Shakespeare the Fabulous Politican (VS1) (U02808)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 10 ? Acronym : LLC-3-U02000

This course sets out to examine some of Shakespeare's plays from three directions: their portrayal of political agency, historical necessity, and social conflict; their complicity in the power structures of the society in which they were produced, i.e. Elizabethan and Jacobean England; the ways in which they have been subsequently used in different historical contexts for different ideological purposes. The course will explore characterisation, plotting and dramatic technique, and their possible meanings in the context of, for example, an absolutist monarchy, a declining feudal system, and increasing popular unrest in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Other issues will be addressed through viewings of film adaptations of the plays and a discussion of the ideological function of such adaptation.

Entry Requirements

? This course is only available to part year visiting students.

? This course is a variant of the following course : U02000

? Special Arrangements for Entry : Numbers are limited to 15, with priority given to students taking degrees involving English or Scottish Literature and Visiting Students placed by the Admissions Office. Students not in these categories need the written approval of the Head of English Literature before enrolling. In the case of excess applications places will be decided by ballot.

? Costs : Essential course texts

Subject Areas

Home subject area

English Literature, (School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures, Schedule G)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : 3rd year

? Delivery Period : Not being delivered

? Contact Teaching Time : 2 hour(s) per week for 10 weeks

? Other Required Attendance : 1 hour(s) per week for 10 weeks

All of the following classes

Type	Day	Start	End	Area
Lecture	Monday	14:00	15:50	Central

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

Students who successfully complete the course will raise their awareness of how politics work within the fictional world of Shakespeare's plays, but also of the ways in which the plays can themselves have political effects. They will recognise how the plays can function as means of justifying or subverting certain conceptions of social order. They will be equipped to recognise how Shakespeare has been used, and is still used, to support certain conceptions of English and British identity; and how a study of Shakespeare's politics can contribute to understanding, not only Shakespeare's society, but also our own.