Module manager: Patrick Glen
Email: p.glen@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable
Year running 2025/26
This module is approved as a discovery module
The module examines case studies from across the performing arts disciplines including theatre, dance, music theatre, film, and popular music, with a focus on British and European culture. You explore specific examples that may be seen to originate from creative and cultural flashpoints and examine them within the socio-political framework in which they originated. You will discuss disputed works and artists and explore how they relate to time and place. Furthermore, it will assess their influence by considering thematic and formal developments within a variety of subsequent works from each medium.
This module will explore aspects of theatre, film, music and dance and relate them to a variety of contexts. You will evaluate the impact of particular cultural artifacts on British and European culture, and develop cultural knowledge through a detailed study of an agreed and focused performance area.
On successful completion of the module students will have demonstrated the following learning outcomes relevant to the subject:
1. Analyse performance case studies, presenting them in appropriate historic contexts;
2. Make use of appropriate historical, analytical, critical and comparative methodologies to develop and articulate arguments;
3. Identify and apply appropriate theories for use as interpretive tools.
Skills Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the module students will have demonstrated the following skills learning outcomes:
4. Communicate effective arguments using historic case studies
5. Critically engaging with sources to understand their strengths, weaknesses and relevance to a given task
Students will be presented with a range of case studies covering historically-specific areas within the performing arts. Case studies might include:
Jazz and Swing as Propaganda
The new British theatre of the 1950s
John Osborne and Look Back in Anger
1960s British New Wave film
Saturday Night Sunday Morning and A Taste of Honey
The Woodstock Era: Music as Social Protest
Punk rock during the mid- to late 1970s Sex Pistols, Stranglers, etc.
Indie Post-Punk & Margaret Thatcher’s Britain
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supervision | 1 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Supervision | 1 | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Class tests, exams and assessment | 1 | 4 | 4 |
| Lecture | 9 | 1 | 9 |
| Seminar | 9 | 1 | 9 |
| Private study hours | 177.3 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 22.8 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 200 | ||
Contribution to classes. Discussion with tutors in individual and group tutorials focussed on assessment. Specific assignment support in small group seminars.
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Essay | 3,500-4000 word essay | 70 |
| Presentation | 15 min group presentation | 30 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100 | |
Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated
The reading list is available from the Library website
Last updated: 30/04/2025
Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team