How did a glover’s son from Stratford come to be the world’s most famous author? What was happening in Elizabethan and Jacobean England that led to an outpouring of Renaissance literature? And how did contact with the wider world infuse and inspire Shakespeare’s plays? Building on your first year’s studies, this module is designed to introduce you to Shakespeare’s worlds, from the bear pits and brothels of Southwark to New World exploration and the beginnings of colonialism.

You will look at the playing conditions of early modern theatre spaces like the Globe and Blackfriars, and how Shakespeare incorporated rehearsal technique into A Midsummer Night’s Dream’s play-within-a-play. The vogue for history plays will be shown to comment directly on the politics of the day, while Shakespeare’s far-flung settings and foreign characters can be linked to new trade routes and zones of cultural contact in the Age of Exploration. Shakespeare cannot be understood in isolation, and this module will give you the tools to see for yourself the rich and complex overlap between the play-worlds Shakespeare created and the realities of the world in which he lived.

• discuss Shakespearean drama fluently, with enhanced appreciation for rhetorical skill and expression
• explain the playing conditions under which the plays were written and how these inform the drama
• analyse the historical and political contexts of Shakespeare’s plays
• investigate the contours of Shakespeare’s London as well as its connection with the wider early modern world
• evaluate the relationship between literature and early modern London, from a variety of perspectives including trade, censorship, rebellion, punishment and colonial exploration

This module will be delivered through a mixture of synchronous and asynchronous activities, as part of this programme’s blended provision, which will include on-campus and online teaching and support.

The precise mode of delivery and details – subject to Welsh Government and Public Health Wales guidance – of the teaching and support activities will be made available at the start of the semester via Learning Central.

Academic skills: this module will develop and practise skills in close reading, independent scholarly research and critical thinking, while paying attention to questions of genre and historical contexts. Creative–critical responses to Shakespeare are encouraged, allowing students to take ownership of a major author at the very heart of the canon of English literature. As well as textual analysis there will be opportunities to watch stage productions, thus developing multimedia critical judgement and skills of interpretation. This requires careful scholarship, sensitivity to language through close reading and a broader historical awareness of social change.

Employability skills: these include the ability to synthesise information, negotiate complex ideas, communicate in group-based discussion, and write and present clear and compelling arguments in a professional manner. Formative exercises draw on peer feedback to create collaborative and student-led research, encouraging skills of information collation, selection and synthesis.

The methods of summative assessment for this module are detailed in the table below.

Formative work to be submitted before each summative assessment: you can choose between submitting, as appropriate, an essay plan/structure, synopses of essay topic options (if undecided) or sample paragraph/s; for creative assignments, you can submit working drafts of parts of your composition, as arranged with the workshop convenor.

THE OPPORTUNITY FOR REASSESSMENT IN THIS MODULE:
As with School policy, failed or unsubmitted assessments can be retaken during the August resit period.

Indicative Syllabus:

• A tour of Shakespeare’s London
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream (c. 1595)
• Playing conditions
• Richard III (c. 1594)
• Playing politics
• Othello (c. 1603)
• Travel and trade
• Measure for Measure (c. 1604)
• Shakespeare in Sin City
• The Tempest (c. 1611)