Course Catalogue

View Specification Document | Reading List

Shakespeare is a master of linguistic transformation. This course will invite students to consider his ingenious crafting of words and their conceptualisation as miniature sites of change. First, we will engage with the practicalities of studying words and their cognates, before exploring the shaping of words in relation to the following topics: embodiment and disability; classical sources and their adaptation; queerness and pre-modern sexualities; ontology; globality and critical race studies; and historicity. The course will move chronologically through Shakespeare's career, although students will be encouraged to read his work metamorphically, with a sense of how the shaping of words can curve into the past whilst anticipating their future iteration. Students will also develop an ongoing portfolio titled The Shape of Words, in which four individually chosen words are traced throughout the texts on the course and developed in the seminar through peer-led and formative feedback.

7x 1.5 hour seminar (weeks 1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11)

7 x 1 hour lecture (weeks 1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11)

3 x 1 hour workshop (weeks 2, 5, 9)

Successful completion of Junior Honours English Literature, and by arrangement to visiting students or students of other Honours programmes who qualify under the University's 25% regulation.

None

None

The standard assessments for this course are: 

■ 4x 750 word-study assignments - 3000 words total, 70% 

■ Seminar Contribution and Evaluative Peer Feedback - 30% 

If required, for instance where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, the following alternatives are available: 

■ There are no alternatives to the assessments, but flexible deadlines can be offered as reasonable adjustment (Students should follow the usual process for extensions). 

■ Written self-evaluation reflecting on seminar contribution or written response to seminar material in advance or after seminar as alternative to seminar contribution.

Further reasonable adjustments may be provided where necessary. Students are encouraged to consult with the course convenor.  

This course aims to:

• Introduce the study of words, their morphological components, and their literary and theatrical application in the work of Shakespeare.

• Explore the frequency of word-use in different genres, forms, and literary mediums.

• Contextualise the development and extension of words in a range of cultural, social, political, and aesthetic frameworks.

•Develop the skills of verbal and reflective feedback, both individually and in peer-led groups.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ Chart the linguistic development of Shakespeare's artistry across a range of genres, forms, and modes.

■ Explore the effects which are opened up by the analysis of words, their morphological components, and their creative and conceptual applications.

■ Establish links across a range of genres and literary mediums, using words as a basis to consider Shakespeare's handling of form.

■ Select, evaluate, and assess the critical use of words through different methods of independent research and skill-based study.

■ Acquire the skills to provide bespoke feedback and evaluative reflection on the work of others, both personally and in peer-led groups.