ENG-10029 - Module Specification
School of Humanities
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Programme/Approved Electives for 2022/23

Available as a Free Standing Elective

Co-requisites

None

Prerequisites

None

Barred Combinations

None

Description for 2022/23

How do authors create and manipulate different voices within their texts? How autobiographical is literary writing? What influence might the reader or audience have on dramatic and poetic texts? What new meanings can a text take on in performance? 'Playing Parts' aims to introduce students to the critical study and evaluation of drama and poetry through close attention to issues of performance, voice and style. Focusing on the development of different styles of poetry and drama between the seventeenth century and the present day, it will encourage a reading of literary texts with respect to the historical, formal, and cultural contexts informing them.

Week 1: Introduction to the module
Week 2: Sylvia Plath, Ariel (London: Faber & Faber, 1968)
Week 3: Ted Hughes, Birthday Letters (London: Faber & Faber, 1999)
Weeks 4-5: William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, ed. Ann Thompson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003)
Week 6: Renaissance poetry and short paper preparation. We will post texts on the KLE.
Week 7: Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer. In She Stoops to Conquer and Other Comedies (Oxford World's Classics, 2008)
Week 8: Robert Browning's dramatic monologues. We will post texts on the KLE.
Week 9: Seamus Heaney, New Selected Poems 1966-1987 (Faber and Faber, 1990 or 2014)
Week 10: Caryl Churchill, Top Girls (Student Editions, Bloomsbury, 2012)
Week 11: Eugene O'Neill, Long Day's Journey into Night (1956) (London: Nick Hern, 1991)
Week 12: Revision sessions

Preliminary Reading:
You will find it helpful to have read at least some of the texts before starting the module (particular those works which we'll be studying around assignment deadlines - commonly weeks 7-9 and 11-13 for English modules). For general introductions to studying poetry and drama, see Mick Wallis & Simon Shepherd, Studying Plays (London: Arnold, 1998); and Rhian Williams, The Poetry Toolkit: The Essential Guide to Studying Poetry (London: Continuum, 2009).

To familiarize students with the distinctive characteristics of poetry and drama.
To enable students to carry out close analysis of a range of poetry and drama by a number of authors from different historical periods.
To equip students with a knowledge of key literary concepts and terminology with respect to poetry and drama.
To provide students with a knowledge of the historical development of poetry and drama from the seventeenth century to the present.
To familiarize students with key modes of writing within poetry and drama such as lyric, satire, comedy, modern and post-modern.
To provide students with an awareness of the relationship between socio-historical contexts and literary meaning in poetry and drama.
To give students the chance to reflect on how the expertise in literary understanding they are developing may be applied in workplaces such as theatres, heritage sites, and educational establishments.

Intended Learning Outcomes

identify the distinctive features of a range of poetic and dramatic modes such as lyric, satiric, comic, modern and postmodern: 1,2
engage in close textual analysis of a range of styles of poetry and drama by different writers: 1,2
articulate key concepts in poetic and dramatic theory and relate these to literary texts: 2
demonstrate an awareness of the relationship between socio-historical contexts and the production of meaning in poetry and drama: 2
show a knowledge of the relationship between the concepts of authors, voice, characters and reader/audience in poetry and drama: 2
demonstrate a sensitivity to the complexity of literary language and critical discourse: 1,2
demonstrate an ability to construct a clear and convincing argument using reasoning, analysis and judgement: 2
demonstrate a knowledge of the historical development of poetry and drama: 2

Study hours

24: Lectures and Workshops
12: Seminars
70: Class Preparation
14: Short Paper Preparation and Writing
30: Essay Preparation and Writing

School Rules

None

Description of Module Assessment