English and drama

Gender, Race and Society in Early Modern Drama

Module code: Q3202
Level 6
30 credits in spring semester
Teaching method: Lecture, Seminar
Assessment modes: Coursework

This module explores gender, race and society in plays performed principally on the London stages, c.1580-c.1680. We will look at plays by dramatists such as William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Aphra Behn, Margaret Cavendish and others, performed in a period of dramatic and far-reaching changes. At the start of this period women were forbidden from performing on the public stage; by the end there were a number of celebrated women writers and actors. In the same period the first British Empire was established and a revolution saw the king deposed and executed. How did playwrights respond to these major transformations, and how do notions of gender, race and society intersect in the plays they wrote?

Module learning outcomes

• Show detailed knowledge of early modern drama.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the complicated relationship between literature and historical change.
• Research early modern drama in the contexts of its production.
• Produce a sophisticated and well-evidenced extended piece of work.
• Show knowledge and understanding of the relationship between gender, race, society and literature.