Skip to main content

Module

SEL3391 : Women on Trial: Gender, Power, and Performance in Shakespeare's England

  • Offered for Year: 2020/21
  • Module Leader(s): Dr Emma Whipday
  • Owning School: English Lit, Language & Linguistics
  • Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters
Semester 1 Credit Value: 20
ECTS Credits: 10.0

Aims

This module explores performances of gender and power on the early modern stage, page, and street. On this drama-centred module, we will study professional theatre and 'closet drama', as well as street literature and court records. We focus on women as subjects, translators, and performers of drama. We will explore how gender and power are represented and negotiated across a range of performance spaces: theatres, law courts, marketplaces, scaffolds, taverns, and country houses.

Outline Of Syllabus

We will study up to six plays from the professional stage. Indicative examples are Measure for Measure, A Woman Killed with Kindness, and The Witch of Edmonton. We will also look at a number of closet dramas, such as The Tragedie of Iphigenia, and a range of other texts that imagine, prompt, or record some sort of performance. These may be popular ballads, news pamphlets, printed trial accounts, portraits, or court records.

Teaching Methods

Module leaders are revising this content in light of the Covid 19 restrictions.
Revised and approved detail information will be available by 17 August.

Assessment Methods

Module leaders are revising this content in light of the Covid 19 restrictions.
Revised and approved detail information will be available by 17 August.

Reading Lists

Timetable