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  2. Issues and Transgressions in Literature [ENG3040]

Faculty of Education and Arts

School: Communications and Arts

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

  • Unit Title

    Issues and Transgressions in Literature

  • Unit Code

    ENG3040

  • Year

    2015

  • Enrolment Period

    1

  • Version

    1

  • Credit Points

    15

  • Full Year Unit

     N

  • Mode of Delivery

    Online

Description

This unit investigates literature as a form of transgression with topics that change from year to year. For example, students may focus on gender in Drama Queens: Transgressive Women on Stage and Film or on genre in Testimony and the Holocaust. A thematic approach, such as Revenge on Stage and Film, uses the Medea myth to explore the nature and effects of revenge from antiquity through to Renaissance theatre. Students analyse a range of motivations for revenge, exploring how, as a form of private justice with its inevitable spectacle of blood, revenge continues to fascinate the modern audience, particularly in film. Each new area will generate specific learning processes and outcomes for the semester in which it is taught.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

  1. Analyse revenge conventions established in ancient Roman texts.
  2. Analyse revenge in plays and film using contemporary trauma theory.
  3. Analyse revenge theatre and film using current gender and racial critical paradigms.
  4. Compare and contrast cultural and historical treatments of revenge and madness in plays and film.
  5. Identify and use rhetorical discourses related specifically to stage plays and film.

Unit Content

  1. - Canonical Renaissance revenge plays, including Shakespeares Hamlet.
  2. - Classical Roman texts regarding Medea and revenge.
  3. - Contemporary revenge theatre and film, such as Kill Bill.
  4. - Relevant theoretical and analytical models.
  5. Example of TEXTS for " Revenge on Stage and Film"

Additional Learning Experience Information

Seminars, workshops and web-based support.

Assessment

GS1 GRADING SCHEMA 1 Used for standard coursework units

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant Board of Examiners.

ON CAMPUS
TypeDescriptionValue
ExerciseExercise20%
EssayEssay40%
ExaminationExamination40%

Text References

  • ^ Tarantino, Q.J. (2003-4). Kill Bill (DVD). New South Wales: Cinemarket.
  • ^ Berkoff, S. (1990). Agamemnon. Charlbury: Amber Lane Press Ltd.
  • ^ Kinney, A. (Ed.). (2005). Renaissance drama: an anthology of plays and entertainments. Oxford: Blackwell.
  • ^ Shakespeare, W. Titus Andronicus or Arden Shakespeare Collection. Online Database. ECU Library.
  • ^ Shakespeare, W. The merchant of Venice. Arden Shakespeare Collection. Online Database. ECU Library.
  • ^ Shakespeare, W. Hamlet. Arden Shakespeare Collection. Online Database. ECU Library.
  • ^ Shakespeare, W. Measure for measure. Arden Shakespeare Collection. Online Database. ECU Library.
  • ^ Shakespeare, W. Much ado about nothing. Arden Shakespeare Collection. Online Database. ECU Library.
  • ^ Seneca, L. (1986). Ahl, F. trans. Medea. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
  • Anderson, T.P. (2006). Performing early modern trauma from Shakespeare to Milton. Aldershot: Ashgate Publications.
  • Simkin, S. (Ed.). (2001). Revenge tragedy. Houndsmills: Palgrave.
  • Martindale, C. & Taylor, A.B. (2004). Shakespeare and the classics. New York: Cambridge.
  • Leggatt, A. (2005). Shakespeare's tragedies: violation and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Howard, T. (2007). Women as Hamlet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Alfar, C.L. (2003). Fantasies of female evil: the dynamics of gender and power in Shakespearean tragedy. Newark: University of Delaware Press.
  • Bacon, F. (1985 ed.). The Essayes. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Bowers, F. (1966). Elizabethan revenge tragedy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  • Boyle, A.J. (1997). Tragic Seneca. London: Routledge.
  • Grold, W. (1986). Renaissance revivals: city comedy and revenge tragedy in the London theatre. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Journal References

  • New Literary History
  • Studies in English Literature 1500-1900
  • Theatre Journal
  • Shakespeare Quarterly

Website References

^ Mandatory reference

Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005)

For the purposes of considering a request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005), inherent requirements for this subject are articulated in the Unit Description, Learning Outcomes and Assessment Requirements of this entry. The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the support for students with disabilities or medical conditions can be found at the Access and Inclusion website.

Academic Misconduct

Edith Cowan University has firm rules governing academic misconduct and there are substantial penalties that can be applied to students who are found in breach of these rules. Academic misconduct includes, but is not limited to:

  • plagiarism;
  • unauthorised collaboration;
  • cheating in examinations;
  • theft of other students' work;

Additionally, any material submitted for assessment purposes must be work that has not been submitted previously, by any person, for any other unit at ECU or elsewhere.

The ECU rules and policies governing all academic activities, including misconduct, can be accessed through the ECU website.

