Course Details in 2024/25 Session

Module Title	LI Shakespeare: Jacobean
School	Eng, Drama, & Creative Studies
Department	English Literature
Module Code	09 39983
Module Lead	Will Sharpe
Level	Intermediate Level
Credits	20
Semester	Semester 2
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: Jacobean explores Shakespeare’s development as a creative artist on both page and stage within the rapidly changing world around him in the first decade of James I’s reign. Shakespeare’s art changes under James, characterised at first by a darkly tragi-comic vision, obsessed with ideas of power and its abuses – ideas that continue to resonate strongly in the modern world – and culminating in a magical, regenerative vision, albeit one that still grapples with these more troubling ideas. We will look at the characteristics of Shakespeare's dramatic moods and poetic styles at this time, and how his Jacobean themes can help us make sense of ethical dilemmas in which we are still implicated today. In considering what Shakespeare is as much as what he was, 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. Using a selection of plays from across the second 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: Measure for Measure, Othello, Macbeth, Pericles, The Tempest.
Learning Outcomes	By the end of the module students should be able to: Explore and analyse Shakespeare’s Jacobean writing both as text and as performance. Apply notions of genre, form, content and style to Shakespeare’s Jacobean writing. Evaluate and apply relevant critical and theoretical approaches to Shakespeare’s Jacobean writing. Develop and sustain a persuasive response on a topic pertaining to Shakespeare's Jacobean writing.
Assessment
Assessment Methods & Exceptions	Assessment: Assessment: Essay 3,500 words (100%) Reassessment: Essay 3,500 words (100%)
Other
Reading List