Early Drama: Performance and Reception (U04058)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 10 ? Acronym : LLC-4-U04058

The course will study a range of plays written and performed in England and Scotland from the late medieval period to the early Renaissance. It will explore the ways in which dramatists represented important social and political issues, addressing themes such as political power and disorder, morality and vice, male and female sexuality, and spiritual redemption through often startling combinations of comedy, pathos, humanity, and brutality. It will also look at the ways in which these plays self-reflexively examine dramatic representation itself as an issue, foregrounding their own performances and the responses of spectators as parts of the process of play-making. The ways in which early drama has been represented on the modern stage will also be considered, via recordings of modern productions of early plays (and where possible live productions), in order to explore the challenges of producing early drama in the modern theatre.

It offers students the opportunity to explore dramatic works written in very different cultural contexts, and to consider how far Medieval and early Renaissance concepts of performance and reception, comedy, tragedy, pleasure and suffering have relevance for modern audiences. It will encourage students to read plays not merely as texts but as scripts for (and sometimes also records of) performance. The emphasis will be on gaining an understanding of how these plays may have been realised in production in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and how they have been (or might be) imaginatively recreated by directors and companies in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In the course of the term, students will be able to respond to the success or otherwise of a variety of modern productions through a number of written reviews.

Entry Requirements

? This course is not available to visting students.

? Pre-requisites : Passes in English or Scottish Literature 1 and English or Scottish or American Literature 2, with a mark of 50 or above at the first attempt in the second year course. Passes in third year courses in the subject area amounting to at least 40 credits.

? Special Arrangements for Entry : Numbers are limited to 15, with priority given to students taking degrees involving English or Scottish Literature and Visiting Students placed by the Admissions Office. Students not in these categories need the written approval of the Head of English Literature before enrolling. In the case of excess applications places will be decided by ballot.

? Costs : Essential course texts

Subject Areas

Home subject area

English Literature, (School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures, Schedule G)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : 4th year

? Delivery Period : Not being delivered

? Contact Teaching Time : 2 hour(s) per week for 10 weeks

? Other Required Attendance : 1 hour(s) per week for 10 weeks

? Additional Class Information : Autonomous Learning Group one hour a week at times to be arranged.

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of the module, students will be able to,

? Discuss critically the central features of drama in the pre-playhouse period
? Discuss the cultural background to key pre-Shakespearean dramatic texts
? Analyse dramatic texts as records of and/or scripts for performance
? View dramatic productions in a sophisticated and informed way, alive to both the similarities and differences between the early and modern stage
? Write a brief, informed review of a dramatic production