You will need access to these resources:

Library facilities, computers and internet access.

Preliminary lectures will provide a basic informative introduction to theatre semiotics and key thinkers in this field. This will be followed by lectures which will encourage students to apply their understanding of theatre semiotics to either live or recorded performances.

Assessed student-led seminars will provide a forum in which selected approaches will be contextualised and discussed in greater detail. The written component to this module will ask students to apply their understanding of theatre semiotics in response to selected theatre related essay questions.

There will be one lecture per week and one weekly seminar, when you will be given the opportunity to discuss the lecture in further detail. Seminars will be structured around a guided secondary reading programme.

Aston, E & Savona, G, Theatre As Sign System, Routledge, 1991.
Barthes, R, Mythologies, Vintage, 2000.
Barthes, R, Image, Music, Text, Fontana Press, 1977,
Barry, P, Beginning Theory, An Introduction To Literary and Cultural Theory, Manchester University Press, 2002.
Counsell, C, Signs of Performance: An Introduction to Twentieth Century Theatre, Routledge, 1996.
Elam, K, The Semiotics of Theatre and Drama, Routledge, 2002.
Fischer-Lichte, E, The Semiotics of Theatre, Indiana University Press, 1992.
Hilton, J, Performance, Macmillan, 1987.
Pavis, P & Williams, D (translator) Analysing Performance: Theatre, Dance and Film, Michigan Press, 2003.
Rabinow, P (Editor) The Foucault Reader, Penguin, 1991
Schechner, R, Performance Studies: An Introduction, Routledge, 2002.
Sontag, S, Against Interpretation, Vintage, 1994.
Thody, P & Course, A, Introducing Barthes, Icon Books, 1999.

Small group seminar presentation [Learning Outcomes 1, 2, 4]
Critical essay [Learning Outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4]

This module outlines the processes involved in 'reading theatre'. Students will be introduced to the importance of theatre semiotics, as a tool for examining and understanding twentieth and twenty-first century theatre. In the first part of this module, students will be provided with a basic informative introduction to theatre semiotics and key thinkers in the field. For the second part of this module, screenings of extracts from selected performances or live theatrical events will provide an opportunity for students to examine how we 'read' theatre. Hence, students will arrive at a theory of reception, which exposes the mechanics of performance.