Undergraduate Course: Early Modern Tragedy (ENLI10368)

Course Outline
School	School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures	College	College of Humanities and Social Science
Credit level (Normal year taken)	SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate)	Availability	Available to all students
SCQF Credits	20	ECTS Credits	10
Summary	This course examines a wide range of Elizabethan and Jacobean tragic drama, including plays by Marlowe, Shakespeare, Carey, Middleton and Webster. It will explore variety of tragic modes in the period--including revenge drama, 'heroic' tragedy, closet theatre, tragi-comedy and domestic tragedy'as well as the range of theatrical contexts and staging practices that developed across the sixteenth and seventeenth century.
Course description	Tragedy engages with some of the most urgent, as well as enduring, problems that societies and individuals face. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were one of the great periods of tragic composition and this course will explore some of its most significant examples. The course will stress the variety of tragic modes--including revenge drama, 'heroic' tragedy, closet theatre, tragi-comedy and domestic tragedy'as well as the range of theatrical contexts and staging practices that developed across the Elizabethan and Jacobean period. In tragic drama, early modern dramatists explored how different societies experienced crisis and the political and ethical problems this exposed: questions of power and sovereignty, justice and injustice, mortality and loss, sexual hierarchy and social inequality, political conformity and resistance, liberty and oppression. The course will consider how dramatists responded to these key concerns and it will also examine different critical and conceptual understandings of tragedy. It explores a wide range of Elizabethan and Jacobean tragic drama, including plays by Marlowe, Shakespeare, Carey, Middleton and Webster. It will explore variety of tragic modes in the period--including revenge drama, 'heroic' tragedy, closet theatre, tragi-comedy and domestic tragedy'as well as the range of theatrical contexts and staging practices that developed across the sixteenth and seventeenth century.

Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites	Students MUST have passed: ( English Literature 1 (ENLI08001) OR Scottish Literature 1 (ENLI08016)) AND ( English Literature 2 (ENLI08003) OR Scottish Literature 2 (ENLI08004))	Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations		Other requirements	None

Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisites	A MINIMUM of 4 college/university level literature courses at grade B or above (should include no more than one introductory level literature course). Related courses such as cross disciplinary, "Freshman Seminars", civilisation or creative writing classes are not considered for admission to this course. Applicants should also note that, as with other popular courses, meeting the minimum does NOT guarantee admission. In making admissions decisions preference will be given to students who achieve above the minimum requirement with the typical visiting student admitted to this course having four or more literature classes at grade A. as numbers are limited, visiting students should contact the Visiting Student Office directly for admission to this course
High Demand Course?	Yes

Course Delivery Information

Academic year 2017/18, Available to all students (SV1)		Quota: 50
Course Start	Semester 1
Timetable	Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info)	Total Hours: 200 ( Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20, Other Study Hours 10, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 166 )
Additional Information (Learning and Teaching)	one hour per week Autonomous Learning Group
Assessment (Further Info)	Written Exam 60 %, Coursework 30 %, Practical Exam 10 %
Additional Information (Assessment)	Coursework Essay (2500 words) - 30%; Class participation assessment - 10%; Sit-down Examination (2 hours) - 60% Visiting Student variant: Coursework Essay (2500 words) - 30%; Class participation assessment - 10%; a take home exam essay (3000 words) - 60%
Feedback	Not entered
Exam Information
Exam Diet	Paper Name		Hours & Minutes
Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May)			2:00

Academic year 2017/18, Part-year visiting students only (VV1)		Quota: 12
Course Start	Semester 1
Timetable	Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info)	Total Hours: 200 ( Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20, Other Study Hours 10, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 166 )
Additional Information (Learning and Teaching)	one hour per week Autonomous Learning Group Participation
Assessment (Further Info)	Written Exam 60 %, Coursework 30 %, Practical Exam 10 %
Additional Information (Assessment)	Coursework Essay (2500 words) - 30%; Class participation assessment - 10%; Sit-down Examination (2 hours) - 60% Visiting Student variant: Coursework Essay (2500 words) - 30%; Class participation assessment - 10%; a take home exam essay (3000 words) - 60%
Feedback	Not entered
No Exam Information

Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to: In their work for this course, students will be able to demonstrate knowledge of and critical engagement with the principal modes of Elizabethan and Jacobean tragedy. In their work for this course, students will be able to demonstrate an awareness of the key critical debates elicited by early modern tragedy. In their work for this course, students will be able to demonstrate awareness of the key political and ethical debates relevant to the period's tragic theatre. In their work for this course, students will be able to analyse tragic drama in the context of changing social and theatrical conventions. By the end of the course students will be able to demonstrate the ability to reflect constructively on the development of their own learning and research practice.

Reading List
Compulsory English Renaissance Drama: A Norton Anthology, ed. David Bevington et al (New York: Norton, 2002) Othello, ed. Michael Neill (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008) Recommended Barker, Francis. The Culture of Violence: Essays on Tragedy and History. Manchester: U P, 1993. Belsey, Catherine. The Subject of Tragedy : Identity and Difference in Renaissance Drama. London: Methuen, 1985. Bushnell, Rebecca W. Tragedies of Tyrants: Political Thought and Theater in the English Renaissance. Ithaca: Cornell U P, 1990. Bushnell. Rebecca W (ed) A Companion to Tragedy. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. Drakakis, John and Tragedy. Harlow: Longman, 1998. N C Leiber Eds. Dollimore, Jonathan. Radical Tragedy: Religion, Ideology and Power in the Drama of Shakespeare and His Contemporaries. Brighton: Harvester, 1984. Eagleton, Terry. Sweet Violence: The Idea of the Tragic. Oxford: Blackwell, 2003. Kerrigan, John. Revenge Tragedy: Aeschylus to Armageddon. Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1996. McEachern Claire (ed) The Cambridge Companion to Shakespearean Tragedy. Cambridge: U P, 2002. Moretti, Franco. 'The Great Eclipse: Tragic Form as the Deconsecration of Sovereignty'. In Signs Taken for Wonders: Essays in the Sociology of Literary Forms rev.ed. London: Verso, 1988; Rpt in Shakespearean Tragedy Ed. J Drakakis. Wallace, Jennifer. The Cambridge Introduction to Tragedy. Cambridge: U P, 2007. Williams, Raymond. Modern Tragedy (1966; repr London: Hogarth Press, 1992).

Additional Information
Course URL	https://www.ed.ac.uk/literatures-languages-cultures/english-literature/undergraduate/current/honours
Graduate Attributes and Skills	Not entered
Additional Class Delivery Information	2-hour Seminar per week for 10 weeks; plus 1 hour per week Autonomous Learning Group - times to be arranged
Keywords	Renaissance drama,tragedy,theatre,early modern literature