ATS2492 · Reading the past: Shakespearean drama

Overview

In this unit, you will work through three to five key play-texts by, or related to, William Shakespeare (1564-1616), with particular emphasis on the cultural, political, religious, industrial and ideological contexts of the work and its reception. We will be concerned with Shakespeare's works as texts in production, including theatrical and screen adaptations, and as a product engaged with by a reader---i.e. put into production through the act of reading, speaking or adapting the text. The unit will be especially useful if you intend to teach English, Literature or Drama/Performing Arts in the secondary-education system.

Areas of study: Literary studies

Offerings

Assessment

The Handbook does not list a final examination among the assessment items. That is not a guarantee there is none.

Within semester assessment: 100%

Assessment details may change. Please refer to the assessment information in Moodle closer to the start of the teaching period.

Requisites

Learning outcomes

1. explain the various and changing intellectual contexts -- aesthetic, philosophical, religious, scientific, political and social -- of the pre-Romantic period and of the ways in which they form and inform its literature;
2. analyse the ways in which a variety of dramatic texts make meaning, as both written texts and forms of performance;
3. apply different critical and creative approaches to pre-Romantic texts and to the preoccupations and themes which they embody;
4. argue, interpret and analyse effectively through written, oral and/or performative means of communication.

Workload

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

Student experience, not official rules. Nothing here changes what the Handbook says.