University of Essex

LT151-4-AU-CO:
Shakespeare Across Media

The details

Year: 2024/25

Department: Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies

Campus: Colchester Campus

Term: Autumn

Level: Undergraduate: Level 4

Status: Current

Start date: Thursday 03 October 2024

End date: Friday 13 December 2024

Credits: 15

Last updated: 21 August 2024

Requisites for this module

Pre-requisites: (none)

Co-requisites: (none)

Pre and / or co-requisites: (none)

Prohibited modules: (none)

Key module (requisite for): (none)

Key module for

BA Q300 English Literature,
BA Q303 English Literature (Including Placement Year),
BA Q320 English Literature (Including Foundation Year),
BA Q321 English Literature (Including Year Abroad),
MLITQ391 Literature,
BA Q210 English and Comparative Literature,
BA Q211 English and Comparative Literature (Including Year Abroad),
BA Q212 English and Comparative Literature (Including Placement Year),
BA Q218 English and Comparative Literature (Including Foundation Year)

Module description

Shakespeare is the only author currently required for secondary school students across England: his works hold a great deal of power in our culture. How has that power been co-opted and deployed by artists in different cultural contexts, working in different media? Shakespeare Across Media takes a comparative approach and unites our departmental disciplines of literature, film, drama and creative writing to examine how interpretations of Shakespeare have developed across time and cultural boundaries.

This module covers a variety of adaptations of one Shakespeare play in different media, such as films, novels, graphics novels, fan fiction, poems, fine art, and performance. Looking across media, rather than sticking to just one medium, will give you the tools to ask questions about Shakespeare's authority and cultural power, the politics of adaptation, and the limits of creative interventions in canonical texts. You will also be encouraged to undertake your own creative responses to Shakespeare.

Module aims

The aims of the module are:

To introduce the period in a form accessible to first-year students by capitalising on their existing familiarity with Shakespeare and challenging them with a new approach to his work.

To complement the Department's strengths in interdisciplinary studies (film, drama, and literature) and in translation and comparative literature

To respond to a vibrant and growing field in Shakespeare studies

To broaden students’ appreciation of and critical skills in relation to adaptations of Shakespeare from around the world.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module,students will be expected to be able to:

Be familiar with a group of texts – both original plays and adaptations – and the significance of their literary and cultural merit.

Evaluate the effect of political and cultural circumstances on the adaptation, having studied the changing treatments of Shakespeare's texts across multiple languages, time periods, and cultural contexts.

Begin to build skills in postcolonial, critical race, and decolonial theory, which they will be able to apply to their analyses of the films and plays we study.

Gain skills in presentation and interdisciplinary critical analysis will be developed in the seminars on this module.

Module information

No additional information available.

Learning and teaching methods

This module will be delivered via:

A weekly 1-hour lecture and 1-hour seminar.
Reading Week: Week 5.

