This module will develop students' ability to respond imaginatively and intellectually to Shakespeare's tragedies, through the close reading of plays and related productions accessed on DVD and online. 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 texts and related productions, in order to found the student's learning in the core skill of close dramatic analysis. The assessment portfolio for the module will give students opportunities staged through the year to develop their skills of close reading and their critical awareness of performance and critical/theoretical contexts, using written, oral, and visual formats.

Workshop reports, 2 x 500 words (50%)
[Outcomes 3, 4]
Analysis essay of 1500 words (50%)
[Outcomes 1,2,5)

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

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.

Richard Dutton and Jean E. Howard (eds.), A Companion to Shakespeare's Works: The Tragedies (Blackwell, 2005)

Lois Potter, "Othello": Shakespeare in Performance (MUP 2002)

Emily C. Bartels, Speaking of the Moor: From "Alcazar" to "Othello"
(Pennsylvania U. P., 2008)

Jeffrey Kahan (ed.), King Lear: New Critical Essays (Routledge, 2008)

Alexander Leggatt, "King Lear": Shakespeare in Performance (MUP 2004)

Jennifer Wallace (ed.), The Cambridge Introduction to Tragedy (CUP, 2007)

Terry Eagleton, Sweet Violence: The Idea of the Tragic (Wiley Blackwell, 2002)

1. A KNOWLEDGE AND CRITICAL UNDERSTANDING OF DRAMATIC AND THEMATIC STRUCTURE IN SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES.
Knowledge & Understanding

2. AN ABILITY TO ANALYSE TEXT THROUGH CLOSE READING INFORMED BY A CRITICAL UNDERSTANDING OF PERFORMANCE AND CRITICAL CONTEXTS.
Analysis

3. AN ABILITY TO ARTICULATE A COHERENT ANALYTICAL DISCUSSION IN WRITTEN FORM.
Application

4. AN ABILITY TO SITUATE SHAKESPEARIAN TRAGIC PRACTICE IN RELATION TO KEY THEMES AND ISSUES IN THE THEORY OF TRAGEDY.
Reflection

5. AN ABILITY TO DEVELOP AN EXTENDED, COMPARATIVE CRITICAL ARGUMENT, ALLOWING FOR CRITICAL AND THEORETICAL GENERALISATION ON THE BASIS OF CLOSE READINGS OF TEXTS AND PRODUCTIONS.
Application
Communication