Introductory description

This module focuses on a selection of William Shakespeare’s plays to explore his dramatic and literary craft in one of the most dynamic centres for the study of Shakespeare in the UK: Warwick's Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies. Digital archival research will offer an immersive, critical exploration of Elizabethan and Jacobean performance conditions, and the social frameworks of the early-modern period more broadly, out of which his plays were born. Turning to our present moment, this course will examine how Shakespeare intersects with the most contemporary of debates – from ecocriticism to feminism, representations of bodies and identities, to the challenging question of decolonisation – and ask how and why his plays remain relevant today.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

An Introduction to Antony and Cleopatra
William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra (recommended Arden Shakespeare edition, edited by John Wilders)
Emma Smith, ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ in This is Shakespeare: How to Read the World's Greatest Playwright (2020)

Helkiah Crooke, Mikrokosmographia: A Description of the Body of Man (London, 1615)

Michael C. Shoenfeldt, Bodies and Selves in Early Modern England… (1999)

Female Bodies
Yasmin Arshad, ‘‘She did make defect perfection’: The Paradox and Variety of Shakespeare’s Cleopatra’ in Imagining Cleopatra: Performing Gender and Power in Early Modern England (2019)

Jennifer Edwards, ‘‘Amorous pinches’: Keeping (in)tact in Antony and Cleopatra’ in Shakespeare / Sense Contemporary Readings in Sensory Culture ed. by Simon Smith (2020)

Kim Hall, ‘Marriages of State: The Tempest and Antony and Cleopatra’ in Things of Darkness: Economies of Race and Gender in Early Modern England (1995)

Jyotsna G. Singh (ed.), ‘Chapter One: Historical Contexts 1: Shakespeare and the Colonial’ in Imaginary Shakespeare and Postcolonial Theory (2020)

Environed Bodies
Edward J., Geisweidt, ‘‘The Nobleness of Life’: Spontaneous Generation and Excremental Life in Antony and Cleopatra’, Ecocritical Shakespeare ed. Lynne Bruckner and Dan Brayton (London and New York: Routledge Press, 2011), 89-104

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Gained an understanding of key critical and literary concepts in Shakespeare studies, including but not limited to: performance, history, gender, the body, environment, and decolonisation
• Acquired knowledge of relevant cultural and critical contexts within which to situate the set texts
• Developed strategies for reading drama within the context of English history
• Developed archival research skills
• Enhanced writing skills for different specialist audiences
• Developed digital literacy and audio publishing skills

Research element

Use of archives to research relevant topics

Interdisciplinary

The module is designed to provide the students with an understanding of relationships between the different disciplinary areas within English and Comparative Literature Studies, particularly Shakespeare. It also invites to the students to make connections with other disciplinary areas covered in their main study programme. It provides the students with a critical understanding of dominant traditions and methodologies associated with the main phenomena covered in the module and enables the students to transcend disciplinary boundaries. The interdisciplinary course cohort provides contact opportunities and learning to see from different perspectives is a core aspect of the learning experience.

International

The module draws on cases from different contexts, including different geopolitical areas, professional environments and linguistic contexts. The content and assessment invite the students to reflect on the societal relevance in different environments of the phenomena covered in the module. The assessment involves students working in groups with academic and ideally non-academic stakeholders which (will) allow for a global and local outlook to be built into the module’s work. The international and diverse course cohort provides contact opportunities and learning to see from different perspectives is a core aspect of the learning experience.

Subject specific skills

-Understand and deploy theoretical and methodological positions with regards to Shakespeare and early modern culture
-Place the study of Shakespeare within wider contexts of recent scholarship and understand professional and disciplinary boundaries
-Be able to draw relevant analogies and connections between historically situated themes and ideas and contemporary cultural/political debates

Transferable skills

Work effectively with others in group tasks and in teams; Plan and manage time in projects; Develop strong analytical skills; Find, evaluate and use previous research at a level appropriate for an Intermediate year module. Use a range of tools and resources effectively in the preparation of course work. Use appropriate analytic methods to analyse research data on Shakespeare. Read academic papers effectively in the context of an intensive programme; Communicate clearly and effectively in discussions; Communicate ideas effectively in writing.