2008/09 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

ENGL3256 Christopher Marlowe: Playwright and Spy

20 creditsClass Size: 30

School of English

Module manager: Professor Martin Butler
Email: M.H.Butler@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2008/09

This module is not approved as an Elective

Objectives

To introduce students to the plays and poems of Christopher Marlowe (1564-93) and to explore their relationship to the political and intellectual upheavals of their times.

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

Christopher Marlowe was the first English playwright to achieve his own distinctive voice. In his short but meteoric career, he set the stage alight, creating a series of titanic heroes - Tamburlaine, Faustus, Barabas - who simultaneously shocked and thrilled Elizabethan audiences. He invented modern drama almost single-handedly, devising a vision and style that was foundational for the plays of Shakespeare and his successors. But his career was secretive, violent and turbulent. He was suspected of heresy and atheism, and had a double life as a government agent, which took him to the edges of his society and probably caused his assassination at the age of 29. His drama, moving between playhouse and university, Whitehall and Europe, probes the darkest corners of the Tudor state, trading in power, sexuality, violence, religion and race. It challenged the comfortable orthodoxies of his time, and continues to unsettle the canons of political correctness today. We shall read his seven plays and some of his poetry, looking at their relationship to the intellectual and political ferment of his age. We shall also briefly address the impact of his work on the writing of his friend and collaborator Thomas Nashe.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Meetings	5	1.00	5.00
Seminar	10	1.00	10.00
Private study hours			185.00
Total Contact hours			15.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			200.00

Private study

Teaching will be through weekly seminars (10 x 1 hour) plus up to 5 additional hours (content to be determined by the module tutor). The 5 additional hours may include lectures, plenary sessions, film showings, or the return of unassessed/assessed essays.

Private Study: Seminar preparation, reading, essay writing.

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Contribution to seminars.
1st assessed essay.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Essay	1,700 words	33.30
Essay	2,750 words	66.70
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: 24/04/2008

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