Module Directory

This module examines the concept of 'modernity' at various points between the English Renaissance and the present, offering students the opportunity to consider what it meant to be modern in each of these contexts through their approaches to English early modern drama. It constructs modernity as multiple, reiterated and reimagined for each new generation, meaning that we cannot locate 'the modern' as a singular, definitive moment in time. In addition, the module will prompt questions about periodization in literature and drama: why use the term 'early modern' and not 'Renaissance?' What are the boundaries of 'early' modernity in English literature and drama, and who decides? Why periodize literature at all?

This module will appeal to students in any of the postgraduate taught courses in LiFTS, but will be particularly relevant for students interested in periodization, historiography, adaptation and remediation, early modern literature and drama, and creative practice.

The aims of this module are:

• To develop students' understanding of theatrical and artistic innovation at various points between the seventeenth century and the present.


• To encourage students to become independent researchers at the postgraduate level by asking them to develop their own research questions and practice-as-research project.


• To build students' historiographical skills.


• To provide an introduction to key texts from the English Renaissance, and to important criticism in the field of early modern performance studies.

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

1. Articulate a pluralistic definition of 'modernity', contextualised across a range of historical periods.


2. Apply appropriate practice-as-research techniques, and incorporate desk-based research into their practice.


3. Demonstrate facility with historiographical research methodologies in relation to the performance histories of a selection of English early modern plays.


4. Understand the ways in which theatrical and artistic innovation continuously re-makes old plays for new audiences, and the stakes of such adaptations.

When referring to the period from roughly 1500 to 1700 in England, scholars sometimes use the term 'early modern' to denote a move away from ideologies, technologies, and artistic trends associated with the Middle Ages and towards the world that we inhabit today. In this configuration the early modern period can be seen as the time in which many of the foundations of modernity - including but certainly not limited to capitalism and colonialism, advances in medicine, science and technology, secularism, and artistic innovation - began to be laid. But were the people of this period - the early moderns themselves, we might say - conscious of themselves as part of this longue durée of history? Did they understand themselves as 'modern' in any way?

This module will be delivered via:

• A weekly 3-hour class, with a mix of lectures/seminars and practical workshops.