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Shakespeare Revisited

Module description

This module considers Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet, in its time and in our time, in Shakespeare’s world and in a variety of different cultural worlds. Through a focus on the contexts for and reception of the works of Shakespeare, the module aims to explore how Hamlet has achieved this unique status in English literature and beyond. It examines the early modern theatrical, political, and religious historical contexts that inform Shakespeare’s drama, before embarking on an investigation of Hamlet’s afterlives in Anglophone and non-Anglophone contexts and cultures (specifically Asian), from the twentieth century to the present day, in a variety of genres and adaptations featuring examples from film, novel, and manga literature.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module will introduce you to Shakespeare’s work, Hamlet, and a variety of rewritings and adaptations of the play. Lectures will draw on the research of individual lecturers, offering readings of the primary and secondary materials which you will then consider in seminars; the seminars will deepen your understanding and enable you to begin to develop your own responses through group discussion. In addition, you will independently explore and research your own ideas for written assignments, on which you will receive detailed feedback commenting on the intellectual content of your work, the understanding of key concepts shown and the mechanics of argument, grammar and style.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate competent knowledge and understanding of specific elements within the work of William Shakespeare
• 2. Relate individual works of Shakespeare to wider theoretical and historical contexts.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Close read and analyse set texts
• 4. Draw upon relevant critical writings when analysing literary texts, and document these sources in bibliographies

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. Capably research, process and deploy information in written form to a set deadline and/or in a time-limited setting
• 6. Produce written work that conveys an argument competently, expressed in clear and correct scholarly prose

Syllabus plan

Indicative syllabus: Texts and topics may include:

• Who is there? Hamlet: Text and Stage
• Hamlet in its Time: Politics, Religion, Gender
• Twentieth-Century Hamlet: Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guilderstern Are Dead (extract), Margaret Atwood, ‘Gertrude Talks Back’, Harryette Mullen ‘Dim Lady’
• Hamlet in Asia I: The Banquet (dir. Xiaogang Feng, 2006), and The Prince of the Himalayas (dir. Sherwood Hu, 2006)
• Hamlet in Asia II: Haider (dir. Vishal Bhardwaj, 2014)
• Hamlet in New Worlds? extracts from Ian MacEwan’s Nutshell (2016), and Manga Shakespeare: Hamlet, adapted by Richard Appignanesi and illustrated by Emma Vieceli (2007)

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to redo the assessment(s) as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Shakespeare, William, Hamlet, ed. N. Taylor and A. Thompson (London: Arden, 2006)

Recommended secondary reading (indicative):

• Aebischer, Pascale, Edward J. Esche, and Nigel Wheale, eds., Remaking Shakespeare: Performance across Media, Genres, and Cultures (Houndmills and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003)
• Burnett, Mark, Filming Shakespeare in the Global Marketplace (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2007)  
• Gurr, Andrew, The Shakespearean Stage, 1574-1642, 3rd edition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992) 
• Gurr, Andrew, Playgoing in Shakespeare's London (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004)
• Sanders, Julie, Novel Shakespeares: Twentieth-Century Women Novelists and Appropriation (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001)
• Stern, Tiffany, Making Shakespeare: From Stage to Page (London: Routledge, 2004)
• White, R.S., Avant-Garde Hamlet: Text, Stage, Screen (Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2015)

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• British Library: Online Shakespeare Quartos
• Folger Shakespeare Library
• Reviewing Shakespeare
• MIT Global Shakespeares
• Shakespeare's Globe: Discovery Space
• Shakespeare's Words
• World Shakespeare Bibliography

Key words search

Shakespeare, drama, English