Shakespeare and Text

Code School Level Credits Semesters
ENGL4400 English 4 N/A April Full Year UK, Full Year UK, January Full Year UK
Code
ENGL4400
School
English
Level
4
Credits
N/A
Semesters
April Full Year UK, Full Year UK, January Full Year UK

Summary

This pod explores the material forms that Shakespeare’s plays took in their earliest printed versions, and the processes that turn them into today’s modern texts. Drawing on twenty-first century developments in Shakespeare textual studies and editorial practice, this pod invites students to reflect on the interpretive implications of how sixteenth- and seventeenth-century playbooks are mediated for the contemporary reader, and how the choices made by editors seek to fix or open up meaning. Through case studies of specific plays, the pod introduces some of the most crucial debates in contemporary Shakespeare studies.

Target Students

Students registered on the School of English online masters scheme.

Assessment

Assessed by end of designated period

Educational Aims

This module comprises an optional component in the following pathways: Applied English, Drama and Performance, and English Literature. As such, it contributes in its specific aims to the programme-level coverage of these pathways

Learning Outcomes

Recognise and understand the features of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century playbooks and the presentation of early modern drama in print.

Demonstrate understanding of the role played by editors in re-presenting early modern drama according to later historical, cultural and theoretical conventions. 

Analyse early modern plays for their thematic, interpretive and formal features, integrating historical and theoretical interpretations. 

Demonstrate knowledge and skills acquired to the appropriate disciplinary and professional standard.

Assimilate and present subject-specific material in an appropriate format (assessed within the ‘Assessment Portfolio’ 1, 2 or 3). 

Conveners

View in Curriculum Catalogue
Last updated 07/01/2025.