This module will develop students' ability to respond imaginatively and intellectually to Shakespeare's comedies and late plays, through the close reading of four 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 four 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.

Comparative Essay: 3500 words (100%)
[Outcomes 1-5]

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.

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.

1. SHOW A KNOWLEDGE AND CRITICAL UNDERSTANDING OF DRAMATIC AND THEMATIC STRUCTURE IN SHAKESPEARE'S COMEDIES AND LATE PLAYS.
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.
Application

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

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