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 will give students the opportunity to continue this emphasis on close reading informed by a critical awareness of performance and critical/theoretical contexts.

A scene analysis ESSAY [1,500 words, 20%] on one scene from one play [Learning outcomes: 2 and 3].

An ESSAY [2,500 words, 80%] on one play which must be different to the first play written about, [Learning Outcomes: 1, 2, 3 and 4].

Contact hours will consist of weekly 3-hour workshops, to include screenings as appropriate.

DVD & Box of Broadcasts in workshop rooms
Library
Internet
Blackboard

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

2. ANALYSE TEXT THROUGH CLOSE READING INFORMED BY A CRITICAL UNDERSTANDING OF PERFORMANCE AND CRITICAL CONTEXTS.
Analysis
Knowledge & Understanding

3. ARTICULATE A COHERENT ANALYTICAL DISCUSSION IN WRITTEN FORM WHICH COMPRISES CRITICAL/THEORETICAL RESEARCH MATERIAL.
Application

4. SITUATE SHAKESPEARIAN COMEDY IN RELATION TO KEY THEMES AND ISSUES IN THE THEORY AND CRITICISM OF COMEDY AND ITS RELATED FORMS.
Reflection

Alexander Leggatt (ed.) (2002) The Cambridge Companion to Shakespearean Comedy. Cambridge University Press.

Barber, C. L. (1972) Shakespeare's Festive Comedy: A Study of Dramatic Form and its Relation to Social Custom. Princeton University Press.

Dutton, Richard and Jean E. Howard (eds.) (2006) A Companion to Shakespeare's Works Vol 03, The Comedies Blackwell.

Dutton, Richard and Jean E. Howard (eds.) (2006) A Companion to Shakespeare's Works Vol 04, The Poems, Problem Comedies, Late Plays Blackwell.

Jackson, Russell (2000) The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Film. Cambridge University Press.

Smith, Emma (ed.) (2004) Shakespeare's Comedies. Blackwell.

Frye, Northrop (1983) The Myth of Deliverance: Reflections on Shakespeare's Problem Comedies. Harvester.

Thorne, Alison (ed.) (2002) Shakespeare's Romances (New Casebooks) Palgrave Macmillan.