Module MELA47830: World Drama: Themes and Trends

Department: Modern Languages and Cultures

MELA47830: World Drama: Themes and Trends

Prerequisites

• None.

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• To examine a range of dramatic texts and theatre forms from different national and cultural contexts.
• To introduce students to key critical ideas in the field of world drama, theatre history and performance practice as well as other relevant theories.
• To develop relevant methodologies and vocabularies for the analysis of dramatic texts and their staging.
• To investigate the place of theatre, drama and performance across various national and transnational histories.

Content

• Approaches world drama through a focus on specific playwrights and theatre movements that are structured around specific themes such as bodies and subjects, borders and migration, land and ecology, translation, justice and rights, colonial and postcolonial histories, illness and disability, science and technology.
• Offers a chronologically and generically diverse range of dramatic texts from the modern and pre-modern period which will be read in translation but with the option of engaging with the texts in their original language.
• Combines close reading of dramatic texts against relevant historical and intellectual context such as the critical reception, history of performance and the afterlives of specific texts.
• *May include guest speakers and visiting theatre practitioners.
• *May include an optional theatre trip [please note students will be charged for this].

Learning Outcomes

• By the end of this module, students are expected to develop:
• Detailed understanding of how to analyse dramatic texts, taking into account their historical and aesthetic contexts.
• Solid understanding of the diversity of world drama, theatre and performance forms.
• Nuanced awareness of the similarities and differences in the cultural, aesthetic and generic registers of dramatic texts and relevant literary and theatre traditions.
• Sound knowledge of how specific texts have been adapted for performance

• By the end of this module, students are expected to develop:
• Critical skills in the close reading and analysis of dramatic texts. 
• An ability to demonstrate knowledge of a range of dramatic texts and specific playwrights.
• An advanced knowledge of the complexities of contextual issues in relation to diverse forms of dramatic texts.
• Critical awareness of various theatre histories and traditions from around the world.
• Understanding of how meaning is produced in dramatic texts.
• Sensitivity to the formal, aesthetic and generic dimensions of dramatic texts.
• Awareness of the various conventions of theatre texts (and performances) from around the world.
• An ability to articulate understanding of the concepts and theories relevant to world drama.
• An ability to engage with theatrical texts and performances in a sensitive and imaginative way.
• Awareness of the intersection of drama with other art forms.
• Understanding of the interaction between dramatic texts and performance practice.

• By the end of this module, students are expected to develop the:
• Ability to analyse critically and sensitively.
• Capacity to apply critical concepts and ideas to the reading of texts and contexts.
• Capacity to handle complex ideas in a rational and evaluative way.
• Ability to think independently and critically.
• Ability to synthesize critical ideas and thought in a structured and systematic way.
• Ability to assess the critical ideas and approaches of others.
• Ability to conceive, plan and complete a research essay and/or independent project.
• Efficient skills in organisation and time-management.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• The module will be taught via 10 2-hour fortnightly sessions across Terms 1 and 2.
• The module will be taught by means of 10 sessions comprising a combination of lectures and seminars.
• Summative assessment will consist of a 5,000-word essay.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Formative assessment will take place throughout the course with feedback provided to students on class presentations, assigned independent readings and class discussions.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University