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DRPS : Course Catalogue : Centre for Open Learning : Literature, Languages and Cultures

Undergraduate Course: Shakespeare's Women (LLLG07109)

Course Outline
SchoolCentre for Open Learning CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 7 (Year 1 Undergraduate) AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits10 ECTS Credits5
SummaryAn exploration of the great variety of women's roles in Shakespeare's plays, exploring the challenges facing the women in The Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet, As You Like It, Macbeth, and Othello.
Course description Wk 1: Binary female opposites in Shakespeare's Henry VI pt 1 (c.1592): Queen Margaret, a powerful French queen in England; and Joan of Arc, a religiously sanctified female leader in France

Wk 2: Empowered, disempowered, cursing and lamenting queens in Richard III (1593)

Wk 3: Struggling female voices in Richard II (1596) - Isabella, the Duchess of York, Hotspur's wife

Wk 4: The noble Roman matron: Portia and Calpurnia in Julius Caesar (1599)

Wks 5&6: 'Frailty thy name is woman': Gertrude and other weak queens in Hamlet (1600)

Wks 7&8: Shakespeare's greatest female ruler, Cleopatra (Antony and Cleopatra, 1606)

Wks 9&10: The great redemptive queens in the Last Plays: Thaisa in Pericles (1608) and Hermione in The Winter¿s Tale (1610)
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Understand the historical context of attitudes towards women in the period
  2. Appreciate the complex psychology of gender relationships in the plays
  3. Describe the constraints on women in Shakespeare¿s world and on the stage
  4. Interpret the gender values encoded within modern productions of Shakespeare.
Reading List
Essential:
The course plays to be studied in any of the following editions: Norton, Arden, New Cambridge, Oxford.
Recommended:
Dusinberre, Juliet. Shakespeare and the Nature of Women. London: Macmillan, 1975.
Woodbridge, Linda. Women and the English Renaissance. Brighton: Harvester, 1984.
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Confidence in discussing texts
Ability to articulate knowledge and arguments coherently
Ability to assess secondary materials
KeywordsShakespeare,women
Contacts
Course organiserMs Rachael King
Tel:
Email:
Course secretaryMs Kameliya Skerleva
Tel: (0131 6)51 1855
Email:
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