Bibliography*

‘Hamlet (Tara Arts)’ (no date). Available at: https://edu.digitaltheatreplus.com/content/productions/hamlet-tara-arts.
‘Hamlet (Royal Shakespeare Company)’ (no date). Available at: https://edu.digitaltheatreplus.com/content/productions/hamlet-rsc#about.
‘Hamlet (Stratford Festival, Canada)’ (no date). Available at: https://edu.digitaltheatreplus.com/content/productions/hamlet-stratford-festival.
William Shakespeare (2016a) Hamlet (Arden Shakespeare Third Series). Available at: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/universityofessex-ebooks/detail.action?docID=6185794.
Smith, E. (2019) This is Shakespeare. London: Pelican Books.
William Shakespeare (2016b) Hamlet (Arden Shakespeare Third Series). Available at: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/universityofessex-ebooks/detail.action?docID=6185794.
Feng, X. (2006) ‘The Banquet’.
Bhardwaj, V. (2014) ‘Haider’.
As the Sky is Blue - igrab - Hamlet - Shakespeare [Archive of Our Own] (no date). Available at: https://archiveofourown.org/works/32410.
Sweet Prince - Tea_and_Paper - Hamlet - Shakespeare [Archive of Our Own] (no date). Available at: https://archiveofourown.org/works/44526877.
if you die in hamlet you die in real life - orphan_account - Hamlet - Shakespeare [Archive of Our Own] (no date). Available at: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16216055.
‘Ophelia’, Sir John Everett Millais, Bt, 1851–2 | Tate (no date). Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/millais-ophelia-n01506.
Ophelia - Henrietta Rae (no date). Available at: https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/ophelia-97960.
(#1) Sarah Bernhardt (no date). Available at: https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2017/erotic-passion-desire-l17322/lot.1.html.
File:Margaret MacDonald - Ophelia 1908.jpg - Wikimedia Commons (no date). Available at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Margaret_MacDonald_-_Ophelia_1908.jpg.
OPHELIA | Studio McGuire (no date). Available at: https://www.studiomcguire.com/ophelia.
OPHELIA by NADJA VERENA MARCIN | akart (no date). Available at: https://www.akart.com/ophelia.
Life and Death in Hackney, 1999-2001 | Tom Hunter (no date). Available at: http://www.tomhunter.org/life-and-death-in-hackney/nggallery/thumbnails.
The Gorgeous Offerings: The Black Ophelia | CACNO (no date). Available at: https://cacno.org/film/the-black-ophelia.
Brad Pitt’s Wildest Dreams | GQ (no date). Available at: https://www.gq.com/story/brad-pitt-august-cover-profile.
Geddes, L. and Fazel, V. (no date) The Muddy Death of the #MeToo Movement | The Sundial (ACMRS) | Jul, 2022 | Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/the-sundial-acmrs/the-muddy-death-of-the-metoo-movement-b66898d600e3.
Play the Knave (no date). Available at: https://www.playtheknave.org/.
Shakespearean Shenanigans Game Bundle (no date). Available at: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/13521/Shakespearean_Shenanigans/.
Flaherty, J. (no date) Shakespeare’s Gamer Girls: Playable Female Characters. Available at: https://borrowers-ojs-azsu.tdl.org/borrowers/article/view/337/603.
Mark Ruffalo: Hulk is ‘Our Generation’s Hamlet’ | IndieWire (no date). Available at: https://www.indiewire.com/2022/08/mark-ruffalo-hulk-is-our-generations-hamlet-1234755908/.
Bardfilm: Calvin, Hobbes, and Hamlet (no date). Available at: http://bardfilm.blogspot.com/2017/11/shakespeare-in-calvin-and-hobbes.html.

The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course.
The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students.
Further reading can be obtained from this module's reading list.

Assessment items, weightings and deadlines

Coursework / exam	Description	Coursework weighting
Coursework	Formative assessment: Essay plan or Creative Pitch	0%
Coursework	Reflective Portfolio: two posts, 400 words total	15%
Coursework	Critical Essay (2,000 words inc. footnotes, not inc. bibliography) OR Creative Response (1,500 words plus 500 words creative reflection / commentary)	80%
Practical	Participation mark	5%

Exam format definitions

Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary, for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.

Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.

Overall assessment

Coursework	Exam
100%	0%

Reassessment

Coursework	Exam
100%	0%

Module supervisor and teaching staff

Supervisor: Dr Patricia Gillies, email: pgillies@essex.ac.uk.

Teaching staff: Dr Nora Williams

Contact details: LiFTS General Office, email: liftstt@essex.ac.uk Telephone: 01206 872626

Availability

Available to incoming Essex Abroad / Exchange students: Yes

Available to Outside Option: Yes

Available to Audit: Yes

External examiner

Name: Dr Doug Haynes

Institution: University of Sussex

Academic role: Reader in American Literature and Visual Culture

Resources

Teaching materials: Available via Moodle

Lecture recording:* Of 1867 hours, 0 (0%) hours available to students:
1867 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s).

Further information

Department website: Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies

* Please note: due to differing publication schedules, items marked with an asterisk (*) base their information upon the previous academic year.

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Module Directory

LT151-4-AU-CO:Shakespeare Across Media