University of St Andrews

Key information

SCOTCAT credits : 20

ECTS credits : 10

Level : SCQF level 8

Semester: 2

Availability restrictions: Not available to First Year students.

Planned timetable: 4.00 pm

This module is designed to provide an introduction to a small number of representative plays from the Renaissance period to the twentieth century. Special emphasis will be laid upon conditions of production and reception: the literary, political and theatre-historical contexts in which these plays were first created and those in which they are now received. At the same time the distinctive nature of the theatrical medium will be stressed, and students will be encouraged to develop a flexible critical response that will take proper account of the hybrid nature of plays both as texts and as performances.

Relationship to other modules

Pre-requisite(s): No pre-requisites when taken as a 'stand alone' module, but EN2004 is not available to students in their first year

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact: 3 lectures and 1 tutorial, and 2 optional consultative hours.

Scheduled learning hours: 43

Guided independent study hours: 157

Assessment pattern

As used by St Andrews: 2-hour Written Examination = 50%, Coursework = 50%


Re-assessment: 3-hour Written Examination = 100%

Personnel

Module coordinator: Dr M C Augustine
Module teaching staff: Team taught
Module coordinator email mca3@st-andrews.ac.uk

Intended learning outcomes

• Display a good reading knowledge of the module set-texts and a good general knowledge of the theatrical and cultural contexts in which these plays were composed and were (and are) performed.
• Place these works within a more general critical and theoretical context.
• Contribute, in both seminars and essays, to a critical discussion of the set-texts.
• Display an awareness of the implications of studying works of art that exist both as ('unstable') texts and as (still more unstable) performances.
• Display an enhanced understanding of performance and be able to describe and analyse the potentially problematic relationships that link performance and texts.