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Shakespearean Drama
Email course leader:
siobhan.cox@buckingham.ac.uk
One term (of 2): 15 units
This course is paired with the 15-unit Autumn Term course, Renaissance Literature, but can be taken on its own. It aims to begin your work on Elizabethan and Jacobean drama through the detailed study of four plays and critical approaches to them. The course also aims to:
- introduce you to the Elizabethan concepts of world order, comedy and tragedy.
- explore the plays' key themes and let you achieve an understanding of how each play is structured.
- analyse critical responses to each play.
- allow you to discuss how the plays have been adapted for modern audiences.
- examine the problems and benefits of film adaptation.
- appreciate Shakespeare as a visual artist and 'performer'.
You will be expected to acquire breadth of knowledge and understanding through group-work, and both guided and private study. The detailed reading list that accompanies the course indicates the key primary and secondary texts which should be tackled, but you are encouraged to read as widely as possible in the field to enhance your critical response. You should make it an objective to try to see as many as possible of these plays in production - this will bring home the fusion of linguistic skill with dramatic understanding which great playwrights bring to their craft.
Plays currently studied this term include Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet and Twelfth Night .
The course is assessed wholly by course work (i.e. term papers).