ATS4269 - Rethinking theatre history - 2017

This unit will explore the processes of rethinking theatre history in a number of ways: the challenges to received critical thinking and methodology, and to canonical assumptions; the implications for theatre history of parallel texts reflecting 'translations' into new media; the responses of analytical and critical approaches in Drama and Theatre Studies to the influence of thinking in other disciplines; the reframing of canonical texts in the light of contemporary theoretical and cultural perspectives, and its implications for historicised interpretation.

It will examine a range of plays in relation to traditional scholarly interpretations and to specific recent re-readings.

Students completing 'Rethinking Theatre History' should have acquired:

1. A working awareness of contemporary theoretical perspectives.
2. The capacity to apply specific theoretical approaches to a diverse range of theatrical texts.
3. An ongoing sensitivity, openness and scepticism to shifts in the climate of disciplinary debate.
4. A developed sense of the continuing volatility and contingency of intellectual debate in the field.
5. A sophisticated understanding of the issues underlying those debates at a level appropriate to graduate study.
6. Enhanced confidence in articulating informed arguments and interpretations, in both oral and written form.

Within semester assessment: 100%

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 288 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. A unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

See also Unit timetable information

Dr Misha Myers

Theatre and performance