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This course is intended to:

• Introduce students to significant developments in poetry and drama from the late 1700s to the present.
• Further familiarise students with the terminology they will need to accurately describe poetic and dramatic form.
• Introduce students to some significant theoretical approaches used to analyse poetry and drama.
• Enable students to understand the complexity of poetic and dramatic form.
• Enable students to develop enhanced critical abilities in the analysis of text and performance.
• Develop in students the skills of academic argument, essay writing, research, both library and electronic and bibliographic skills.

On successful completion of this module a student will be able to:
1 Understand the development and complexity of the key forms of the poem and the drama.
2 Accurately describe the formal properties of poetic and dramatic texts, and make connections between texts and their cultural environment.
3 Show an enhanced critical awareness through close textual/performance analysis with the use of theory where appropriate.
4 Write cogent critical essays that offer a structured argument related to the content of the course.
5 Show initiative in discussing poetry and drama, including awareness of the possibility of more than one interpretation.
6 Show enhanced skills of academic argument, essay writing, research, both library and electronic and bibliographic skills.

Students will spend the first term studying significant poetry and drama of the late eighteenth and nineteenth century, and the second term following the development of the two forms through the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. The first term might begin with a look at the Romantic poets, move through the shift from melodrama to naturalism and conclude with a look at prominent poets, for instance Robert Browning and Christina Rossetti, before concluding with a look at a play like Wedekind’s Spring Awakening, which looks forward to modernism. The second term would begin with manifestations of modernism in both poetic and dramatic form (perhaps Eliot, Yeats, Kaiser and Brecht) and move on to significant poets and playwrights of the last 60 years (perhaps Hughes, Plath, Churchill, Nagra, Butterworth, tucker green). Where possible, at least one theatre trip will be arranged as an integral part of the module.

The course will be taught by a mixture of lecture and seminar. In lectures, texts will be placed in their historical and cultural contexts and the development of poetic and dramatic form will be traced from the late 1700s to the present. In seminars texts will be subjected to close scrutiny and, through group discussion, students will be encouraged to develop their confidence in the accurate use of the main technical and critical terms which may be used to describe poetic and dramatic form and effect.

Poetry Essay - 40%
LO - 1-6.
Pass mark - 40%
2,500 words.
Students will write about the poetry studied in the first term, showing an understanding of poetic form and historical context.

Performance Analysis - 30%
LO - 1-6.
Pass mark - 40%
1,750 words.
Students will write an analytical response to a piece of drama seen in performance, ideally live, showing understanding of dramatic form and historical context.

Exam - 30%
LO - 1-5.
Pass mark - 40%
One and a half hours.
Students will answer two questions, one on the poetry studied in the second term and one on the drama studied throughout the module.

Nature of FORMATIVE assessment supporting student learning (This section must be completed):
Midway through term 1 students will be invited to submit an analysis of a Romantic poem on which they will receive tutor feedback; this will facilitate the developments of skills that will be needed in all subsequent assignments.