School of English
Module manager: Professor Mark Taylor-Batty
Email: M.J.TaylorBatty@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable
Year running 2023/24
This module is approved as a discovery module
This module seeks to examine understandings of 'theatricality' through a detailed consideration of selected plays of three late twentieth-century playwrights. Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter and Sarah Kane wrote dramas that, in different ways, engaged with the processes of theatrical enactment as integral to questions of making and transferring meaning, and each embedded in their works transitions between different theatrical registers as a means of disrupting or highlighting meaning-making on the stage.
On completion of this module, students should be able to:- demonstrate an understanding of how Beckett, Pinter and Kane's dramatic writings negotiate the terms and conditions of their own theatrical presentation.
On successful completion of the module students will be able to:
1. Identify and distinguish between modernist, postmodern and postdramatic strategies in dramatic texts, and relate how these might demand the attention of creative interpreters.
2. Recognise the means by which dramatic authors construct and mobilise investment in character and situation.
3. Outline the domestic, familial and political implication of investment in theatical experience.
Skills Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the module students will be able to:
4. Assemble practical critical responses to theoretical and creative texts;
5. Evaluate comparative approaches to literary, dramatic and performative creative strategies and formulate written critical responses to those strategies;
6. Conduct independent research in compiling critical responses, mobilising a range of sources and appropriate referencing.
Details of the syllabus will be provided on the Minerva organisation (or equivalent) for the module
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Practicals | 5 | 1 | 5 |
| Practical | 5 | 1 | 5 |
| Seminar | 10 | 1 | 10 |
| Independent online learning hours | 40 | ||
| Private study hours | 140 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 20 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 200 | ||
All assessment is delivered at the end of the semester (the practical seminar in week 11, and the written work in the assessment period following teaching). Students are encouraged to submit an unassessed ‘learning contract’ in week7, negotiated in groups. This brief document outlines their research questions(s) and objectives for their practical seminar assessment. Optional tutorials are then made available to students in their groups to receive formative feedback on these plans, and enter into dialogue with their tutor and each other on the objectives.
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Essay | Essay, 2,500 words | 50 |
| Practical | Practical Seminar | 40 |
| Critique | Critical Appraisal | 10 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100 | |
Three assessments are necessary for this module as the critical appraisal and the practical seminar are paired: critical appraisal is an essential component of the assessment of practical work.
The reading list is available from the Library website
Last updated: 5/22/2024
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