Programme And Module Handbook
 
Course Details in 2018/19 Session


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Module Title LI Shakespeare in Stratford
SchoolEng, Drama, & Creative Studies
Department Shakespeare Institute
Module Code 09 31643
Module Lead Simon Smith
Level Intermediate Level
Credits 20
Semester
Pre-requisites
Co-requisites
Restrictions None
Contact Hours Lecture-21 hours
Seminar-24 hours
Demonstration-2 hours
Practical Classes and workshops-24 hours
Supervised time in studio/workshop-3 hours
External Visits-26 hours
Guided independent study-100 hours
Total: 200 hours
Exclusions
Description This course invites you to study Shakespeare intensively and rigorously through academic and practical work with the Shakespeare Institute and the Royal Shakespeare Company in Shakespeare’s home town, Stratford-upon-Avon. We will explore the latest developments and the big questions in Shakespeare Studies, in areas including contemporary performance, textual and historical studies, and cultural studies. How and why is Shakespeare performed today? How does a play make meaning in performance? What can we learn by studying plays in their historical context? What can Stratford tell us about Shakespeare, both as a historical playwright and as a contemporary cultural icon? Where do our modern texts of ‘Shakespeare’ come from, and why might that matter to modern readers, scholars or performers?

Teaching will be split equally between academic lectures and seminars at the Shakespeare Institute, and practical workshop sessions (no prior experience necessary), exploring the RSC’s professional practice. In combining practical and academic approaches in search of mutually illuminating insights, the course offers a unique learning opportunity in Shakespeare studies, made possible by the collaboration of an internationally renowned academic department and a world-leading theatre company.

Each year the course will focus on a different set of core plays, drawn from the RSC’s productions that year; as part of the course you will see the plays in performance and reflect upon them academically through performance-studies, practice-based, text-based and historical approaches. In years when appropriate plays by Shakespeare’s contemporaries are in performance, they may also be studied. There will be field trips to local Shakespearean sites such as the Birthplace, New Place, and Holy Trinity Church (where Shakespeare is buried), accompanied by classroom reflection on their historical significance and cultural use.
Learning Outcomes By the end of the module students should be able to:
  • develop arguments and critically analyse selected plays by Shakespeare (and his contemporaries);
  • engage with current critical approaches to the study of Shakespeare, such as close reading, historicism, performance studies, textual studies, or cultural and heritage studies;
  • identify and make use of relevant secondary criticism in the development of their own arguments about Shakespeare;
  • demonstrate understanding of key terms and concepts used in contemporary Shakespeare Studies.
Assessment
Assessment Methods & Exceptions Assessment

a) A 1,000 word essay (25%), to be completed and submitted part-way through the course teaching period.
b) One 3,000 word essay (75%), to be completed and submitted two weeks after the completion of the course teaching period.

Reassessment

Failed component only
3,000 word essay (75%)
1,000 word essay (25%)
Other Collaborative organisation: Royal Shakespeare Company
Reading List