Undergraduate Summer School (Two week Programme)

King's College London, University of London

Summer School modules are designed to be intensive, intellectually stimulating short courses. They are taught by King’s academics in academic disciplines where King's has expertise. Classes are highly international, giving students an opportunity to collaborate with peers from all around the globe.Each module consists of 150 study hours, comprising 45 hours of intensive synchronous and asynchronous teaching, independent study and group work and is examined to university standards. Comparable to an in-semester 15-credit King’s undergraduate module and therefore typically awarded 3-4 US credits or 7.5 ECTS, many summer students ask their home institution to award them external credit for their King's summer module to use towards their degree programme when they return home.What does this course cover?This module will explore texts by Shakespeare and his contemporaries, with a specific focus on the social and cultural context of their production in early modern London. The texts will comprise three plays from the period as well as two film adaptations.As part of the module, the class will visit places of historical interest and also some relevant museum and gallery exhibitions, where possible. Finally, attention will be paid to the ‘afterlife’ of Shakespeare’s plays, both as printed texts and as part of the national heritage and global culture. What will I achieve?By the end of the module, the students will:Gain an understanding of how the social and cultural context of Shakespeare’s plays affected their development and, to some extent, how his work for the theatre differs from that of his contemporaries.Gain a perspective on the issue of ‘Filming Shakespeare in London’, and will examine the survival, in present-day London and beyond, of the plays as texts, performance and films.Engage in the detailed study three plays (and two films).Discuss and analyse these plays and films from both a critical and a theatrical perspective.