Unit information: Tradition and Innovation in Pre-Shakespearean Drama in 2010/11

Unit name	Tradition and Innovation in Pre-Shakespearean Drama
Unit code	ENGL39026
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Professor. King
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of English
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This unit will look at varieties of English drama prior to the development of the commercial London theatre. A selection of play scripts, performance records, and related documentation will be read in relation to their social context (e.g. ecclesiastical, lay, urban, rural, court), their performance circumstances (e.g. indoor, outdoor, processional, improvised), as well as their ideological frameworks.

This unit aims:

i) to enhance students detailed knowledge of the variety of dramatic writing and activity in England in the pre-modern period

ii) to build on and further develop the critical and analytical skills required to read and interpret dramatic texts as well as related documentary and iconographic sources from the pre-modern period

iii) to achieve an informed and discriminating understanding of the material culture of pre-modern England as it relates to dramatic activity

iv) to achieve an informed and discriminating understanding of the social and political function of dramatic activity in the period.

Intended Learning Outcomes

i) close and detailed knowledge of a variety of pre-modern English dramatic texts and records of dramatic activity

ii) higher-level critical and analytical skills required for reading and interpreting dramatic texts, as well as related documentary and iconographic sources, from the pre-modern period

iii) an informed and discriminating understanding of the material culture of pre-modern England as it relates to dramatic activity

iv) an informed and discriminating understanding of the social and political function of dramatic activity in the period.

Teaching Information

1 x 2 hour seminar per week, plus 1-to-1 discussion in consultation hours where desired, and engagement with support activities through the medium of the Virtual Learning Environment.

Assessment Information

• 1 short essay (2000 words max) one-third of unit mark 33.3%

• 1 long essay (4000 words max) two-thirds of unit mark 66.7%

Reading and References

• Beadle, R., ed., The Cambridge Companion to the Medieval Theatre (Cambridge: CUP, 1994, 2nd edition 2006/07)

• Cawley, A.C., Jones, M., McDonald, P., Mills, D., eds, The Revels History of Drama in English: I Medieval Drama (London and New York: Methuen, 1983)

• Gibson, G.McM., The Theater of Devotion: East Anglian Drama and Society in the Late Middle Ages (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1989)

• Kermode, L., Scott- Warren, J., Van Elk, M., eds, Tudor Drama before Shakespeare 1485-1590: New Directions for Research, Criticism and Pedagogy (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004)

• King, P.M., The York Cycle and the Worship of the City (Cambridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2006)

• Walker, G., ed., Medieval Drama: an Anthology (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000)