ATS4269 - Rethinking theatre history - 2018

12 points, SCA Band 1, 0.250 EFTSL

Undergraduate - Unit

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Faculty

Arts

Organisational Unit

Centre for Theatre and Performance

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Fiona Gregory

Coordinator(s)

Dr Fiona Gregory

Unit guides

Offered

Clayton

  • Second semester 2018 (On-campus)

Synopsis

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.

Outcomes

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.

Assessment

Within semester assessment: 100%

Workload requirements

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

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Theatre and performance