Module Descriptors
READING IN CONTEXT : REVENGE DRAMA
ENGL60393
Key Facts
Faculty of Arts and Creative Technologies
Level 6
30 credits
Contact
Leader: Barry Taylor
Email: B.P.Taylor@staffs.ac.uk
Hours of Study
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities: 22
Independent Study Hours: 278
Total Learning Hours: 300
Assessment
  • COURSEWORK -ESSAY weighted at 83%
  • COURSEWORK - REVIEW weighted at 17%
Module Details
Module Additional Assessment Details
Coursework Essay , relating to three or more texts [Learning Outcomes 1, 3, 4, 5]
Critical/Theoretical Review: 1000 words [Learning Outcomes 1, 2, 4]
Module Texts
Jonathan Dollimore Radical Tragedy (2004)
J W Lever The Tragedy of State (1987)
Julia Briggs This Stage-Play World (1997)


Module Resources
OHP
Library
VCR
Internet
Module Learning Strategies
Contact hours will be taken up with Lectures, seminars, small-group tutorials, and individual supervisory tutorials to support coursework development.
Module Indicative Content
The aim of this module is to examine one of the key genres of the early modern stage in its social, political, intellectual and ideological contexts. Students will analyse some of the principal texts of the Revenge genre in relation to its conventions of form, scenario and characterisation, and some of its key thematic concerns: Justice and monarchical rule; the family and individual freedom; Machiavellian politics; critiques of Courtly culture; women as victims and villains. Texts may include: Thomas Kyd The Spanish Tragedy, William Shakespeare Hamlet, Thomas Middleton The Revenger's Tragedy, John Marston The Malcontent John Webster The Duchess of Malfi, Thomas Middleton Women Beware Women.