LT151-4-AU-CO:
Shakespeare Across Media
2024/25
Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies
Colchester Campus
Autumn
Undergraduate: Level 4
Current
Thursday 03 October 2024
Friday 13 December 2024
15
26 March 2024
Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
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)
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.
The aims of the module are:
1. 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.
2. To complement the Department's strengths in interdisciplinary studies (film, drama, and literature) and in translation and comparative literature
3. To respond to a vibrant and growing field in Shakespeare studies
4. To broaden students’ appreciation of and critical skills in relation to adaptations of Shakespeare from around the world.
By the end of the module:
1. Students will be familiar with a group of texts – both original plays and adaptations – and the significance of their literary and cultural merit.
2. Students will be able to 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.
3. Students will 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.
4. Skills in presentation and interdisciplinary critical analysis will be developed in the seminars on this module.
No additional information available.
Anticipated teaching delivery: Weekly 1-hour lecture and 1-hour seminar.
Reading Week: Week 5
- Shakespeare, William; Thompson, Ann; Taylor, Neil. (2006) Hamlet, London: Arden Shakespeare.
- Shakespeare, William; Weis, René. (2012) Romeo and Juliet, London: Arden Shakespeare.
- Grigorii Mikhailovich Kozint?s?ev; Jüri Järvet; Boris Leonidovich Pasternak; William Shakespeare. (2011) King Lear, Brighton: Mr Bongo.
- Feng Xiaogang. (2006) The Banquet.
- Zeffirelli, Franco; Shakespeare, William; Taylor, Elizabeth; Burton, Richard. (c2001) The Taming of the Shrew: [s.l.] : Columbia Tristar Home Video.
- Niamh J. O'Leary. (2012) 'Ambition and Desire: Gertrude as Tragic Hero in Feng Xiaogang's The Banquet.', in The Upstart Crow: A Shakespeare Journal. vol. 31
- James Monaco. (2009) 'Film and Theatre', in How to Read a Film: Movies, Media and Beyond, Oxford: Oxford University Press., pp.58-62
- Yvonne Griggs. (2009) 'On the Road: reclaiming Korol Lir', in Literature/Film Quarterly. vol. 37 (2) , pp.97-108
- Kurosawa, Akira; Mifune, Toshiro. (c2001) Throne of blood, London: BFI.
- Shakespeare, William. (2010) The taming of the shrew, London: Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare.
- William Shakespeare; Grace Ioppolo. (2008) King Lear: an authoritative text, sources, criticisms, adaptations and responses, New York: W.W. Norton.
- Krantz, David. (2008) 'Tracking the Sounds of Franco Zeffirelli's The Taming of the Shrew', in Literature/Film Quarterly. (36.2)
- Walker, Elsie. (2000) 'Pop Goes the Shakespeare: Baz Luhrmann's William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet.', in Literature/Film Quarterly. (28.2)
- Shakespeare, William. (c2014) Macbeth: the text of Macbeth, the actors' gallery, sources and contexts, criticism, afterlives, resources, New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
- Martinelli, Gabriella; Luhrmann, Baz; Shakespeare, William; DiCaprio, Leonardo; Danes, Claire. (c2002) William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.
- Martinez, Dolores. (2018) 'From 'Scottish Play' to Japanese Film: Kurosawa's Throne of Blood', in Arts. (7.5) , pp.1-11
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 |
Deadline |
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
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Dr Nora Williams, email: n.williams@essex.ac.uk.
Dr Nora Williams
LiFTS General Office, email: liftstt@essex.ac.uk
Telephone: 01206 872626
Yes
Yes
Yes
Dr Doug Haynes
University of Sussex
Reader in American Literature and Visual Culture
Available via Moodle
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).
* Please note: due to differing publication schedules, items marked with an asterisk (*) base their information upon the previous academic year.
Disclaimer: The University makes every effort to ensure that this information on its Module Directory is accurate and up-to-date. Exceptionally it can
be necessary to make changes, for example to programmes, modules, facilities or fees. Examples of such reasons might include a change of law or regulatory requirements,
industrial action, lack of demand, departure of key personnel, change in government policy, or withdrawal/reduction of funding. Changes to modules may for example consist
of variations to the content and method of delivery or assessment of modules and other services, to discontinue modules and other services and to merge or combine modules.
The University will endeavour to keep such changes to a minimum, and will also keep students informed appropriately by updating our programme specifications and module directory.
The full Procedures, Rules and Regulations of the University governing how it operates are set out in the Charter, Statutes and Ordinances and in the University Regulations, Policy and Procedures.