Unit information: Theatre and Performance in 2014/15

Unit name	Theatre and Performance
Unit code	MODL23021
Credit points	20
Level of study	I/5
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Dr. Davies
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	School of Modern Languages
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This unit uses the heading of ‘interplay’ – between text, stage and audience, and across periods and borders – to examine some of the key developments in European drama. It introduces some of the central influences on theatre across Europe: Greek drama, Shakespeare, and Calderón. It considers early-modern and twentieth-century responses to classical drama, and the appeal of Shakespeare to movements such as the German Sturm und Drang; it examines Naturalism and the development of political theatre in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The course is divided into two parts: a series of survey lectures accompanied by prescribed reading and viewings and accompanied by peer-assessed assignments on Blackboard, and a cluster of small-group seminars enabling participants to focus on one topic in depth.

Unit aims:

• to acquire knowledge of a key literary genre in its development across chronological periods and national literary traditions

• to understand how literary works relate to other texts, and to the world around them

• to understand the specific history and characteristics of drama as a literary genre

• to develop skills in reading drama

• to provide a framework that will inform further literary study in the course of a Modern Languages degree

• to guide students towards independent work in this and other fields

• to enhance students’ powers of analysis, research and presentation

Intended Learning Outcomes

The unit will develop:

• students’ outline knowledge of European literature, and of European drama in particular

• students’ ability to draw connections between a ‘big picture’ and material studied in detail

• students’ understanding of the ways in which different European cultures have impacted on each other

• students’ skills in reading drama

• students’ capacity to learn and research independently, under guidance as to relevant source material and approaches

• students’ skills in presenting information and arguments in a structured form, both orally and in writing.

Teaching Information

Normally one lecture hour and one seminar hour per week across one teaching block (22 contact hours), often with student presentations. In units with a smaller number of students the lecture hour may be replaced by a second seminar or a workshop. Units involving film may require students to view films outside the timetabled contact hours.

Assessment Information

one 2000 word essay and a 2 hour exam (50%/50%)

Reading and References

Aristotle, Poetics, in Classical Literary Criticism, ed. by D.A. Russell and M. Winterbottom (Oxford: OUP, 2008)

S.W. Dawson, Drama and the Dramatic, The Critical Idiom, 11 (London: Methuen, 1970)

Manfred Pfister, The Theory and Analysis of Drama, trans. by John Hallday (Cambridge: CUP, 1988)

Erika Fischer-Lichte, History of European Drama and Theatre, trans. by Jo Riley (London: Routledge, 2002)

Set texts are expected to vary from year to year and will be publicised at the beginning of the session, prior to the unit running in TB2.