assumptions made in contextual readings, to enable students to develop their own critical voices and authority.

Target Students

Optional module for all third-year students on BA English Language and Literature, or BA ELL with Creative Writing.

Classes

• One 1-hour seminar each week for 12 weeks
• One 2-hour lecture each week for 12 weeks

Activities take place every teaching week of the Semester. Several screenings will be offered during the semester. The activities are specified above and they will be announced if an activity only takes place in some weeks of a Semester.

Assessment

• 40% Coursework 1: A 1500-word essay on close reading of selected text to be submitted mid-semester
• 60% Coursework 2: 3000-word essay, to be submitted at end of semester

Assessed by end of spring semester

Educational Aims

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and understanding

• critical and theoretical approaches to the study of early modern plays in performance
• the historical and practical contexts of early modern playmaking
• the analysis of performance and the understanding of performance elements

Intellectual skills

• engage in close analysis of early modern dramatic texts and contemporary ‘original practices’ performances
• extrapolate performance possibilities from a play text and reflect on them in the light of critical material
• research historical and theoretical ideas and relate them to the questions posed by plays

Professional practical skills

• articulate knowledge and understanding of the key theatrical and theoretical concepts relating to early modern drama
• analyse performance texts with an awareness of how circumstances of authorship, textual production, conventions and audiences affect what they communicate, in both original historical context and contemporary production
• write accurately and grammatically, demonstrating awareness of the importance of style and register in communication, and present written material using conventions appropriate to drama work, including bibliographies
• construct and communicate a sustained analysis of texts, verbally and in writing
• carry out research (including the use of archival materials and scholarly databases), to evaluate the material so acquired

Transferable (key) skills

• work productively with others in semi-practical workshop classes to explore elements of early modern practice
• communicate effectively in formal written essays
• retrieve information from a range of written and electronic sources and present findings and own analysis in a clear fashion
• reflect upon and assess their own progress in group and individual work

Conveners

• Dr Mohammad Safaei