• Home
• Study
• Study Information
• Modules
• Module Information

Women and Theatre 1700-1928

Module description

What happens when we approach British theatre history with women’s work (as writers and performers) at the centre of our investigation? We will research answers to this question through a focus on women’s writing for the theatre as playwrights, theatre critics and aesthetic theorists, and accounts of women’s theatrical practice as performers, directors, and managers. We will examine women’s theatre activity from the eighteenth century to the awarding of the vote to all adult women in the UK in 1928.

Module aims - intentions of the module

The module aims to introduce you to a selection of the work of significant playwrights in Britain between 1700 and 1928, overlooked or forgotten largely because of their gender. You will be introduced to theories of comedy and tragedy, as they are developed and practised by working women playwrights in this period.

You will have an opportunity to do independent archival work, as well as guided reading and discussion. You will learn how to collaborate with peers, and work with experts from other disciplines.

The module will be enriched by an introduction to the resources of the University’s Special Collections (including the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum), and the complementary range of electronic archive resources (such as the digitized Burney Collection of Newspapers). You will learn how to design and complete a short independent research project based on archival materials. You will also participate in whole group discussions, and small group presentations.

Transferable and employable skills will include: team work; collaboration with experts in other fields (e.g. curators and librarians); the design of an autonomous project; working to a deadline; oral presentation; use of electronic resources; and data collection and collation.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

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

• 1. Show knowledge of a range and variety of women’s theatre texts (scripts, performances, and theatre theory)
• 2. Show an understanding of key theoretical and historical approaches to the study of women’s theatrical practice

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

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

• 3. Demonstrate an understanding of British theatre history
• 4. Demonstrate understanding of research methods and formal writing, appropriate for level of study and progression

ILO: Personal and key skills

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

• 5. Demonstrate the ability to read and analyse critically
• 6. Demonstrate the ability to communicate your understanding of module materials to peers, and engage with peer to peer discussion

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

The module will offer a selection of feminist theoretical approaches to the study of women’s work in theatre and performance, including approaches through cultural materialism, the study of visual culture and feminist visual theory, and a commitment to the revision of canonical theatre history. Wherever possible, set reading will focus on autobiographical writings by women, plus contemporary critical comment, and an analysis of the iconography of visual culture around the theatre.

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 submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Required reading:

Scripts will be selected from the following indicative list. All required reading will be available online:

• Joanna Baillie, Plays on the Passions.
• Works of Susannah Centlivre, with a focus on The Wonder! A Woman Keeps a Secret, and A Bold Stroke for a Wife).
• Works of Elizabeth Inchbald, including her critical and editorial writing, plays including Animal Magnetism, and The Diaries of Elizabeth Inchbald (ed) Ben Robertson.
• Frances Kemble, Francis the First, Records of a Girlhood, and critical commentaries on her performances.
• Works of Catherine Gore, including Quid Pro Quo
• Elizabeth Robins, Alan’s Wife (with Florence Bell), and Votes for Women!, plus critical essays and novels.
• Dale Spender (ed) How the Vote was Won: and other Suffragette Play.
• Katherine E. Kelly, Modern Drama by Women 1880s-1930s: an International Anthology (Routledge, 1996).

Further Reading

• Jacky Bratton, New Readings in Theatre History (Cambridge University Press, 2003).
• Catherine Burroughs (ed) Women in British Romantic Theatre (Cambridge University Press, 2000).
• Tracy Davis, Actresses as Working Women (Routledge, 1991).
• Jill Dolan, The Feminist Spectator as Critic (University of Michigan Press, 1991).
• Ellen Donkin, Getting into the Act (Routledge, 1995).
• Ellen Donkin & Susan Clement (eds), Upstaging Big Daddy: directing theater as if gender and race matter, (University of Michigan Press, 1993).
• Alison Findlay, Playing Spaces in Early Women's Drama, (Cambridge University Press, 2006).
• Lizbeth Goodman, Contemporary Feminist Theatres: To Each her Own (Routledge, 1993).
• Julie Holledge, Innocent Flowers: women in the Edwardian theatre (Routledge, 1981).
• Elizabeth Howe, The First English actresses : Women and Drama 1660-1700 (Cambridge University Press, 1992).
• Fidelis Morgan (ed), The Female Wits: women playwrights on the London stage 1660-1720, (Virago, 1981).
• Katherine Newey, Women’s Theatre Writing in Victorian Britain (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005).
• Elizabeth Schafer, MsDirecting Shakespeare: Women Direct Shakespeare (Women's Press, 1998).

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

ELE: https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=3778 

Key words search

Women and theatre; feminism; autobiography; dramaturgy; comedy; tragedy