Oscar Wilde and West End Theatre

Code

ENGL4384

School

English

Level

4

Credits

N/A

Semesters

April Full Year UK, Full Year UK, January Full Year UK

Summary

This pod examines the development of London’s fashionable West End Theatre in the late decades of the nineteenth century, focussing on the dramatic career of Oscar Wilde, and the production of his first West End ‘hit’, Lady Windermere’s Fan. The pod looks at three key aspects of the drama at this time: spaces (including the St. James’s Theatre, where Lady Windermere’s Fan was first staged in 1892); people (considering the roles of the audience, author, actor-manager and theatre critic); and texts (where attention is given to understanding the differences between prompt and part copies, licensing copies, and reading texts of plays). Students will also concentrate on performance, examining the materials and methods available to reconstruct specific productions on the late nineteenth-century stage.

Target Students

Students registered on the School of English online masters scheme.

Assessment

• 100% Participation: Student Participation

Assessed by end of designated period

Educational Aims

Learning Outcomes

Demonstrate knowledge of the general conditions for theatrical production in the late nineteenth century.

Demonstrate a critical understanding of the different agents involved in the staging of a play in the West End in the late nineteenth century.

Demonstrate a familiarity with the varieties of textual evidence for nineteenth-century dramatic works, and the ability to deploy this evidence in understanding the differences between reading and performance texts.

Demonstrate knowledge and skills acquired to the appropriate disciplinary and professional standard.

Assimilate and present subject-specific material in an appropriate format (assessed within the ‘Assessment Portfolio’ 1, 2 or 3).

Conveners

• Dr Lucie Sutherland