Course Details in 2024/25 Session

Module Title	LI Shakespeare: Elizabethan
School	Eng, Drama, & Creative Studies
Department	English Literature
Module Code	09 39982
Module Lead	Will Sharpe
Level	Intermediate Level
Credits	20
Semester	Semester 1
Pre-requisites
Co-requisites
Restrictions	None
Contact Hours	Lecture-10 hours Seminar-20 hours Guided independent study-170 hours Total: 200 hours
Exclusions
Description	Shakespeare: Elizabethan will explore Shakespeare's development as a creative artist on both page and stage within the political and theatrical contexts of the last decade of Elizabeth's reign. Yet the plays we will cover will not only be considered as products of time, place, and circumstance, but also as transhistorical works of art that speak to the present, in ways that are not always comfortable. We will consider what Shakespeare is as much as what he was, and you will have the opportunity in your assessment to write about his work from whichever critical vantage point you choose in a final summative essay, as well as perform a close analysis of the performance possibilities of his text. Using a selection of plays from across the first half of his career to highlight the development and fluidity of his powerful poetic language, sophisticated stagecraft, endlessly expressive dramatic moods, and powerful tragi-comic vision through these famed masterworks, we will see Shakespeare both within his own time and very much within ours. Texts studied: The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, Henry IV Part 1, Hamlet, Twelfth Night.
Learning Outcomes	By the end of the module students should be able to: Explore and analyse Shakespeare's Elizabethan writing both as text and as performance. Apply notions of genre, form, content and style to Shakespeare's Elizabethan writing. Evaluate and apply relevant critical and theoretical approaches to Shakespeare's Elizabethan writing. Develop and sustain a persuasive response to a topic pertaining to Shakespeare's Elizabethan writing.
Assessment
Assessment Methods & Exceptions	Assessment: Assessment: Essay 3,500 words (100%) Reassessment: Essay 3,500 words (100%)
Other
Reading List