Plays are written for the way they will be disseminated and performed. In ''Shakespeare: Page and Stage\" we will study documents by Shakespeare and his contemporaries and the plays to which they gave rise. We will consider the papers from which a play was constructed (including source texts and plot-scenarios); the papers from which a play was performed (including actors' parts, stage scrolls, prologues and epilogues, and backstage plots); and the papers into which a play sometimes resolved: printed texts. The result will be an understanding of early modern plays critically, interpretatively, editorially, practically and textually, that will inform and complicate ideas about play-construction, performance, revision, and reception.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module students should be able to:
Demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of the theatrical, print and manuscript context of Shakespeare and his contemporaries;
Demonstrate advanced research skills in utilising primary documentary evidence to assess and evaluate plays;
Analyse plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries informed by an understanding of early modern playwriting and performance culture;
Analyse plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries informed by their understanding of current critical approaches to theatre history, book history, textual studies, material studies and literary criticism.
