Course Details in 2026/27 Session

Module Title	LH Performing Gender/Translating Performance
School	Lan, Cult, Art Hist & Music
Department	Modern Languages
Module Code	09 34942
Module Lead	Jules Whicker
Level	Honours Level
Credits	20
Semester
Pre-requisites
Co-requisites
Restrictions	Students require proficiency in Spanish to level CEFR C1. Not required, but also of benefit to students wishing to take the module would be experience with Translation Studies, Gender Studies and/or Theatre Studies.
Contact Hours	Lecture-10 hours Seminar-20 hours Guided independent study-170 hours Total: 200 hours
Exclusions
Description	In this module students will examine and reflect on issues of gender and society through translation work on a seventeenth-century play and study of key speeches from further plays that give dramatic expression to gendered identity. The module will also address the theory of gender as performance; and engage students with the theory and practice of translating for performance. The module centres on translation activity as a lens for understanding how a speech articulates character and situation within the play, and how this representation of experience relates to contemporary attitudes and realities. These ideas will be studied in the context of a specific theatrical milieu where anxieties over gender identity and gender conflict were constantly fore-grounded; and where significant numbers of female actors, managers and playwrights succeeded in making independent careers for themselves in a society that habitually defined itself in terms of male agency and authority: the Spanish early modern “Golden Age” (16th and 17th Centuries). The representation of gender in these plays and the social realities behind them connect directly with 21st century experiences of gender violence, patriarchy and female empowerment.
Learning Outcomes	By the end of the module students should be able to: demonstrate a detailed and comprehensive knowledge of the involvement of women within the theatrical industry of early modern Spain; Relate theories of gender to early-modern Spanish theatre and society; Demonstrate a practical and theoretical understanding of how dramatic texts may be translated for performance; Critically analyse how gender identities are represented in early modern Spanish theatre.
Assessment	34942-01 : One recorded reading of textual extract in its source : Presentation (15%) 34942-02 : 500-word reflective commentary on the translation process : Coursework (25%) 34942-03 : 2,000-word essay : Coursework (60%)
Assessment Methods & Exceptions	Assessment One recorded reading of textual extract in its source- and target- language versions (25%). Students will translate source texts into English or modern Spanish, whichever is their first language; One 500-word reflective commentary on the translation process (25%) Students will write in English or modern Spanish, whichever is their first language; One 2,000-word essay (50%) Students will write in English or modern Spanish, whichever is their first language. Method of Reassessment Re-submission of failed component.
Other
Reading List