ENG3040|1|1

Faculty of Education and Arts

School: Communications and Arts

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

  • Unit Title

    Issues and Transgressions in Literature

  • Unit Code

    ENG3040

  • Year

    2015

  • Enrolment Period

    2

  • Version

    1

  • Credit Points

    15

  • Full Year Unit

     N

  • Mode of Delivery

    Online

Description

This unit investigates literature as a form of transgression with topics that change from year to year. For example, students may focus on gender in Drama Queens: Transgressive Women on Stage and Film or on genre in Testimony and the Holocaust. A thematic approach, such as Revenge on Stage and Film, uses the Medea myth to explore the nature and effects of revenge from antiquity through to Renaissance theatre. Students analyse a range of motivations for revenge, exploring how, as a form of private justice with its inevitable spectacle of blood, revenge continues to fascinate the modern audience, particularly in film. Each new area will generate specific learning processes and outcomes for the semester in which it is taught.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

  1. Analyse revenge conventions established in ancient Roman texts.
  2. Analyse revenge in plays and film using contemporary trauma theory.
  3. Analyse revenge theatre and film using current gender and racial critical paradigms.
  4. Compare and contrast cultural and historical treatments of revenge and madness in plays and film.
  5. Identify and use rhetorical discourses related specifically to stage plays and film.

Unit Content

  1. - Canonical Renaissance revenge plays, including Shakespeares Hamlet.
  2. - Classical Roman texts regarding Medea and revenge.
  3. - Contemporary revenge theatre and film, such as Kill Bill.
  4. - Relevant theoretical and analytical models.
  5. Example of TEXTS for " Revenge on Stage and Film"

Additional Learning Experience Information

Seminars, workshops and web-based support.

Assessment

GS1 GRADING SCHEMA 1 Used for standard coursework units

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant Board of Examiners.

ON CAMPUS
TypeDescriptionValue
ExerciseExercise20%
EssayEssay40%
ExaminationExamination40%

Text References

  • ^ Shakespeare, W. Much ado about nothing. Arden Shakespeare Collection. Online Database. ECU Library.
  • ^ Shakespeare, W. Measure for measure. Arden Shakespeare Collection. Online Database. ECU Library.
  • ^ Shakespeare, W. Hamlet. Arden Shakespeare Collection. Online Database. ECU Library.
  • ^ Seneca, L. (1986). Ahl, F. trans. Medea. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
  • ^ Shakespeare, W. The merchant of Venice. Arden Shakespeare Collection. Online Database. ECU Library.
  • ^ Kinney, A. (Ed.). (2005). Renaissance drama: an anthology of plays and entertainments. Oxford: Blackwell.
  • ^ Berkoff, S. (1990). Agamemnon. Charlbury: Amber Lane Press Ltd.
  • ^ Tarantino, Q.J. (2003-4). Kill Bill (DVD). New South Wales: Cinemarket.
  • ^ Shakespeare, W. Titus Andronicus or Arden Shakespeare Collection. Online Database. ECU Library.
  • Leggatt, A. (2005). Shakespeare's tragedies: violation and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Howard, T. (2007). Women as Hamlet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Grold, W. (1986). Renaissance revivals: city comedy and revenge tragedy in the London theatre. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • Boyle, A.J. (1997). Tragic Seneca. London: Routledge.
  • Bacon, F. (1985 ed.). The Essayes. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Anderson, T.P. (2006). Performing early modern trauma from Shakespeare to Milton. Aldershot: Ashgate Publications.
  • Alfar, C.L. (2003). Fantasies of female evil: the dynamics of gender and power in Shakespearean tragedy. Newark: University of Delaware Press.
  • Martindale, C. & Taylor, A.B. (2004). Shakespeare and the classics. New York: Cambridge.
  • Bowers, F. (1966). Elizabethan revenge tragedy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  • Simkin, S. (Ed.). (2001). Revenge tragedy. Houndsmills: Palgrave.

Journal References

  • New Literary History
  • Shakespeare Quarterly
  • Studies in English Literature 1500-1900
  • Theatre Journal

Website References

^ Mandatory reference

Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005)

For the purposes of considering a request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005), inherent requirements for this subject are articulated in the Unit Description, Learning Outcomes and Assessment Requirements of this entry. The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the support for students with disabilities or medical conditions can be found at the Access and Inclusion website.

Academic Misconduct

Edith Cowan University has firm rules governing academic misconduct and there are substantial penalties that can be applied to students who are found in breach of these rules. Academic misconduct includes, but is not limited to:

  • plagiarism;
  • unauthorised collaboration;
  • cheating in examinations;
  • theft of other students' work;

Additionally, any material submitted for assessment purposes must be work that has not been submitted previously, by any person, for any other unit at ECU or elsewhere.

The ECU rules and policies governing all academic activities, including misconduct, can be accessed through the ECU website.

ENG3040|1|2