An essay on one scene from one play, analysing it in relation to the play's dramatic and thematic structure, with reference to performance choices in at least one production [Outcomes 1,2 and 3]

This module will develop students' ability to respond imaginatively and intellectually to Shakespeare's comedies and late plays, through the close reading of three plays. The emphasis throughout is on developing an awareness of the plays as texts for performance, and the skills of dramatic and performance analysis, of historical and critical contextualisation, which are needed to convey the multi-dimensionality of the play as theatrical event. Teaching and learning activities will be organised around workshops on key individual scenes from the three texts, in order to found the student's learning in the core skill of close dramatic analysis. Assessment for the module - which is by one essay (100%) - will give students the opportunity to continue this emphasis on close reading informed by a critical awareness of performance and critical/theoretical contexts.

Contact hours will consist of weekly 2 hour workshops, to include screenings as appropriate.

Alexander Leggatt (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Shakespearean Comedy. Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Barber, C. L. Shakespeare's Festive Comedy : A Study of Dramatic Form and its Relation to Social Custom. Princeton University Press, 1972.
Richard Dutton and Jean E. Howard (eds.) A Companion to Shakespeare's Works Vol 03, The Comedies Blackwell, 2006.
Richard Dutton and Jean E. Howard (eds.) A Companion to Shakespeare's Works Vol 04, The Poems, Problem Comedies, Late Plays Blackwell, 2006.
Emma Smith (ed.) Shakespeare's Comedies. Blackwell, 2004.
Northrop Frye The Myth of Deliverance : Reflections on Shakespeare's Problem Comedies. Harvester,1983.
Russell Jackson The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Film. Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Alison Thorne (ed.) Shakespeare's Romances (New Casebooks) Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.

DVD playback in Lecture and Seminar rooms
OHP
Library
Internet
The Blackboard virtual learning environment will be available (where relevant) to support this module. Details will be supplied in the module handbook.