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Notes for: Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12 Week 13

 

EL4222

Stylistics and drama 

Module chair

If you need to get in touch with me, my office is in Room 06·04, AS5; my phone number is 6516 6038; and my email address is PeterTan@nus.edu.sg.

 

Website

The full URL is

http://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/elltankw/theatre

 

Set texts

There are five:

·       George Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion (1912) (recommended edition: Penguin)

·       Peter Shaffer, Equus (1973) (recommended edition: Longman)

·       Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (1597) (any edition)

·       Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

·       Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie (1944)

 

This just means that I will use them extensively for illustration purposes or for analysis exercises. I have used ‘classic’ plays which some of you might be familiar with. Most were published around the 19th century with the exception of Shakespeare. Ultimately, for your own analysis and for the final exam, you just need to be very familiar with one of them.

 

Copies should be available from the Reserved Book Room (RBR) of the Central Library. Note also that there are video versions available. The details are:

  • Pygmalion (Janus Films/Embassy Home Entertainment, 1987), starring Wendy Hiller, Leslie Howard and Winifred Lawson. Call No. PR6037 S534Py. Stack No. CVC2347. And of course there’s My Fair Lady, the musical based on Pygmalion, but be warned that there are differences (Call No. PN1997 Myf; Stack No. CLD175)
  • There is a well-known version of Equus (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, 1977), starring Richard Burton, Peter Firth, Colin Blakely, Joan Plowright and Harry Andrews. This is supposed to be in the library, but I can’t find it in the catalogue. This is released in the UK under a 15 certification (‘suitable only for persons of 15 years or over’) because of the blinding scene and nudity.

·       There are various film versions of Romeo and Juliet. Franco Zefirelli’s 1968 version stars Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting; Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 version is targeted at a younger audience and stars Leonardo diCaprio and Claire Danes; and many BBC dramatisations.

·       There are a few versions of Earnest, including the 2002 Oliver Parker version (starring Colin Firth, Rupert Everett and Judi Dench), the 1986 Stuart Burge version, and the 1952 Anthony Asquith version.

·       There are similarly multiple versions of The Glass Menagerie including the 1987 Paul Newman version and the 1973 Anthony Harvey version (starring Katharine Hepburn, Sam Waterston and Michael Moriarty).

Handouts

In general, I am not in favour of detailed notes. The notes for Session 1 is therefore not going to be the norm. Future notes will mainly be in outline form with key points or key terms. The present notes takes this form simply because it is the first one!

 

Teaching format

Clearly, I do not intend to lecture for three straight hours. In most sessions, however, there will be:

·       a ‘lecture’ component where I present some frameworks for analysing drama; this might include practical analysis where I would seek feedback and comments from students

·       a ‘workshop’ or ‘analysis’ component where students will be expected to work through the material in groups and to present their findings and conclusions

 

There will be a 15-minute break in each of the weekly sessions. This module will be offered in person for this semester, although it might hold the sessions that involve tests through Zoom (to be confirmed).

 

Note also there is no seminar on Week 13 because of Good Friday. Presentations will therefore be on Week 12, and I might compress the teaching material.

 

Assessment

The continuous assessment (CA) component for the module is 60 per cent.  This will be broken up into a few components: class participation (including group presentations) is worth 10 marks; each of the two tests is worth 15 marks; and the group report is worth 20 marks. These add up to 60 marks.

This means that the final examination will be worth 40 per cent of the total marks. In the final examination, there will be two questions that need to be answered: one question will ask for a stylistic analysis of an unseen dramatic text (40%); and another will ask for a stylistic analysis of a passage from one of the set texts (60%).

In line with the University’s present preference not to assign letter grades to components of the continuous assessment, we will be awarding marks out of 100 (regardless of total mark contributed to the CA) as part of the feedback for all written work handed in. Here is a short explanation about what those marks mean:

  • any work with 75 and above is exceptional (distinction);
  • any work awarded 60 to 74 marks is good (merit);
  • any report awarded 50 to 59 marks is acceptable but is weak in some aspects (pass);
  • and any report awarded 49 marks or below is weak in many aspects (unsatisfactory).

(The marks and categories are not neatly related to letter grades or class of honours awarded.)

            At the end of term, you will know the marks for the tests and the group report, but the marks for class participation will be withheld.

 

Aims and objectives

The aims of the module include the following:

  • to develop students’ perceptiveness to the textual elements of dramatic texts
  • to expose students to a range of theoretical frameworks that will allow students to analyse the textual elements of dramatic texts in a rigorous fashion
  • to develop students’ ability to argue for a particular reading or interpretation based on carefully analysed textual and extra-textual evidence