School of English and Drama Templates and Testing

This introductory module offers students the opportunity to study up to nine of Shakespeare's plays in their original theatrical and historical contexts. Plays currently on the syllabus are A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Richard III, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Henry IV and Othello (although this is subject to change year on year). You will be given a standing ticket for at least one production of one of the set plays at Shakespeare's Globe on Bankside, London in the first few weeks of the module, at no extra cost. The teaching is delivered as large one-hour lectures, followed by one hour small-group seminars. The lectures are prepared and delivered in the lecture hall by two lecturers who interact with one another and the audience, They combine close reading of the texts with use of video clips from productions put on at Shakespeare's Globe and other filmed productions in order to encourage the students to read them not just as words on the page but as live events in the theatre. The small-group seminars encourage preparation and discussion online during the week and concentrate on close reading the plays. There will be three coursework assessments followed by an end of year examination. The assessments will ask you to paraphrase and contextualise selected passages from the plays and to write essays based on analysis of particular scenes.