This module is inactive in the selected year. The information shown below is for the academic year that the module was last running in, prior to the year selected.

2010/11 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

ENGL3263 Performing America

20 creditsClass Size: 20

School of English

Module manager: Professor Stephen Bottoms
Email: S.J.Bottoms@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable

Year running 2010/11

This module is not approved as an Elective

Objectives

On completion of this module, students should be able to apply their critical and contextual understanding to a range of U.S. American plays written in different periods. They should be able to identify recurring concerns around the performative construction and/or questioning of notions of national identity. They should also have gained further understanding of the ways in which contrasting theatrical strategies can be used to address these concerns.

Learning outcomes
Students will have developed:
- the ability to use written and oral communication effectively;
- the capacity to analyse and critically examine diverse forms of discourse;
- the ability to manage quantities of complex information in a structured and systematic way;
- the capacity for independent thought and judgement;
- critical reasoning;
- research skills, including the retrieval of information, the organisation of material and the evaluation of its importance;
- IT skills;
- efficient time management and organisation skills;
- the ability to learn independently.

Skills outcomes
Skills for effective communication, oral and written.
Capacity to analyse and critically examine diverse forms of discourse.
Ability to acquire quantities of complex information of diverse kinds in a structured and systematic way.
Capacity for independent thought and judgement.
Critical reasoning.
Research skills, including information retrieval skills, the organisation of material, and the evaluation of its importance.
IT skills.
Time management and organisational skills.
Independent learning.

Syllabus

The United States is a country invented and reinvented through texts that are also performances: from the Declaration of Independence to the Gettysburg Address to Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream.' Throughout its history, questions of the nation's identity and direction have been debated through speeches, sermons, pamphlets and plays. This course looks primarily at works of dramatic literature, but with an eye to the question of how the selected plays have helped perform America's understanding of itself into being.

The course functions as a broad introduction to American drama and its history, from the revolutionary period through to the 1960s though its primary emphasis is on the twentieth century. Its 'long, thin' survey approach is complemented and continued by the 'short, fat' third year module, 'Contemporary American Playwriting,' which deals with plays from more recent decades.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Workshop	2	2.00	2.00
Lecture	1	1.00	1.00
Seminar	10	1.00	10.00
Private study hours			185.00
Total Contact hours			13.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			198.00

Private study

Reading, seminar preparation and essay writing

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Seminar and workshop contribution.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Essay	3,000 words	66.70
Presentation	EITHER a practical presentation OR a second essay of 1,500 words based on appraisal of practical presentations	33.30
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 05/05/2011

Disclaimer

Browse Other Catalogues

• Undergraduate module catalogue
• Taught Postgraduate module catalogue
• Undergraduate programme catalogue
• Taught Postgraduate programme catalogue

Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team.PROD