ENGL2701: English Plays before Shakespeare

• Any Single or Joint Honours finalist student wishing to take this Special Topic module must have satisfactorily completed the required number of core modules. Combined Honours and Outside Honours students must have satisfactorily completed either two Level 1 core introductory modules, or at least one Level 1 core module and one further lecture based module in English at Level 2

• None.

• None.

• This module provides a broad introduction to the rich tradition of English play-making and performance that existed before the emergence of the professional drama represented by Shakespeare.
• It will present a selection of primary texts designed to illustrate the diversity of the social and intellectual contexts in which English plays were performed.
• These texts will be situated in relation to the wider dynamics of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century English culture, including the politics of religious dissent and the reformation, attitudes to kingship and the state, and such phenomena as vernacular theology, humanism and the emergence of printing.
• It will foreground a number of distinct dramatic patterns, motifs and themes (e.g. the Vice-figure, the emphasis on kingship) that continued to exert a distinctive influence even on the post-medieval stage

• This module aims to present a balanced picture of late medieval and Tudor drama by addressing texts from across the range of different kinds of performance in this period, including pageants from the civic mystery cycles, plays designed for colleges, schools and courts, and the morality/Vice tradition. A significant proportion of the course will be addressed to the York cycle and the Wakefield plays (representing the medieval mysteries). Mankind will be used as an introduction to the Macro plays. Primary material for the course is also likely to include texts by Henry Medwall (Fulgens and Lucrece), John Heywood (The Play of the Weather and/or The Four PP), John Bale (King Johan), Nicholas Udall (Ralph Roister Doister), as well as Gammer Gurtons Needle. Throughout the module there will be an emphasis on the evidence for specific social contexts and conditions of performance.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• On completion of this module, students will be able to demonstrate: detailed knowledge of a selection of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century texts; a fuller sense of the development of English drama, both generally and as expressed by the emergence of particular themes, motifs and conventions; appreciation of significant historical, social, political and cultural contexts.

Subject-specific Skills:

• Students studying this module will develop:
• an ability to analyse selected literary works, taking account of their historical, generic and social or religious contexts
• critical skills in the close reading and analysis of texts
• an ability to demonstrate knowledge of a range of texts and critical approaches
• informed awareness of formal and aesthetic dimensions of literature and ability to offer cogent analysis of their workings in specific texts
• sensitivity to generic conventions and to the shaping effects on communication of historical circumstances, and to the affective power of language
• an ability to articulate and substantiate an imaginative response to literature
• an ability to articulate knowledge and understanding of concepts and theories relating to literary studies
• skills of effective communication and argument
• awareness of conventions of scholarly presentation, and bibliographic skills including accurate citation of sources and consistent use of scholarly conventions of presentation
• command of a broad range of vocabulary and an appropriate critical terminology
• awareness of literature as a medium through which values are affirmed and debated

Key Skills:

• Students studying this module will develop:
• a capacity to analyse critically
• an ability to acquire complex information of diverse kinds in a structured and systematic way involving the use of distinctive interpretative skills derived from the subject
• competence in the planning and execution of essays
• a capacity for independent thought and judgement, and ability to assess the critical ideas of others
• skills in critical reasoning
• an ability to handle information and argument in a critical manner
• information-technology skills such as word-processing and electronic data access information
• organisation and time-management skills

• The module is taught through seminars, which encourage collective responsiveness through interactive discussion as well as the development of independent, individual thought.
• The consultation session with the seminar leader before the first essay allows for further, guided exploration of individual ideas and arguments.
• Assessed essays give students the opportunity for focused independent study, permitting them to explore their own ideas and insights as well as demonstrating a requisite knowledge of the subject.
• The written feedback that is provided after the first assessed essay allows students to reflect on examiners' comments, giving students the opportunity to improve their work for the second essay.
• Typically, directed learning may include assigning student(s) an issue, theme or topic that can be independently or collectively explored within a framework and/or with additional materials provided by the tutor. This may function as preparatory work for presenting their ideas or findings (sometimes electronically) to their peers and tutor in the context of a seminar.

Before the first essay, students will have an individual consultation session in which they are entitled to show their seminar leader a list of points relevant to the essay and receive oral comment on these points. Students may also, if they wish, discuss their ideas for the second essay at this meeting.

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