Course for international guest/part time students
- Faculty
- Faculty of Humanities
- Organization
- BTK Department of English Studies
- Code
- OT-ANG17-390.09
- Title
- Elective Specialisation: The Great Periods of English Drama from the Renaissance to the Absurd
- Usual semester
- Spring
- Published semester
- 2026/27/1
- ECTS
- 3
- Language
- en
- Learning outcomes
- The aim of this course is to introduce students to the main periods of English drama. The course equips students with the basic skills of literary interpretation and explores the various forms and generic characteristics of English drama. It explores assumptions underlying interpretive methods and approaches to literary texts. It also seeks to enable students to master the basics of critical thinking and writing and to provide guidance in philological work.
- Course content
- The course is devoted to the contextualization and discussion of dramatic texts. On the one hand, the focus is on the relevant cultural, historical and philosophical background, and the changing structure and generic features of drama. On the other hand, we look at excerpts from individual texts that illustrate and, at the same time, challenge standard interpretations. This approach to drama leads to the discussion of literary theoretical and philosophical questions that enable students to master difficult texts on their own.
- Assessment method
- Assessment criteria include attendance, contribution and an end-term essay that is to be written in class, on a pre-assigned topic/text.
- Bibliography
- --Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus. --William Shakespeare, Richard III. --William Shakespeare, Hamlet. --William Shakespeare, King Lear. --William Shakespeare, Midsummer Night’s Dream. --William Shakespeare, The Tempest. --Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot. --Samuel Beckett, Krapp’s Last Tape. --Harold Pinter, The Caretaker. --Harold Pinter, The Birthday Party. --Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. --Tom Stoppard, The Real Inspector Hound.