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  2. Comedy and Tragedy in Film and Drama [ENG3141]

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

    Comedy and Tragedy in Film and Drama

  • Unit Code

    ENG3141

  • Year

    2015

  • Enrolment Period

    1

  • Version

    2

  • Credit Points

    15

  • Full Year Unit

     N

  • Mode of Delivery

Description

Students test a range of critical and theoretical approaches in their analyses of a range of plays that have long enraptured audiences, inspired film directors and turned actors into super stars of the stage and screen. The unit studies comedies and tragedies in their literary and historical contexts as well as in those of their film adaptations. It examines ways of approaching dramatic literature and emphasises the particular importance of understanding the text through considering the culture of its time of composition as well as that of its time of reinvention through film adaptations.

Equivalent Rule

Unit was previously coded ENG2180

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

  1. Analyse written texts and their film adaptations in detail and with precision so as to achieve the above.
  2. Apply appropriate analytical and critical techniques, and theoretical models, to the written plays and film adaptations under scrutiny.
  3. Discuss the principal elements of comedy and tragedy in text as well as in film performance.
  4. Relate the written and texts and film adaptations studied to appropriate social, historical and cultural contexts and to the construction of those contexts.

Unit Content

  1. Analysis through a range of critical and theoretical approaches
  2. Interpreting a play as a plan; how aspects of filmic production influence the composition and appreciation of a dramatic script.
  3. Placing plays selected for study and their film adaptations within a social, historical, and theoretical context.
  4. Study of selected comedies and tragedies and their film adaptations.
  5. Study of the nature and functions of dramatic criticism.

Additional Learning Experience Information

Seminars and screenings.

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
EssayEssay40%
ParticipationTutorial Presentation and Participation: group reading and interpretation of text20%
ExaminationExamination40%

Text References

  • ^ Wilde, O. (1895). The importance of being Earnest.
  • ^ Shakespeare, W. (c. 1605). King Lear.
  • ^ Sheridan, R. (1777). The school for scandal.
  • ^ Moliere, J.B. (1666). The misanthropist.
  • ^ Ibsen, H. (1879). A doll's house.
  • ^ Chekhov, A. (1904). The cherry orchard.
  • Malcolm, Janet. (2001). Reading Chekhov: A critical journey. New York: Random House Inc.
  • Sloan, John. (2003). Authors in context: Oscar Wilde. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Leach, R. (2004). Makers of modern theatre. London: Routledge.
  • Ioppola, Grace. (Ed.) (2003). A Routledge literary source book on William Shakespeare?s King Lear. London: Routledge.
  • Gilman, R. (1995). Chekhov's plays: An opening into Eternity. New Haven: Yale University Press.
  • Browne, K.T. (2007). Richard Brinsley Sheridan and Britain?s School for Scandal: Interpreting his theater through its Eighteenth Century social context. Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press.
  • Adler, S. (2000). Stella Adler on Ibsen, Strindberg and Chekhov. New York: Vintage.
  • Aebischer, P. (2004). Shakespeare?s violated bodies: stage and screen performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Bloom, H. (2000). Oscar Wilde (Bloom?s modern critical views). Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers.
  • Bloom, H. (2001). Moliere (Bloom?s modern critical views). Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers.
  • Bloom, H. (2007). William Shakespeare: Tragedies (Modern critical views). Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers.

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.

ENG3141|2|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

    Comedy and Tragedy in Film and Drama

  • Unit Code

    ENG3141

  • Year

    2015

  • Enrolment Period

    2

  • Version

    2

  • Credit Points

    15

  • Full Year Unit

     N

  • Mode of Delivery

Description

Students test a range of critical and theoretical approaches in their analyses of a range of plays that have long enraptured audiences, inspired film directors and turned actors into super stars of the stage and screen. The unit studies comedies and tragedies in their literary and historical contexts as well as in those of their film adaptations. It examines ways of approaching dramatic literature and emphasises the particular importance of understanding the text through considering the culture of its time of composition as well as that of its time of reinvention through film adaptations.

Equivalent Rule

Unit was previously coded ENG2180

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

  1. Analyse written texts and their film adaptations in detail and with precision so as to achieve the above.
  2. Apply appropriate analytical and critical techniques, and theoretical models, to the written plays and film adaptations under scrutiny.
  3. Discuss the principal elements of comedy and tragedy in text as well as in film performance.
  4. Relate the written and texts and film adaptations studied to appropriate social, historical and cultural contexts and to the construction of those contexts.

Unit Content

  1. Analysis through a range of critical and theoretical approaches
  2. Interpreting a play as a plan; how aspects of filmic production influence the composition and appreciation of a dramatic script.
  3. Placing plays selected for study and their film adaptations within a social, historical, and theoretical context.
  4. Study of selected comedies and tragedies and their film adaptations.
  5. Study of the nature and functions of dramatic criticism.

Additional Learning Experience Information

Seminars and screenings.

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
EssayEssay40%
ParticipationTutorial Presentation and Participation: group reading and interpretation of text20%
ExaminationExamination40%

Text References

  • ^ Chekhov, A. (1904). The cherry orchard.
  • ^ Wilde, O. (1895). The importance of being Earnest.
  • ^ Shakespeare, W. (c. 1605). King Lear.
  • ^ Sheridan, R. (1777). The school for scandal.
  • ^ Moliere, J.B. (1666). The misanthropist.
  • ^ Ibsen, H. (1879). A doll's house.
  • Aebischer, P. (2004). Shakespeare?s violated bodies: stage and screen performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Malcolm, Janet. (2001). Reading Chekhov: A critical journey. New York: Random House Inc.
  • Sloan, John. (2003). Authors in context: Oscar Wilde. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Leach, R. (2004). Makers of modern theatre. London: Routledge.
  • Ioppola, Grace. (Ed.) (2003). A Routledge literary source book on William Shakespeare?s King Lear. London: Routledge.
  • Gilman, R. (1995). Chekhov's plays: An opening into Eternity. New Haven: Yale University Press.
  • Browne, K.T. (2007). Richard Brinsley Sheridan and Britain?s School for Scandal: Interpreting his theater through its Eighteenth Century social context. Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press.
  • Adler, S. (2000). Stella Adler on Ibsen, Strindberg and Chekhov. New York: Vintage.
  • Bloom, H. (2000). Oscar Wilde (Bloom?s modern critical views). Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers.
  • Bloom, H. (2001). Moliere (Bloom?s modern critical views). Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers.
  • Bloom, H. (2007). William Shakespeare: Tragedies (Modern critical views). Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers.

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.

ENG3141|2|2