Module ENGL53530: Renaissance Tragedy

Department: English Studies

ENGL53530: Renaissance Tragedy

Prerequisites

• None

Corequisites

• None

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None

Aims

• to introduce students to tragedies / tragicomedies by a wide range of English Renaissance writers;
• to consider the theatrical and critical history of these texts;
• to place English Renaissance tragedy / tragicomedy in synchronic and diachronic literary contexts, and examine its relationship to other kinds of literature;
• to explore the interface between drama and contemporary social / political / religious / historical issues;

Content

• the studied writers typically include Shakespeare, Marlowe, Kyd, Webster, Middleton, Ford, Tourneur, Heywood, Cary; the individual enthusiams of students will be consulted;

Learning Outcomes

• to gain/build upon knowlegde of English Renaissance tragic / tragicomic drama, expecially its major writers;
• to contextualise this, where appropriate, through an awareness of tragedy and tragicomedy written at other periods and in other countries (e.g. classical Greece and Rome, Renaissance Europe);
• to develop an awareness of dramatic genres, and of how drama relates to other kinds of literature;
• to gain some knowledge of stagecraft (contempoary and other), where relevant to specifics topics pursued;
• to read and utilise relevant scholarly source-material and literary criticism;

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

One essay (2,000 words maximum).

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University