BA Art History and English Literature / Course details

Who tells our stories? Whose voices do we hear? This module will focus solely on the work(s) and product of a seventeenth-century female playwright, with the aims of shifting Shakespearean drama from its canonical centrality  by  enabling students to both read and interpret afresh a woman writer in a variety of economic, social, political and performative contexts. Behn was the first woman to earn her living by writing as a dramatist, poet and novelist. Behn herself both adapted earlier seventeenth-century authors herself, and was and has been adapted by others. Recent revived engagement with Behn includes an up-coming Netflix film on her life, and a scattering of new productions., This unit enables students to both observe and participate in the historic acknowledgement of a key woman writer, to query the canon and its construction, and to  respond creatively and critically to her work and place in history and culture. 

The unit aims to:

• To re-locate Behn’s work within their performative, interpretative and productive
contexts;
• To enable students to study the work of a (still neglected) woman writer
• To re-evaluate the canon and the marketplace through debates about performance and 
performance history(ies) and legacies
• To encourage and enable students to engage with drama in a variety of expressive 
modes through authentic assessments;
• to provide opportunities for students to imagine, view, model and discuss modern 
literary practices, performances and productions.
 

 
The critical and creative outputs will enable students to enhance and demonstrate the following (employable) skills:

• creative thinking; 
• writing for different audiences; 
• critical evaluation and assessment; 
• presentational; 
• understanding of political and ideological hegemonies; 
• familiarity with, and ability to use,  feminist literary, cultural and political theories;
• time-management;
• collaboration;
• ability to appreciate and understand performative texts
 

Who tells our stories? Whose voices do we hear? This module will focus solely on the work(s) and product of a seventeenth-century female playwright, with the aims of shifting Shakespearean drama from its canonical centrality by enabling students to both read and interpret afresh a woman writer in a variety of economic, social, political and performative contexts. Behn was the first woman to earn her living by writing as a dramatist, poet and novelist. Behn herself both adapted earlier seventeenth-century authors herself, and was adapted by others – firstly Thomas Southerne’s adaptation of Oroonoko, more recently in plays such as Joan Ammo-iddo’s Imoinda or She Who Will lose her Name (2007) and a recent opera based on the latter play, Imoinda A Story of Love and Slavery. Other appropriations include crime fiction. Writing back is a key pedagogical, intellectual and political practice which this module will use to engage students actively in considering what stories we should be repeating / rewriting today to both reconceive past constructions and articulations of identity formation and which ones we need to acknowledge and know anew.

This module will have five interwoven threads: 
1. Familiarising students with some key works in Behn’s oeuvre, focusing particularly on
those which have either been adapted or accessibly produced in recent years (for
example, Oroonoko and The Rover) as entrances into understanding Behn’s work in 
both original and performative/adaptive contexts. 
2. Considering contemporary feminist re-visions of ‘canonical’ early modern texts – eg. One
of: Hamlet/ Hamnet; The Winter’s Tale/The Gap of Time; King Lear/ Thousand Acres or 
Private Rites
3.    Using Southerne’s adaptation/ re-writing of Oroonoko and Ammo Iddo’s re-imagining through a ‘marginal’ character as key case studies for the ‘after-life’ of Behn.  
4. Creating familiarity with theories of adaptation, intertextuality, and writing back. 
5. Developing ideas for student’s own intervention in adapting Behn for the twenty-
first century – this can be in the form of a proposed performance, or a re-write of one of
 her novels, poems or plays.
 

WEEKLY: 
One hour lecture
2-hour seminar/ workshop

Materials will all be on Blackboard/ e-library week-by-week, including essential and recommended reading, weblinks, viewings where available, links to theatre programmes, and websites. 

Demonstrate a critical understanding of Aphra Behn’s works across a range of genres (novella, play, poetry)

Show familiarity with and confidence using a range of theory appropriate to the subject of intertextual transmission, appropriation and adaptation

Show critical understanding of contemporary feminist re-visioning of canonical texts

Show nuanced understanding of how political and ideological hegemonies construct canons and readings

Demonstrate critical and creative understanding of the cultural placing of Aphra Behn

Write and speak for appropriate and different audiences

Demonstrate an ability to understand how texts and their reception change through time

Synthesise theoretical material and apply to new readings of texts

Plan and complete independent research work on chosen topic

Produce high-quality written outputs appropriate to genre and audience

Use ‘workshopping’ of ideas in a collaborative way in class

Develop ‘creative’ outputs relating to critical material

Ability to use writing and thinking skills in ‘real world’ scenarios

Produce writing to specific audiences and to specific deadlines

Research historical and contextual material and synthesise for contemporary audience

Supporting other students through workshopping and collaborative discussion